Spare Time

The other night my husband and I watched an episode of Modern Family called “Unplugged.” Like the title implies, the storyline followed one family’s challenges to unplug from all electronic devices for a week. It wasn’t very successful. I could relate. I’ve become so addicted to checking email that I can’t even stop at a red light without pulling out my phone to see if anything has arrived in the fifteen minutes since I last checked.

Which is why I relish the hikes my husband, Edwin, and I take each week, living as we do near Acadia National Park and lots of coastline and woods. Away from my computer, I notice the world, move my body, marvel at the beauty surrounding me, and, fairly often, wind up having somewhat odd, and frequently silly exchanges with Edwin. We’ve created our aphorism riddles (see examples here, here, here & here) and Edwin has made up some pretty clever jokes.

During our last venture up a mountain in Acadia Edwin, who loves words, thought it would be interesting to come up with a sentence using words with the ending “iginous.” There aren’t many of them, so you can imagine our dismay when we found out that “litiginous” isn’t actually a word, even though people say it a lot.

Here’s the sentence we came up with:

Vertiginous Virgil vanished from the serpiginous sluiceway on the caliginous coast leaving his lover, litigious Lucy, sobbing and ready to sue.

Now, some might think this isn’t the best use of time. Perhaps we ought to be discussing ways to imbue curricula with humane education and create solutionary teams in schools, but on my breaks from work, it feels just right to play word games and laugh at our strange verbal creations. At least we’re not reading Facebook pages or incessantly checking email.

Zoe Weil, author of Most Good, Least Harm

Image courtesy of gsilva.

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My Holiday Gift to You #4

Here’s the answer to last post’s riddle:
No Cain, no stain

And here are the instructions again, followed by today’s riddle:

How to solve these riddles

Every answer rhymes with a well-known aphorism, saying, or proverb. The clues to the rhyming words are indicated by italics. Each new aphorism will have at least two changed words.

The underlining at the end of each riddle also provides clues. They indicate the number of words in each answer, as well as the number of letters in each word. One more hint: if you have figured out a word or two that’s likely part of the answer, think about what these words rhyme with. This will help you figure out the original aphorism, and then the answer should come fairly easily.

Riddle #4

A walking dead person had befriended a rabbit and the two were inseparable, but not for long, because the truth is:

_ _____ ___ __ _____ ___ ____ ______

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

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My Holiday Gift to You #3

Here’s the answer to last post’s riddle:
Booze, you snooze

And here are the instructions again, followed by today’s riddle:

How to solve these riddles

Every answer rhymes with a well-known aphorism, saying, or proverb. The clues to the rhyming words are indicated by italics. Each new aphorism will have at least two changed words.

The underlining at the end of each riddle also provides clues. They indicate the number of words in each answer, as well as the number of letters in each word. One more hint: if you have figured out a word or two that’s likely part of the answer, think about what these words rhyme with. This will help you figure out the original aphorism, and then the answer should come fairly easily.

Riddle #3

Once upon a time there was a yeshiva student who loved to analyze the Torah, play devil’s advocate, and make smart alecky quips to the rabbi. Reading Genesis, this young man found himself intrigued by Adam and Eve’s sons. He made the case that if they had not had their obnoxious son, all of human history would be different because humans would not have an indelible mark on them. Of course, he said this in a much more concise way:

__ ____, __ _____

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

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My Holiday Gift to You #2

Here’s the answer to last post’s riddle:
Two thongs don’t make a kite.

And here are the instructions again, followed by today’s riddle:

How to solve these riddles

Every answer rhymes with a well-known aphorism, saying, or proverb. The clues to the rhyming words are indicated by italics. Each new aphorism will have at least two changed words.

The underlining at the end of each riddle also provides clues. They indicate the number of words in each answer, as well as the number of letters in each word. One more hint: if you have figured out a word or two that’s likely part of the answer, think about what these words rhyme with. This will help you figure out the original aphorism, and then the answer should come fairly easily.

Riddle #2

A man of few words said to a woman whose husband drank a bottle of alcohol and then fell asleep:

_____, ___ ______

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

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My Holiday Gift to You #1

To all of you who read my blog, I wanted to give you a holiday gift for each of the next four posts.

My husband and I spent a weekend in Baxter State Park in Maine a year ago, and we made up riddles on our hikes based on well-known proverbs and aphorisms. It was a lot of fun, and for his birthday I put them together in a little book. Now I’d like to share them with you. I hope you enjoy them! (The answer to each post’s riddle will be at the beginning of the next post.)

How to solve these riddles

Every answer rhymes with a well-known aphorism, saying, or proverb. The clues to the rhyming words are indicated by italics. Each new aphorism will have at least two changed words.

The underlining at the end of each riddle also provides clues. They indicate the number of words in each answer, as well as the number of letters in each word. One more hint: if you have figured out a word or two that’s likely part of the answer, think about what these words rhyme with. This will help you figure out the original aphorism, and then the answer should come fairly easily.

Riddle #1

One day there was an outdoor event in which people brought objects that they held with string to fly in the wind in the park. One tarty gal wanted to fly one, too, but she didn’t have any idea how to make such a thing. Being a bit provocative, she decided to use a couple of pairs of her very minimal underwear and string these to fly.  But her creation failed to take flight. An observant man standing nearby said her problem was simply that:

___ ______ ___ ____ _ ____

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education

Like my blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.

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