Riddles wanted!
If I like your contributions, I will use them in a story.
I am looking for three different types of riddles. Please say which they are and where you got them from if it's not obvious.
1. Japanese riddles that don't rely on arcane, untranslatable word play. They have to make sense in English. The older, the better. Also, they must have answers, so no "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
2. Riddles in English that do depend on puns. Not too contemporary. For instance, "When is a beet salad not a beet salad? When it can't be beat."
3. Ancient riddles that aren't hugely famous. That is, not the Sphinx's riddle itself, but anything of that vintage or at least not modern.
All riddles need to be answered! Also, I am looking for a wide variation in difficulty: some should be answerable by a child, and some should be very hard even for an intelligent, well-read adult.
While researching riddles, I came across this hilarious blog post, Why the bad guys in River City Ransom say "BARF!", and then spent about three happy hours reading his blog archives.
A few more favorites: Attack Beige! and Wake Gators.
This has nothing to do with anything, but it's never a bad time to link to The demonic squirrel motorcyle story.
I am looking for three different types of riddles. Please say which they are and where you got them from if it's not obvious.
1. Japanese riddles that don't rely on arcane, untranslatable word play. They have to make sense in English. The older, the better. Also, they must have answers, so no "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
2. Riddles in English that do depend on puns. Not too contemporary. For instance, "When is a beet salad not a beet salad? When it can't be beat."
3. Ancient riddles that aren't hugely famous. That is, not the Sphinx's riddle itself, but anything of that vintage or at least not modern.
All riddles need to be answered! Also, I am looking for a wide variation in difficulty: some should be answerable by a child, and some should be very hard even for an intelligent, well-read adult.
While researching riddles, I came across this hilarious blog post, Why the bad guys in River City Ransom say "BARF!", and then spent about three happy hours reading his blog archives.
A few more favorites: Attack Beige! and Wake Gators.
This has nothing to do with anything, but it's never a bad time to link to The demonic squirrel motorcyle story.