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A mother is three times as old as her twin daughters. Two years from now, the sum of their ages (all three ladies) will be 111. How old are they now?
EDIT: I SCREWED UP ON THE ORIGINAL POST (I accidentally used "One year from now." Sorry for any time wasted!)
Note: There has been an edit to my previous post!
They're currently 21 and 63.
(M + 2d + 6 = 111 and M = 3d, all of which resolves to 5d = 105. That was fun - I haven't done that sort of maths since Descartes was late home from school having lost his coordinates.)
Your answer is correct, glad you liked it! Perhaps you can craft a puzzle out of the Cartesian confusion you've mentioned. Anyhow, I'm off the hook again.
What connects Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allen Poe, Aldous Huxley, Tom Mix, Carl Gustav Jung and Tony Curtis?
writers: Lewis Carroll (great riddles BTW ;) ), Edgar Allen Poe, Aldous Huxley
actors: Tom Mix, Tony Curtis
psychiatrist: Carl Gustav Jung
So it is not their job ...
They're all dead... but I think there's more to it :lol:.
Does the order they come in matter, Mark?Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkBastable
So far, I looked into psuedonyms, DOBs, DODs, consonant/vowel patters but I could not come up with anything. :-/
They are all white men. Who have been photographed.
Nope.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Also, Muhammad Ali, né Cassius Clay. And Marlene Dietrich.Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
Is it something about the names (the spelling or pronunciation, etc.)? Would I be wasting my time by exploring their biographies?
No, and completely.Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
If it isn't about the names, and it isn't about the lives of the people the names refer to, then there's some nuance or something I'm missing. Would some help with that nuance (or something) be a dead give-away?
While cooking in the kitchen, I was wondering whether they were all dyslexic but that would come under biographies, I guess.
Since it has nothing to do with the spelling of their names and their biographies, is it possible that a third party is involved?
Are they somebody's heros maybe? Or blacklisted somewhere or by someone?
Did they appear in paintings? I.e., like Marilyn Monroe's by Warhol?
Or an advertisement campaign? I.e., like Steve McQueen in Ford's?
(I am afraid this has turned into 20-Qs).
I cheated. Pretty cool, but tough. *Maybe* I should have gotten it...
Thank you for not giving it away.Quote:
Originally Posted by billl
It may get easier as I add names, day by day.
Actually, the song is called "A Day in the Life".
Well, here it is, then. I needed a little help from my internet search engine, but I was thus able to fix the nuanced hole existing between the names and the biographies of the listed individuals. The answer to Mark's latest head-scratcher is this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Pepper%27s.jpg
I've been trying to cook up one on my own, but in the meantime, here's something I just remembered that sort of fits the thread (although many may have heard it already):
Why are manhole covers round, and not square?
Oh. Okay. I thought that, as you'd cheated, we were going to carry that one for a bit, but no matter.
...off you go then.
1 you can roll them into place
2 They can't fall down the manhole if you missalign them when fitting.
3 Because the manhole is round.
Yeah, I had your number two in mind in particular--I remember being impressed by the idea that the square cover could be manipulated so as to fall into the hole (by setting one side at a diagonal, and slipping within the hypotenuse), whereas the round cover couldn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k7...k/envelope.jpg
Here is a quick one from my second year junior school. Draw an envelope without taking your pen from the paper, and without going over a line twice.
Answer by posting the correct order the numbered lines must be drawn.
6 1 2 4 5 8 3 7
5, 8, 3, 1, 2, 4, 7, 6 would work too.
Since we can tell that is the correct answer, would you like to post the next question, Mark?
What connects Peter Pan, Joy Division and a corner of the Netherlands?
Being from the Netherlands, I should know this :blush:
I connect Peter Pan (Cpt. Hook) to Joy Division by co-founder Peter Hook, and Joy Division to the Netherlands by the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. He recently made a movie about the group.
That won't do though, for I cannot connect Mr. Corbijn to Peter Pan...
So I draw a blank :confused:
You've got so much of it, it's taken me a moment to figure out why you haven't got the bit that I would have thought was easiest for you - but I think it's because you're thinking in Dutch.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sapphire
I can't bring myself to say you've solved it. On the other hand, there's not enough left to keep it going, so I'll kill this bit of it and present a supplementary bit that anyone here could take a shot at.
Captain Hook appears in Peter Pan.
Peter Hook was the bass player in Joy Division
Holland has a crooked peninsula called De Hoek (the Hook of Holland, in English) which means 'the Corner'
Supplementary Bit
The root of the Dutch - or to be strictly accurate, the Low German - word hoek shows up in two slightly corrupted forms in common English idioms. And in both cases the n from the indefinite article that used to precede it has moved to the beginning of the word itself so 'een hoek' becomes 'a nook'. So - that gives you one of them - every nook and cranny.
What's the other? As I say, it's a slightly different corruption of the vowel sound.
Here are my thoughts in progress.
There's a "nock" at the blunt end of an arrow, which sort of hooks on to the bowstring.
Or a nick or niche which is a sort of nook or indeed a cranny.
A neck curves like a corner
Other right sounding words begin with a "k", so are probably from a different source.
You're going the right way, but I'm looking for an idiomatic phrase - a cliché even - that I guarantee you've heard hundreds of times, and probably used quite often.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
In the nick of time? (He blurted out) not sure how it conects to corner though.
I'm sure archers are always getting "nocked up."
Actually, that might be the same root. But the one I'm thinking of quite obviously, in context, means 'corner'.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
crook?
("by hook or by crook")
EDIT: Whoops. Never mind--same vowel sound.
prendrelemick mentioned the word neck, but I'm guessing Mark wanted the phrase "neck of the woods."
If that is correct, someone else can post a new one. I'll try to come up with one to post at some future time.
....Yep.Quote:
Originally Posted by Basil
What connects
- arms to the Contras
- a ranch near Dallas
- a robot gunslinger
- a man with no name
The Hook one was clever :) I am quite certain I would have never connected Hoek/Corner with Hook - you do pronounce it fairly similar indeed. It reminds me of a show here on the radio, where people hear Dutch lyrics in (mostly) English songs. It always surprises me how whole sentences (with completely different meanings) can turn up that way!
I am not familiar with the term "the Contras", but I'll jump to conclusions and take that it is short for contradiction :p From contradiction it is a small step to unresolvable differences, which can lead to people getting up (in?) arms.
I can imagine the fight between these special "Contras" took place on a ranch near Dallas and involved a robot gunslinger and a man with no name (Western!). But all this is just my imagination running wild, so I'll leave it to somebody else to give an answer fundated on facts :nod:
The Cardinal Points.
Oliver North
Southfork
Clint Eastwood
Westworld. (Yul Brenner)
Here's a quickie I just thought of.
What comes between an egg and the number 40
Maybe a bit far fetched, but could it be shapes:
4+0=40
and as the egg is zero-shaped it would be the number 4?
But that is not "between" an egg and the number 40...
Nope!
But shapes are relevant.
After the number 40 there could be a low value playing card