An Oddly Priced Fish Shop

A fish shop with odd pricing sells fish for the following prices: A trout costs $20, a salmon is $19, and a plaice comes in at $16. Using their pricing logic, how much would they charge for a mackerel?

$13. The price is calculated by using the position in the alphabet of the first letter of the name of the fish. An Albacore would be $1, a Bandfish would be $2. Note, I do not recommend using this pricing strategy unless you find yourself with an assortment of cheap Zebrafish.

Posted in Brain Teasers

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

Pushing Car Past Hotel Lands You in Jail

A man pushes his car by a hotel and gets sent to jail. Why?

The man is playing monopoly, and landed on the Go To Jail space. An alternative version of this is, “A man stops his car in front of a hotel and immediately knows he is bankrupt.” The answer is the same, that he’s playing Monopoly, but this time he landed on a space with a hotel and didn’t have enough money to pay the bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

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.

Posted in Riddles
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Ex-Spouse’s Former Daughter-In-Law

What do you call your ex-spouse’s former daughter-in-law’s first husband’s daughter?

You can call them whatever you want, but they have no familial relationship to you.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Four Cards

Four cards are placed in front of you on the table, each with a number on one side and a color on the other. The visible cards show 3, 8, red and brown. Which cards should you turn over in order to test the truth of the statement that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red?

four-cards

You’d need to turn over only the 8 and brown card. Only a card with an even number on one face and which is not red on the other face can invalidate the stated rule. If you turn over the 3 card and it’s not red, it doesn’t invalidate the rule, nor does turning over the red card and finding it has the label 3.

This test was devised by Peter Cathcart Wason and is known as the Wason selection task. Less than 10% of test subjects got it correct in two separate studies.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Lighter Than What I’m Made Of

Lighter than what
I am made of,
More of me is hidden
Than is seen.

An Iceberg.

Posted in Riddles

Reordered Mistake

What reordered word is a mistake?

Errored, which is an anagram of reorder.

Posted in Riddles

A Duck

There are two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck in the middle. How many ducks are there in total?

Three. They’re all in a row, so ducks 1 and 2 are in front of duck 3, ducks 2 and 3 are behind duck 1 and duck 2 is in the middle.

Posted in Brain Teasers

At The Sound Of Me, Men May Dream

At the sound of me, men may dream
Or stamp their feet
At the sound of me, women may laugh
Or sometimes weep

Music.

Posted in Riddles