Grex Iq Conference

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Grex Iq Item 158: The White Queen's riddle
Entered by valeyard on Fri Sep 21 12:33:40 UTC 2001:

First, the fish must be caught.
That is easy.  A baby, I think, could have caught it.
Next, the fish must be bought.
That is easy.  A penny, I think, would have bought it.

"Now cook me the fish!"
That is easy, and will not take more than a minute.
"Let it lie in a dish!"
That is easy, because it already is in it.

"Bring it here.  Let me sup."
It is easy to set such a dish on the table.
"Take the dish cover up!"
Ah, THAT is so hard that I fear I'm unable.

For it holds it like glue, holds the lid to the dish,
While it lies in the middle.
Which is easiest to do,
Un-dish-cover the fish or dishcover the riddle?

15 responses total.

#1 of 15 by gelinas on Fri Sep 21 18:44:31 2001:

I don't know which is easier; I've shucked oysters and enjoyed steamed clams
on more than one occasion.

#2 of 15 by rcurl on Fri Sep 21 19:12:05 2001:

They aren't fish.

#3 of 15 by brighn on Fri Sep 21 19:27:31 2001:

Sole/soul would satisfy parts of the riddle, but renders other parts
nonsensical.

#4 of 15 by valeyard on Sat Sep 22 23:34:35 2001:

I'm afraid Joe has it.  Congratulations!  I've never seen anyone solve it
before (I didn't, I had to take a sneak peek at the answer!).  The answer is
an oyster.  I read this riddle in "Alice through the Looking Glass" and just
loved it, because it was so clever.  Does anyone else have some clever
riddles?

#5 of 15 by gelinas on Sun Sep 23 01:01:21 2001:

I didn't remember seeing it there.

I can't think of any interesting ones right now.

#6 of 15 by brighn on Sun Sep 23 03:20:42 2001:

It's in chapter 9, in all the nonsense banter between the Red and White
Queens.
http://www.mathematik.uni-halle.de/books/alice/alice_28.html
 
But oysters aren't fish, and they don't cost a penny anymore. And actually,
the answer is apparently Martin Gardner's; the answer doesn't appear in that
chapter (or, apparently, in the book).
http://varatek.com/scott/carrol_riddles.html
 .

#7 of 15 by rcurl on Sun Sep 23 05:14:35 2001:

That purported "answer" to that riddle is sure fishy.

#8 of 15 by gelinas on Sun Sep 23 05:29:41 2001:

They've been called "shellfish" for a long time.

#9 of 15 by rcurl on Sun Sep 23 17:26:24 2001:

Good  point...one would have to accept the answer "shellfish",  even if
not a particular species thereof.

#10 of 15 by brighn on Sun Sep 23 17:27:44 2001:

point... and crawfish/crayfish aren't "fish" either...

#11 of 15 by valeyard on Mon Sep 24 02:18:51 2001:

Yes, I got my answer from Martin Gardner's notations in "The Annotated Alice"

#12 of 15 by jhudson on Thu Oct 4 18:40:15 2001:

I've cooked up some hard ones (riddles),
but none like this. O well, try this:

A man is downstairs.  There are three lightswitches.
Upstares, there is a light bulb in the closet.  The
man must determine which switch controls the light
bilb, but may only go upstaris one time.

#13 of 15 by brighn on Fri Oct 5 03:09:56 2001:

He turns on one light switch, call it A. He waits ten minutes. He turns A off,
then switches on B, then goes upstairs. If the light is on, it's B. If the
light is off but warm to the touch, it's A. If the light is off and cool to
the touch, it's C.

#14 of 15 by jhudson on Tue Oct 9 18:10:11 2001:

Good.

#15 of 15 by kiddo on Fri Oct 19 05:32:29 2001:

Critical thinking it put me in

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