old riddles

by John Doe 65 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Steve_C

  When a salesman of mine went to New Orleans on a business trip, a little boy came up with a shoeshine box at the airport and asked if he could shine the salesman's shoes. The guy said no. The boy said, "I don't know you or where you are from (we were from San Diego), but I'll bet you five dollars I can tell you where you got your shoes. I'll even bet you I can tell you the city and the state where you got your shoes."

  My salesman took the bet. And lost. How did the kid do it?

  A guy in New Orleans did this same trick to my sister-in-law. She took the bet ($20), and the guy proclaimed, "You got your shoes.....on your feet! N'awleans, Louisiana. Now give me my $20!"

  She said the guy's amusing demeanor was worth the $20 just for the laugh.
• 

  Farkel

  :She said the guy's amusing demeanor was worth the $20 just for the laugh.

  LOL! I was standing next to my salesman when he took the bet and I warned him to never take a bet in someone else's game, even though the kid was a cute little boy. Unlike your sister-in-law, my friend was not happy at all when he lost!

  Here's another ancient one:

  "Brothers and sisters I have none,

  but this man's father is my father's son."

  Who is he talking about?

  Or this puzzle:

  . . . . .

  . . . . .

  There are 10 potted trees arranged in the 2 rows above. Rearrange the trees so that there are 5 equal length rows of 4 trees in each row.

  Farkel
• 

  snowbird

  Himself!

  Sylvia
• 

  John Doe

  "Brothers and sisters I have none,

  but this man's father is my father's son."

  Who is he talking about?

  His own son. Hence, "this man's father" is himself, and "my father's son," with no brothers and sisters, must mean himself. So, he must be talking about his kid.
• 

  musky

  "If you take a I from XXXIII and turn it sideways and place it over the II on the right of the equals sign you get:

  XXII / VII = TT or pi, or 22/7, the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle."

  Ya, I was just about to get that too!
• 

  Farkel

  Here's a fun one. Punctuate thes properly so that they makes sense:

  "A funny little man told this to me,

  I fell in a snowdrift in June said he.

  I went to a ball game out in the sea,

  I saw a jellyfish float up in a tree.

  I fed the birds with a big brass key,

  I opened my door on a bended knee.

  I beg your pardon for this said he,

  But 'tis true when told as it ought to be."

  ----

  "Every lady in this land,

  Hath twenty nails upon each hand.

  Five and twenty on hands and feet,

  This is true without deceit."

  -----

  Consider this:

  After a quarrel a guy sent his lady this:

  "Woman without her man is a savage."

  The women changed the punctuation and sent this back:

  "Women! without her, man is a savage!"

  Punctuation is important! Remember that by moving one single comma one word to the right, the Watchtower Printing Corporation completely changed the resurrection doctrine from death to some unknown time in the future!

  Farkel, Punctuation Butchering CLASS
• 

  parakeet

  Farkel, Punctuation Butchering CLASS

  Don't worry about your punctuation, Farkel. The copy editors will clean it all up when you submit your book to your publisher (the nondub kind).

  Don't mean to derail this thread. Everyone, back to your riddles!
• 

  John Doe

  A funny little man told this to me:

  "I fell in a snowdrift. In June," said he,

  "I went to a ball game. Out in the sea,

  I saw a jellyfish float. Up in a tree,

  I fed the birds. With a big brass key,

  I opened my door. On a bended knee,

  I beg your pardon for this" said he,

  "but 'tis true when told as it ought to be."

  ----

  Every lady in this land

  hath twenty nails. Upon each hand,

  five, and twenty on hands and feet.

  This is true without deceit."
• 

  Farkel

  John Doe,

  Good one on the punctuation!

  For the life of me, I cannot figure out how there is any other place other than the north pole where one can walk 1 mile south, 1 mile east, 1 mile north and end up at the starting point. The only place where the angle of lines of longitude are zero are at both poles. At every other point, the angles of adjacent longitudinal lines either increase or decrease, depending upon the direction one is going. So the hypoteneuse formed by going north will always be longer than a mile at any other point on the earth, it seems to me.

  No one's yet taken up the 10 trees puzzle, so here is another punctionation one:

  that that is is that that is not is not is that it it is

  Farkel
• 

  musky

  That that is, is. That that is not, is not. Is that it? It is