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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A Red Robe and Staff In Hand

I wear a red robe,
With staff in hand,
And a stone in my throat.
Cut me and I weep red tears

What am I?

A cherry

There are a few other variations of this one:

As I went through the garden gap,
Who should I meet but Dick Red-cap!
A stick in his hand, a stone in his throat,
If you’ll tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a groat.
(Said to be the lyrics to A Cherry)

I slipped down a slippery gap,
Found a man with a red cap,
He had a stick in his back and a stone in his belly,
Riddle me this and I’ll give you a penny.

Posted in Riddles

Books By Charles Dickens

Pair these words to make nine titles of books by Charles Dickens:

A LITTLE    1 RUDGE
B PICKWICK  2 COPPERFIELD
C EDWIN     3 TIMES
D BARNABY   4 CHUZZLEWIT
E NICHOLAS  5 PAPERS
F HARD      6 HOUSE
G BLEAK     7 DROOD
H DAVID     8 DORRIT
I MARTIN    9 NICKLEBY

A 8 = LITTLE DORRIT
B 5 = PICKWICK PAPERS
C 7 = EDWIN DROOD
D 1 = BARNABY RUDGE
E 9 = NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
F 3 = HARD TIMES
G 6 = BLEAK HOUSE
H 2 = DAVID COPPERFIELD
I 4 = MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

Posted in Brain Teasers

How Old is Lilly?

Two days ago Lilly was 7 years old. Next year she will turn 10. How can this be?

Her birthday is December 31st. Today is January 1st so she was 7 two days ago, and turned 7 last year. Now she’s 8 and will turn 9 this year. And next year she’ll turn 10.

For example, if today is 01 Jan 2015:

30 Dec 2014 = age 7 (two days ago)
01 Jan 2015 = age 8 (today, she turned 8 on 31 Dec 2014, which was last year)
31 Dec 2015 = age 9 (her birthday this year)
31 Dec 2016 = age 10 (her birthday next year)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Which Door First?

While driving his car a man slams on the brakes when he sees, in the middle of the street, a diamond studded door, a gold door and a silver door. Which door does he open first?

His car door

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What Gets Wetter As It Dries?

What gets wetter as it dries?

A towel.

Posted in Riddles

Thirty White Horses On A Red Hill

Thirty white horses on a red hill,
first champ, then stamp, and then stand still

Your teeth.

Posted in Riddles

Commonly Forgotten And Sometimes Rotten

I am always with you
But commonly forgotten.
You use me constantly,
And can sometimes be rotten.

What am I?

Air.

Posted in Riddles

You’ll See Me When the Sun is High and Also Late at Night

You’ll see me when the sun is high and also late at night,
I’m in the songs of holidays, when the snow is white,

Kings and Queens and royalty, are all found in me,
I’m the largest of them all, with just one you see,

Step by step with pounding feet, I’m tribes of angry men,
I’m above your hands right now, for help or to go again,

You’ll use me in the kitchen, or add a little more,
I’ll be in the years to come, and the days of yore.

What am I?

Twelve (12).

Noon and midnight are both 12 o’clock and the Twelve Days of Christmas is a popular Christmas carol.

There are twelve face cards in a standard 52-card deck and twelve is the largest number with one syllable.

There are twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous, a troy pound is 12 ounces, there were 12 tribes of Israel and a popular movie was called, “Twelve Angry Men” (12 members of the jury). There are twelve function keys on your keyboard. F1 often shows a help screen and F5 reloads pages in your browser.

Many recipes measure items by the dozen, adding one more for a baker’s dozen. There are twelve months in a year.

It’s surprising how many times the number twelve shows up in our culture.

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A Perfect Counterfeit

A man can make perfect counterfeit bills. They look exactly like real ones, they’re made of exactly the same materials, made the same way, everything. So perfect, one could pretty much call them real bills. One day he successfully makes a perfect copy of another bill. However, he gets caught when he tries to use the copy. How is this possible?

As a counterfeiter, he had lots of counterfeit bills around and he accidentally used one of them as his original. So he made a perfect copy of a counterfeit bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers