Rainbow Neighborhood

There was a neighborhood of one-story houses.
One was red and everything in the house was red.
Another was purple and everything in the house was purple.
Yet another was yellow and everything in the house was yellow.
Still another was blue and everything in the house was blue.
In the green house everything was green,
and in the gray house everything was grey.

What color were the stairs in the yellow house?

There are no stairs in any of the houses because they only have one story.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Serve Many But They Forget About Me

I serve many, confirmed by how healthy those I serve are. Yet after they’re successful they forget about me. It’s true, sometimes I hit them and they’re often bloody, but they don’t mind.

What am I?

A doctor (more specifically, an obstetrician) or a midwife. They deliver thousands of healthy babies but they are soon forgotten. Sometimes they smack the baby on the butt to clear the airway, and newborn babies can have blood on them from the placenta being pulled from the walls of the uterus or from an episiotomy.

Posted in Riddles
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Samuel the Secretive Scotsman

Fill in the blanks with four, four-letter words that all share the same first three letters.

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to ____ in his twill woven ____. Little did they know he had a ____ of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch ____.

kill
kilt
kilo
kiln

Samuel the secretive Scotsman was dressed to kill in his twill woven kilt. Little did they know he had a kilo of marijuana stashed away as he innocently warmed his hands by the Scotch kiln.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Cracked, Made, Told and Played

It can be cracked,
It can be made,
It can be told,
It can be played.

What is it?

A joke.

Posted in Riddles

I Will Stomp You If You Get In My Way

I roam through the land hoping to rescue my love. I search high and low and will stomp on you if you get in my way. What am I?

Mario, from Super Mario Brothers video game by Nintendo. He roams the land searching for the princess and his primary method of getting rid of folks is to stomp on them.

Thanks to Rowan for figuring this out.

Posted in Riddles

An Eye In a Blue Face

An eye in a blue face
Saw an eye in a green face.
“That eye is like to this eye”
Said the first eye,
“But in low place,
Not in high place.”

A daisy in the grass. The big eye is the sun.

This is from J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Posted in Riddles

How Old Is The Shepherd?

There are 125 sheep and 5 dogs in a flock.

How old is the shepherd?

You can’t determine the answer.

I debated adding this riddle because it is less of a riddle and more of an illustration of how kids are (or are not) being taught to think for themselves. But after reading how kids feel the need to make up an answer without understanding why, I thought this could be a good reminder for all of us to exercise our critical thinking skills.

(via Student Voices)

Posted in Riddles

NDOLA

What does “NDOLA, PAMODZI” mean?

Thanks to the comments, it doesn’t mean anything per se, but it’s a location in Zambia. If that’s all it is, it’s not really a brain teaser, but since we’ve already worked on it, I’m marking it as solved leaving it up for posterity.

Below are former attempts to solve it.

I have yet to figure this one out. NDOLA could mean And lo, or An old, among other things. Pamodzi on the other hand didn’t have any particularly meaningful anagrams. Both words together had over 1,000 anagrams.

I haven’t come up with any other possible meanings.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Person, Place and Thing

Fill in the blanks to make three common, English words (no plurals). The answers are a person, a place and a thing, in that order.

1. _ _ L F B A _ _
2. _ _ _ C K Y A _ _
3. _ _ O D P E _ _ _ _

1. HALFBACK
2. BRICKYARD or STOCKYARD
3. WOODPECKER

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Always Tell the Truth

You see me quite often,
But don’t really care.
If you pass by me,
You’ll often stop and stare.

I can’t speak or see,
But don’t think me uncouth,
Because no matter what,
I always tell the truth.

What am I?

A mirror.

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