Daily puzzles/problems.

[prendrelemick]

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.

[MarkBastable]

6 1 2 4 5 8 3 7

[Scheherazade]

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?

[MarkBastable]

What connects Peter Pan, Joy Division and a corner of the Netherlands?

[Sapphire]

Being from the Netherlands, I should know this

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

[MarkBastable]

Being from the Netherlands, I should know this

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

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.

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.

[prendrelemick]

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.

[MarkBastable]

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.

[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."

[MarkBastable]

In the nick of time? (He blurted out) not sure how it conects to corner though.

Actually, that might be the same root. But the one I'm thinking of quite obviously, in context, means 'corner'.

[billl]

crook?

("by hook or by crook")


EDIT: Whoops. Never mind--same vowel sound.

[Basil]

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.

[MarkBastable]

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.

[MarkBastable]

What connects

• arms to the Contras
• a ranch near Dallas
• a robot gunslinger
• a man with no name

[Sapphire]

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 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