An Animal of Few Letters

I am an animal of few letters,
Remove the second and you can’t see,
Change it to “l” and I’m a punishment,
Yet backwards I’m a game.

What am I?

Frog. It only has four letters, removing the “r” leaves fog, which makes it hard to see. Changing the “r” to an “l” makes flog, a punishment I hope you’ve never experienced. Flog backwards is golf, a game some would call a punishment when you keep swinging away at the ball yet it remains perched on its little white tower of terror while the other golfers impatiently wait for you to tee off.

Posted in Riddles

A Metal Roof and a Glass Wall

I have a metal roof and a glass wall,
I burn and burn but never fall.

What am I?

A lantern.

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Tends To Overlook

I am something everybody tends to overlook, no matter how careful they are. What am I?

Your nose.

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Same Forward, Backward and Upside Down

What word is the same written forward, backward and upside down?

NOON. The word needs to be a palindrome and made up of only these letters that look the same upside down:

H I N O S X Z

For instance, SOON doesn’t work, because even though each letter looks the same upside down, it reads NOOS.

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Cut But Never Eaten

What is put on a table and cut but never eaten?

A deck of cards.  You put the cards on the table to play, and you cut the cards to mix them up, but you don’t eat them. Flowers is another possible answer.

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I Tell You When to Start

I tell you when to start,
Or remind if you forget.

I smash others to break them apart,
But I’m pushed by another of me.

What am I?

Cue. A cue tells you when to start, or if you forget your lines in a play. A cue ball is used to break at the beginning of a game of pool and the cue stick is used to push the cue ball on the break.

Another interesting tidbit is that cue is how you spell the letter q if you’re writing it out.

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Your Father’s Sister’s Sister-in-law

What relation would your father’s only single sister’s sister-in-law be to you?

Your mother.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Don’t Get a Goat

On a game show there are three closed doors – one hides a car and the other two conceal a goat. The contestant selects a door, which remains closed, and the host, knowing where the car is hidden, reveals a goat behind one of the remaining two doors. The contestant is then given the option to switch doors or stay with the one they originally selected. What should the contestant do to have the best chance of winning the car?

The contestant should switch doors, which doubles the chance of winning the car. Initially there is a 2/3 chance of picking a goat, but once the other goat is revealed, switching to remaining door gives the contestant a better chance of winning the car. This is known as the Monty Hall Problem and can be very unintuitive.

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Thin, Bold, Sick And Cold

One thin, one bold,
One sick, one cold.
The earth we span,
To prey upon man.

Who are we?

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

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By Odin’s Beard

Some came from the Sun and Moon,
Others from Thor and his hammer are hewn,

By Odin’s beard, and Frigg and Tiw,
The last is Saturn, from which we grew.

What are we?

They are the origins of the names of each day of the week.

Sunday – Sun day.
Monday – Moon day.
Tuesday – Tiw’s or Týr’s day, the god of single combat, son of Odin.
Wednesday – Woden’s or Odin’s day, god of poetry and of the dead.
Thursday – Thor’s day, god of thunder, son of Odin.
Friday – Frigg’s day, goddess of the clouds, wife of Odin.
Saturday – Saturn’s day, god of fertility and agriculture.

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