QUOTES CXCVIII

As an example of how misleading so-called quotes can be when arbitrarily edited or taken out of context, can you guess where the following heavily edited and out-of-context passage is from?

All gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.

Answer:

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - by Mark Twain 

The actual quote:

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with bucket of whitewash ....... He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of  board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. 

 

AWESOME FACTS ABOUT EVERYTHING CXXII

1. The first ATM in the United States was installed by Chemical Bank of New York, in Rockville Centre, Long Island on September 2, 1969. 

2. Earth is the only planet not named after a mythical deity. "Earth" comes from the Old English/German word for "the ground." [boring]

3. PADIDDLE is a night-driving game in which you look for a car with only one headlight. The rules vary. The first person to say "padiddle" can either get a point, hit somebody, kiss somebody, or have the other passengers remove an article of clothing. There can also be penalties for a false padiddle - as the one headlight of a motorcycle. [What those penalties are is anybody's guess.]

4. ROSHAMBO is the name of the game popularly known as Rock, Paper, Scissors.

5. ELOPE can also mean Patient Elopement - when a patient leaves a hospital or other medical facility before being discharged - without medical consent.

6. A Danish is called Viennese bread in Denmark

7. Tenth U.S. President John Tyler has one living grandson. Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 and is 94 years old (as of 2022). Harrison's older brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler was born in 1924 and died in 2020 at the age of 95. John Tyler was born in 1790 (not a typo), served as President from 1841-1845, and died in 1862. Tyler had 8 children by his first wife (Letitia Christian). After her death, he married a much younger woman (Julia Gardiner) with whom he had 7 more children. Tyler had been dead for over 60 years by the time his last two grandsons were born. In a Presidential oddity and genealogical marvel, three generations of a family spanned almost the entire history of the United States.

REVERSE LETTER BANKS XLII

GAMES Magazine

Novermber, 1984

Mary McCool

 

In a regular letter bank, the letters of a shorter word are used to make a longer word. The letters may be repeated as necessary, but no new letters are allowed. For example, BLUE is a letter bank for BUBBLE. In this version, you are given the longer word and have to determine the letter bank (shorter) word from which the longer word was made. In the example above, you would be given BUBBLE and the answer would be BLUE. As a solving hint, the first letter and the number of letters in the letter bank word is given in ( ). In the example, the clue would read BUBBLE (B-4).

1. NITWIT         (T-4)

2. LASAGNA    (S-5)

3. DISMISS       (D-4)

4. SENTINEL    (L-6)

5. REVEILLE    (L-5)

6. REVOLVER   (L-5)

7. ANTENNAE             (N-4)

8. STALEMATE            (M- 6)

9. FOREFINGER           (F-7)

10. RESTAURANT        (S-7)

11. INCONVENIENCE  (N-6)

Answers:

 

1. TWIN

2. SLANG

3. DIMS

4. LISTEN

5. LIVER

6. LOVER

7. NEAT

8. METALS

9. FOREIGN

10. SAUNTER

11. NOVICE

RIDDLES AND JOKES

1. The worse it is, the better it is. What is it?

2. Did you hear about the words of, at, for, the, and?

3. What three words do English teachers use to comfort upset students? 

4. What is the answer to this question? Do you know a good boat builder?

5. Can you think of a three-word phrase that has to do with both navigation and baseball? 

6. Can you think of a four-word, grammatically flawed introduction that makes things perfectly clear? 

7. Latest house flip produced mixed results:

    House flipper: How did the first-floor renovations go?

    Contractor: Great

    House flipper: How about the second floor?

    Contractor: That's another story. 

 

Answers:

1. A pun

2. They're forming a support group for words left out of acronyms. 

3. "There, their, they're" 

4. Noah (know a)

5. Around the Horn (horn) - Sailing around the tip of South America (Cape Horn)

    After a third strike, with no men on base, the catcher throws the ball to third base, and from there it's thrown around the infield. 

6. "Me Tarzan, you Jane."

 

 

 

ALTERED STATES VII

The Enigma 

January, 2024

BROBBERTY 

Answer the question below with two words that are the same except for their two initial letters, which are also state postal abbreviations.

If you have very strong feelings about something, you might be crusading for this cause.

Answers:

 

Very strong feelings -                   PASSION

Crusading for a cause  - be on a MISSION

What do Clorox, Malibu, and The Air on a G-string have in common?

Answer:

BLEACH

BEACH

BACH

 

Credit:

The Enigma

January, 2-24

SCARAB 

In the flat below, WHOLE represents a word that is make up of two smaller words - ONE and TWO, in that order.

WHOLE the joy of Frisbee: hurl the ONE

And when the game is TWO, you've had fun.

Answer:

 

DISCOVER the joy of Frisbee: hurl the DISC

And when the game is OVER, you've  had fun.

 

Credit:

The Enigma

January, 2024

BROBBERTY