(ANSWERS ARE BELOW)
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 127
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RIDDLE ME THIS
Fun for the Mind
Some people love riddles, others not so much. Perhaps the world’s most famous riddle is
known as the Riddle of the Sphinx. It asks, ”What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs
during the day and three legs in the evening?” The answer is man, who crawls when he is
young and walks until he is old and needs a cane.
The key to a riddle is generally found in the manner in which the question is asked. However,
usually the words are framed to require the person being asked to think creatively and use
ingenuity. The point being, you may feel that these are not brain-teasers, but rather jokes.
If you are not sure where you stand on the matter, here are a few that may help you decide.
1. Michael’s mother had three children. Her first child was named April and her second
was named May. What did she name her third child?
2. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly?
3. What was the President of the United States named in 1976?
4. If you were in a race and passed the person in second place, in what place would you be?
5. I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
6. If two is company and three is a crowd, what are four and five?
7. I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere. I am the beginning of eternity
and the end of time and space. What am I?
8. When looking at a painting, a man says, “Brothers and sisters, I have none, but that man’s
father is my father’s son. Who is in the painting?
9. Where does Christmas come before Thanksgiving?
10. What kind of room has no doors or windows?
11. How many of each species did Moses take on the Ark with him?
12. What can you hold in your right hand that you cannot hold in your left hand?
13. Which travels faster, heat or cold?
14. What gets bigger the more you take away from it?
15. What did the grape say when the elephant stepped on it?
16. What has four legs and barks and is made of cement?
Answers
We can explain these answers to you, but we can’t make you understand them.
1. Michael 2. incorrectly 3. Donald Trump 4. second place 5. seven 6. nine 7. the letter E 8. his son 9. in the dictionary 10. mushroom
11. none, Noah had the Ark 12. your left elbow 13. heat, anyone can catch a cold 14. a hole 15. nothing, it just let out a little wine
16. A dog. If you are wondering about the cement, we just added that to make it hard. 9