NUTS TO CRACK
1. CRAZY LOGIC
Can you prove that madman = madam is solved thus:—
A madman is a man beside himself. Therefore a madman = two men.
Madam is a woman. Woman is double you O man (w-o-man). Therefore madam = two men.
And as things which are equal to the same are equal to one another, therefore madman = madam.
Q. E. D.
(Quite easily Done.)
2. A BIT OF BOTANY
The water-plant is the Frogbit, which floats and spreads on the surface of ponds and pools.
3. The six islands buried in the lines—
He set down the answer to that sum at random.
By bold policy Prussia became a leading power.
A great taste for mosaic has arisen lately.
The glad news was swiftly borne over England.
At dusk, year after year, the old man rambled home.
The children cried, hearing such dismal tales.
are Sumatra, Cyprus, Formosa, Borneo, Skye, Malta.
4. The seven geographical names “buried” in the sentence, “We could hide a light royal boat with a man or two; the skipper, though, came to a bad end,” are Deal, Troy, Witham, Esk, Perth, Baden, Aden.
5. The jumbled letter lines read thus:—
Let those who deal in mystic rhymes
This transposition trace;
And to The Standard send betimes
Each letter in its place.
6.
Three little articles all in a line
Lead to a thousand, expressing,
If with another all these you combine,
What can be never a blessing—
is solved by ANATHEMA (an-a-the-M-a).
7.
Ask a policeman, possibly he knows
In uniformed array
If not, an added letter plainly shows
How little he can say—
is solved by adding n to uniformed—uninformed.
8. The Ruling letters in:—
We rule the world, we letters five,
We rule the world, we do!
And of our number three contrive
To rule the other two—
are B. U. T. (beauty), and Y. Z. (wise head).
9. Many might punctuate the sentence, “Maud like the pretty girl that she was went for a walk in the meadows” by merely putting a full stop at the end of it. But why not make a dash after Maud?
10. The answer by Echo to
What were they who paid three guineas
To hear a tune of Paganini’s
is Pack o’ ninnies!
11. The verse in which only five different letters are used is—
It is nineteen tennis nets,
Nine in tents in tints intense.
Ten sent in inset in sets,
See it, test it, it is sense!
12. The catch sentence: “If is is not is and is not is is what is it is not is and what is it is is not if is not is is?” becomes intelligible if it is punctuated thus: If “is” is not “is,” and “is not” is “is,” what is it “is not” is, and what is it “is” is not, if “is not” is “is?”
13. The words on the placard were PALE ALE, and these through the steps described become PA-LE AP-LE, APPLE.
14. The reading of “Time flies you cannot they pass at such irregular intervals,” is as though it ran “You cannot time flies, they pass at such irregular intervals.”
ROYAL MEMORIES
15. I was reminded of Queen Victoria as I entered the South Kensington Museum at five minutes to one, because I noticed that the hands of my watch were so placed as to represent a very perfect V.
When I left the building it was twenty-five minutes and forty-five seconds to six, and then the hands, with the help of the seconds hand which crossed it, formed a very perfect A, and so reminded me of Prince Albert.
16. The solution of
CCC SAW
is “the season was backward.”
17. THE OLD LATIN LEGEND
AMANS TAM ERAT
HI DESINT HERO
AD DIGITO UT MANDO
reads off into excellent English thus:—
“A man’s tame rat hides in the road; dig it out man, do!”
18. The statement “I know that roseate hues preserve” does not imply that there is any curative virtue in rose-coloured rays, but asserts “I know that Rose ate Hugh’s preserve!”
19. The following exception was taken to Dr Fell’s diet for the sick of all sops:—
“Sure the doctor’s wits are failing,”
Cried a saucy wag.
“Allsopp’s ale the sick and ailing
To their bier will drag.”
20. The English dislocated sentence formed by these thirty-six letters:—
SAR BAB SAR BAB SAR BAB
SAR BAB SAR BAB SAR ARA
is, “A bar as a barb bars Barbara’s Barabbas.”
21. The Wiltshire farmer’s sentence—
“Igineyvartydreevriswutts”
when interpreted runs, “I gave him forty-three for his oats.”
22. Here is a tolerable rhyme to Chrysanthemum:—
Through gardens where appear
Beds of chrysanthemum,
We pass at eve to hear
Our choir their anthem hum.
23. This was, in brief, the pathetic tale of the three eggs—“Two bad!”
24. THE ANCIENT LEGEND
Doun tooth ers
A sy
Ouw ould bed
One by.
reads thus:—“Do unto others as you would be done by.”
25. There were but six persons in the vault which contained two grandmothers and their two grand-daughters; two husbands and their two wives; two fathers and their two daughters; two mothers and their two sons; two maidens and their two mothers; two sisters and their two brothers. Two widows had each one son, and each married the son of the other, and had a daughter by the marriage.
26. The supposed charm—
ground
turn evil star
given by the wise woman to a nervous couple, to counteract their evil star, and account for mysterious noises, is merely “Rats live underground,” turn being a direction to the solver.
27. The word composed of five varied vowels of foreign sound, with but one consonant between them, is oiseau, the French for bird. The three letters which flow in four are eau, water, which flows in the River Oise, and the other trio spell oie, a goose, which is found therein.
28. The Paradox—
What in his mind no man can find
Four symbols will display;
But only one remains behind
If one we take away—
is solved by Bone.
29. The barber who had placed in his window the notice—
“What do you think
I will shave you for nothing and give you a drink”
explained, to the man who expected a free shave and a cool drink, that the interpretation was really this:—“What? Do you think I will shave you for nothing, and give you a drink?”
30. The curious Latin label—
GENUI NE JAM
A
ICARUM.
has no reference to Icarus, or to flying machines. Its proper place was on a cask of “Genuine Jamaica Rum.”
31. The puzzle word is ipecacuanha.
32.
Johnson’s cat went up a tree,
Which was sixty feet and three;
Every day she climbed eleven,
Every night she came down seven.
Tell me, if she did not drop,
When her paws would touch the top—
is solved thus:—As each day and night the cat climbed up eleven feet, and came down seven, the daily upward gain was four feet, and thirteen days would bring her fifty-two feet up the tree. Then on the fourteenth day she mounted the remaining eleven feet, and was at the top, so that no coming down seven feet is to be taken into account, and she attains her place in fourteen days.
33.
A third of six behind them fix,
A third of six before;
Thus makes two nines, when all combines,
Exactly fifty-four—
is solved:—
IX NINE (the two nines.)
IX NINES = 54.
(S is a third of six) S
34. To bridge the moat, or space between the two squares which one match cannot span, place one match across one of the corners of the outer square, and the other from this to the inner square.
35.
We start when the ninth hour is past,
Then there’s an end of you.
A vengeful goddess shows at last
What Antifat will do—
is solved by attenuate (at ten-u-Ate, goddess of vengeance).
36. Mrs P.W. had only one guest to provide for. Her husband had invited his father’s brother-in-law, Jones, who was his brother’s father-in-law, because Mr P.W.’s brother had married Jones’ daughter, and his father-in-law’s brother, because he had himself married Jones’ niece, and also his brother-in-law’s father, as Mr P.W.’s sister married Jones’ son.
37. This sharp customer started with fivepence farthing, and gradually extracted from the landlord’s pocket a shilling and three farthings towards the eighteenpence which he spent in refreshments.
38. To form four triangles of equal size with six similar matches, place three of them in a triangle on the table, and hold or balance the other three above these, so as to form the skeleton of a pyramid.
39. The following couplet solves this question:—
Forty-five-years I had seen
When my bride was but fifteen
40. The lad gave tenpence each to a grandfather, his son, and his grandson.
41. Nell’s reply to Tom, when he said, with a yawn, “I wish we could play lawn-tennis!” “Odioso ni mus rem. Moto ima os illud nam,” was not Latin, but good sound English. Read each word in its order backwards, and you have-- “Oh! so do I in summer. Oh, Tom! am I so dull, I man?”
42. The policeman who was looking up the road for motor-car scorchers was able to see that his mate, who was looking down the road, was smiling, because they stood face to face.
43.
Twenty-seven with three nines
You and I can score;
Anyone on other lines
Can extend them more.
Who can write them to be seen
Equal only to sixteen?—
is solved thus:—Two of the three nines are reversed, and then
966 = 16.
44. The trying sentence, “that that is is that that is not is not is not that it it is,” is cleared thus by proper punctuation:—That that is, is; that that is not, is not. Is not that it? It is.
45. A L L O is “Nothing after all.”
46. The proverb with missing consonants is—Give a dog a bad name and hang him.
47. If to the thirteen upright strokes—
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thirteen more are added, the word HOTTENTOT may be formed.
48. A coroner could, after signing his name, write down his official position with c or one r.