It Cannot Be Seen and Weighs Nothing

It cannot be seen, it weighs nothing, but when put into a barrel, it makes it lighter. What is it?

A hole.

Posted in Riddles

Born In the Ocean

Born in the ocean,
White as snow,
I’m hidden in water,
Where do I go?

What am I?

Salt. Salt is harvested from seawater, it’s white and it dissolves in water.

Posted in Riddles
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Exist Between Two Things

It can only exist between any two things
and men know it well for the hardships it brings.

Distance.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Singular When Adding an S

There are many English words that you can add an “s” to make it plural. But far fewer words become singular when you add an “s”. What are two examples of these much rarer words?

Cares -> Caress
Princes -> Princess

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Yolk of the Egg

Which is correct to say, “The yolk of the egg are white?” or “The yolk of the egg is white?”

Neither. Yolks are yellow.

Posted in Riddles

Winning at Wimbledon

As a result of temporary magical powers, you have made it to the Wimbledon finals and are playing Roger Federer for all the marbles. However, your powers cannot last the whole match. What score do you want it to be when they disappear, to maximize your chances of hanging on for a win?

It sounds obvious that you should ask to be ahead two sets to love (it takes 3 out of 5 sets to win
the men’s), and in the third set, ahead 5-0 in games and 40-love in the sixth game. (Probably you
want to be serving, but if your serve is like mine, you might prefer Roger to be serving the sixth
game down 0-40 so that you can pray for a double fault.)

Not so fast! These solutions give you essentially 3 chances to get lucky and win, but you can
get six chances—with three services by you and three by Roger. You still want to be up two sets
to none, but let the game score be 6-6 in the third set and 6-0—in your favor, of course—in the
tiebreaker.

Credit goes to Peter Winkler for creating this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Case of the Missing Matchstick

Chuck and Ruby were going to meet at a hotel for their anniversary dinner, but Ruby didn’t show. Chuck was angry and left her a passive aggressive message on their kitchen table in the form of fifteen matchsticks spelling “hotel” and went to bed. When Ruby got home and saw the matchsticks, she removed one and went to bed. When Chuck woke up the next morning and saw Ruby’s new message, he realized his mistake. Which stick did Ruby remove and what was the new message?

Matchsticks

Ruby had removed the top of the T and the new message could be seen upside down from where Chuck sat at his breakfast of sadness and anger. What he saw was 7 3 1 0 4, or 7/31/04, the date of their anniversary. In his excitement, Chuck had gone to the restaurant a day early, on July 30th. All was forgiven by both parties and Chuck and Ruby had a wonderful dinner together. They also promised to buy a whiteboard for the kitchen so they wouldn’t have to use matchstick messages ever again.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Name Kebab

A Name Kebab (something I made up) is a series of first and last names that fit together like a delicious Shish Kebab.

For example, the names Benjamin Franklin, Franklin Pierce and Pierce Brosnan form a tasty three-name kebab.

What is a five-name kebab that starts with Chris and ends with Berlin?

1. Chris Paul
2. Paul George
3. George Washington
4. Washington Irving
5. Irving Berlin

Feel free to share others in the comments.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Nearly Hanging

A prisoner is told, “If you tell a lie we will hang you; if you tell the truth we will shoot you.”

What can he say to save himself?

You will hang me. If they hang him, then the statement was true and they could only hang him for telling a lie. If they shoot him, then it makes the statement a lie and they were only to shoot him for telling the truth. An alternate solution is to say, “You will not shoot me,” leading to the same quandary for the killers.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Spibered Rebus

What does this represent?

SPIbeRED

Be inspired, or literally, be in spired.

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