The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[emm]

......
: u : = fleas / ewe = fleece (front view)

as opposed to

..'.'.'..'..'.'....'.'..' = golden fleece (aerial view)

Homer is said to have died of frustration at not being able to solve a riddle. He had asked some fisherman what they'd caught and they replied “All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not catch.”

[MCC]

“All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not catch.”

emm, do you have an answer for this riddle
Or are you stumped and want us to come up with a plausible answer


MCC

[udosuk]

Never knew Homer (Simpson) was that philosophical for anything except beer... Duh...

According to this, he was told the answer, and died in enlightenment...

[MCC]

My answer would have been "Nothing".

They caught nothing so therefore left nothing behind.

They carried away nothing as they had caught nothing.


MCC

[emm]

I just threw that one in for a bit of general information. Another well known riddle “What walks on 4 feet in the morning, two at noon and three at sundown” also dates back to ancient Greece.

udosuk - thanks for the reference, it did seem a bit odd to die just of frustration.

MCC - nothing is a very plausible answer. I thought you might twig to the lice seeing as how we were on the theme of small annoying insects

- speaking of which

u u u u u = .t

.it

[udosuk]

My answer would have been "Nothing".

They caught nothing so therefore left nothing behind.

They carried away nothing as they had caught nothing.

MCC, if we wanna be strict about the logic, nothing doesn't work!

All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not catch.

Direct replacements would make:

All the nothing we caught, we left behind, ...
-> Okay

... and carry away all the nothing we did not catch.
-> They caught nothing... But here it says "they didn't catch nothing", which is a contradiction! (Unless you wanna speak like an American youngster... )

Meanwhile lice works perfectly well...

[MCC]

If you want to nit pick and be pedsantic about it, ok.

But, what did they catch - Nothing.

They took everything with them, so they left, nothing behind.

They did not catch anything so they took nothing with them.


udosuk if you replace "nothing" with "fish" what do you get.

All the fish we caught, we left behind,...

... and carry away all the fish we did not catch.

Makes just as much sense.

I agree lice works, but it's a specific-occupation hazard, unless you knew about fish lice and that fisherman can catch them, then any riddle that has that as an answer would be obscure to someone outside of fishing and their chance of getting the right answer would be extremely small to zero.

u u u u u = .t

Five ewes with scabies would be spotty


MCC

[udosuk]

If you want to nit pick and be pedsantic about it, ok.

I think these riddles/word puzzles are all about being pedantic...

But, what did they catch - Nothing.

They took everything with them, so they left, nothing behind.

They did not catch anything so they took nothing with them.

If they caught nothing they would take nothing with them...
If they did not catch nothing, they must have caught something... Then why would they carry away nothing?

udosuk if you replace "nothing" with "fish" what do you get.

All the fish we caught, we left behind,...

... and carry away all the fish we did not catch.

Makes just as much sense.

"Nothing" or "fish", they both don't make any sense...
How could they carry away the fish they did not catch?
How could they carry away the nothing they did not catch?
(If they did not catch nothing, they caught something. If they caught something, they would not carry nothing away, unless that something was pests like lice...)

If, however, the riddle was like this:

All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did catch.

Then nothing would work... But then the riddle itself would be confusing... They caught something on which they perform opposite actions, namely leaving behind and carrying away, simultaneously...

I agree lice works, but it's a specific-occupation hazard, unless you knew about fish lice and that fisherman can catch them, then any riddle that has that as an answer would be obscure to someone outside of fishing and their chance of getting the right answer would be extremely small to zero.

It was specifically mentioned that this riddle was asked by some fishermen to Homer, so at least we know it has something to do with fishermen... Also, any person with some experience of outdoor adventuring could associate to some mishaps with insects... So it might not be as impossible as you thought... At least not as your "solar system" riddle...

[emm]

Well, that’s a lot of fuss about nothing!

u u u u u = .t

Even though I follow a leader
I may not be a woolly breeder
What is it that you behold?
All that glitters is not gold

[MCC]

I just threw that one in for a bit of general information. Another well known riddle “What walks on 4 feet in the morning, two at noon and three at sundown” also dates back to ancient Greece.

Easy peasy. Hasn't someone done this before

Four legs = Baby
Two legs = Adult
Three legs = Old person walking with a cane

She had the face of a woman, the chest, feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird. She sat on Mount Phikion and asked the Thebans a riddle:


"What has one voice, and is four-footed, two-footed and three-footed?"
Each time the Thebans gave a wrong answer, she ate one of them. Many perished, including eventually Haemon, son of Creon - ruler since the death of Laius, the previous king.
Oedipus, on his way from Delphi, gave the answer: "Man". The Sphinx threw herself off the acropolis and committed suicide (odd form of suicide for a creature with wings?).

MCC

[MCC]

In those days a person could know everything and Homer would probably have known about fish lice, whereas nowadays, a person's knowledge is only a fraction of the total knowledge available and probably would not know about such things as fish lice.

Let's agree that this is all pedantry and that double negatives don't never get you anywhere.

People may not know about astronomy but the "Solar system" riddle was topical news and people probably would have read or at least heard about it.

u u u u u = .t

Even though I follow a leader
I may not be a woolly breeder
What is it that you behold?
All that glitters is not gold

The "u's" could be forming a queue

".t"

How about "cutie"


MCC

[emm]

double negatives don't never get you anywhere isn’t quite the same as double negatives don't ever get you nowhere

How about "cutie"

Ha ha! Cootie Not quitey.

the "Solar system" riddle was topical news

It's true and I see that my riddle lacks topicality. To bring it up to the minute, here's a new mnemonic for the planets to replace many virgins eating mango jam sitting under nanny's piano

Multi vessel ensemble makes joint sortie under navigation

[MCC]

How about:

.t = dotty

or is this the wrong track


A reverse mnemonic:

Not Understanding Something Just Makes Everything Very Mystifying

MCC

[emm]

.t = dotty

Um no

or is this the wrong track

Um yes

This one's so easy you'd see it in a blind alley on a dark night with your eyes shut - if you were moving quickly.

Nice reverse mnemonic BTW. Strictly speaking we should be including Ceres (between Mars and Jupiter), Charon (which circles around Pluto) and Xena = MVEMCJSUNCPX

[MCC]

Strickly speaking, Ceres, Charon and Xena are dwarf planets.

Since Charon revolves around Pluto, you could have:

Making Vibes, Each Member Can Just Sing, Unless Nervous, Could Play Xylophone

or

Making Vibes, Each Member Can Just Sing, Unless Nervous, Practice Canadian Xylophones


As for:

u u u u u = .t

This one's so easy you'd see it in a blind alley on a dark night with your eyes shut - if you were moving quickly.

Even wearing a blindfold and moving as fast as Superman, I can't see it.


MCC