Episode 121: Riddle Me This...

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 Paige: You are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I’m Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And today we are going to have quite an interesting episode, we are going to talk about riddles. So, listeners in case you don't know what a riddle is, it is a statement or a question that is designed to be misleading. It's supposed to trick you. Some may call it a brain teaser. Some are better at them than others. So, me and Ian are going to go through a few of them today and see how we do. So, again if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online. Okay, Ian—riddles. Fan? Hate them? Love them? What's your opinion?

Ian: I think I'm somewhere in the middle when it comes to riddles. I just rhymed there—that was nice. I think I'm somewhere in the middle because I'm not the biggest fan of riddles. I don't necessarily find them really fun or interesting. They are sometimes fun to think about to really get your mind going, to think about these trick questions, different options. But a lot of times, to be honest, I'm not that great at them, so I get frustrated. I shouldn't say frustrated, but I think, oh I don't know the answer, and I usually just give up pretty quick. The ones we talk about today, I'm going to go ahead and say, I don't know if I'm going to get a single one right. We're going to go ahead and try to find out, but just so you know, keep your expectations low. What about you, Paige? Are you a big fan of riddles?

Paige: No, I'm not. I have the same opinion as you where I get very frustrated and they're designed to trick you and I know that but it's still so irritating, especially because often the answer is pretty simple but how it's phrased puts you on just a different line of thinking that you're just nowhere near the answer. Once the answer is revealed to you, you’re like, oh, I wasn't even thinking that. But I had this friend in college, who would use riddles to pick up girls, and it worked. Which, I mean, I guess riddles are kind of charming, but it would never work on me because it makes me feel dumb. I would be like, ah I feel dumb around you. I'm not interested. I'm embarrassed.

Ian: Yeah, exactly. I share that same sentiment with you.

Paige: It worked for him, maybe he was just picking smarter girls, I don't know.

Ian: Smarter girls or picking up better riddles. It could be both. Good for him though.

Paige: Okay, so let's go into it. I'll start with a riddle, Ian. No judgment here everyone, okay?

Ian: Alright, let's see. Let’s see if I can get any of them right.

Paige: Okay, the first one—so “the more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I”?

Ian: “The more you take, the more you leave behind.” “The more you take, the more you leave behind.” Oh gosh, we're already starting off on the wrong foot here. I'm not quite sure. Maybe, “the more you take the more you leave behind.” Oh, Paige, I'm going to already give up on the first one. I don't know, go ahead and tell me.

Paige: They’re footsteps.

Ian: Ohhhh, come on.

Paige: Right. So, the more you take forward the more footsteps you leave behind. Exactly. Once you get the answer, it’s like, oh that's so easy, but it's tough to get that out of that small phrase. My original thought was time. I was like okay, the more time goes forward, the more time passes.

Ian: Yeah, that's a good one. I was thinking something maybe time, maybe memories. But again, not confident enough to shout the answer. That's how I usually feel about these riddles. I have an idea but then by the end, I think “It was this? I should have known.” Oh well, not off to a good start. So, let's see if you have a little bit better luck than I do. Okay, so the next one: “a doctor and a bus driver are in love with the same woman named Sarah. The bus driver had to go on a long bus trip that would last a week. Before he left, he gave Sara seven apples. Why?”

Paige: A doctor and a bus driver. Okay, so my initial reaction to this is, obviously, he's going on a trip for a week, which is seven days. So, it's an apple every day. So, yeah, it wouldn't be a good riddle but my answer would be “so that she doesn't starve while he's away?”

Ian: That's pretty good. That's a good thought. Do you want to know the answer? Do you want to guess some more?

Paige: No, I tap out.

Ian: Alright, so this one's a little tricky. It brings us to a really common idiom that we use in English, actually. So, the answer is, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

Paige: That's funny.

Ian: Right?

Paige: Yeah, because he's a doctor. Fair.

Ian: You should eat your fruits and vegetables every day to stay healthy, but obviously in this context, we're referring to the doctor who's in love with the girl. So, the bus driver can give her seven apples, and she'll stay away from that doctor during the time since they're both in love. It’s kind of cheesy.

Paige: It’s cheesy, yeah but, I mean, it is a very common phrase in English but when you're thinking about the scenario, my brain wouldn't go there. Yeah, okay. 0-0.

Ian:  Not a good start for us.

Paige: Okay, this next one's a little long, so bear with me: “A boy was at a carnival and went to a booth where a man said to the boy, ‘If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper, then you have to give me fifty dollars. But if I cannot, I will pay you fifty dollars.’ The boy looked around and saw no scale, so he agrees thinking no matter what the carnival worker writes, he will just say he weighs more or less than that number. In the end, the boy ended up paying the man fifty dollars. How did the carnival worker win the bet?”

Ian: Okay, this is a good one. This takes some thinking. Okay, so if he can guess his exact weight on the piece of paper, then the carnival worker has to give the boy fifty dollars. But if he cannot, then he will pay him fifty dollars. Okay, and there's no scale. So, there's no way to measure the weight exactly. But the boy ended up paying the man fifty dollars so obviously he figured out his weight. I want to take the cheating answer and say he talked to his mother before we saw him, he saw him step on a scale in the bathroom at the carnival or something to trick him but I know that's not the answer. So, I don't know, Paige. I give up again on this one.

Paige: And for our listeners, a carnival is a circus and a lot of those booths are designed to take your money. So, I feel like even though it seems impossible that that person could guess my weight, I would never bet that because that's their job, it’s to trick you and win money.

Ian:  They’re professional tricksters, exactly.

Paige: And so, this riddle is a complete play on words because if I write “your exact weight” on this piece of paper, then you have to give me fifty dollars. So, he gave him a piece of paper that says “Your exact weight.”

Ian: Oh, okay. So, he wrote the literal words. “Your exact weight.”

Paige: Exactly. Wow, so it's one of those things where you're thinking, Okay, weighing, measuring, there's a number, but all he said was ”if I write": ‘your exact weight.’” And so, he just wrote those exact words and he won fifty dollars.

Ian: Wow, what a trickster.

Paige: I feel like I should try this out at bars. I feel like it would work really well. People will be like “They don't have a scale at the bar…they can't.”

Ian: I think so. I think we have a new party trick, a new party riddle for us, huh? Yeah, exactly.

Paige: Yeah. Times are tough financially. Let's go.

Ian: Hey anything helps, you’re right. That's a good one. Exactly, okay.

Paige: CWG officially has over one hundred episodes and we are among the “Top Podcasts” in Chile. And that's thanks to you, but we are always working to grow our audience. So, make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and even LinkedIn. But most importantly—rate, review, and share us with all your friends, family, and coworkers. And if you want to take your English education to the next level, sign up for private or group classes at dynamicenglish.cl.

Ian: Alright, Paige. So, I have zero still. Let's see if you can get one. We might go this whole podcast without getting one. Okay, this one's a little bit shorter: “What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?”

Paige: Once in a moment but never in a thousand years? See, this one's tricky. It's all based on time and what's confusing to me is that a minute and a moment seems so similar. What is a moment?  Is it a second? Is it a minute? Is it years? It could be anything. So that fries my brain. I don't know what that is.

Ian: Like all of these, right? We talk about how frustrating they are.

Paige: Yeah, because it confuses me because you're like, okay, what could it be? But I don't know the difference between a minute and a moment. Tell me.

Ian: Alright, so the answer is the letter “m”.

Paige: Hmm. See, that's why they're riddles because they want you to think about time and distract you from other options which is, this is just spelling.

Ian: Exactly. Once in a minute, twice in a moment, and never in a thousand years. It's all about just including that letter. Like you said, spelling. So, very distracting.

Paige: I feel like if you do riddles often, maybe you know to look at spelling, look at the exact words of the phrases, and not get distracted by this theme of the sentence.

Ian: I agree, there’s probably a strategy to it.

Paige: That we’re not good at!

Ian: That obviously haven't mastered. We need to figure that out.

Paige: Exactly. Okay, next one. This one's pretty short. Okay: “what has many keys, but can't even open a single door?”

Ian: What has many keys that can't even open a single door? Okay so, following the strategy we talked about, they're probably wanting us to think about a door and keys, obviously. Maybe it's something metaphorical. I think this is a terrible answer, but maybe life? There are many keys to life but it doesn't necessarily open a literal door. I think I'm probably very wrong but at least this time I gave you an answer instead of giving up.

Paige: I mean, that is what riddles are like. They either want you to think literal or they don't want you to think. It's a good guess. In this case, it’s literal. So, it's a piano because keys are used to open a door but also keys on a piano, it's what you play. We're working with words with multiple meanings here. Okay.  

Paige: Exactly. Yeah, but again that one is like once you get the answer, “Oh yeah, keys on a piano.” But when you're thinking about doors and locks and your brain doesn't go to instruments.

Ian: Exactly it goes somewhere else. Okay, well, I'm oh for three. So, let's see how about one last one here: “What has six faces but does not wear makeup, has twenty-one eyes but cannot see. What is it?”

Paige: Okay. So, when I'm first looking at it, I'm thinking they want me to think of faces like a human face or something like that, but I know it's not that. So, I know that there's also the term “face” for a clock, right? So, my brain is going towards a clock, but also clocks don’t have eyes and there would be twelve, not twenty-one. I know it's not anything like a face. Yeah, I don't know.

Ian: It's tricky. Okay so this one’s a literal one—it’s a dice.

Paige: Okay, so I had the right idea but, yeah. Twenty-one eyes. Goddamnit! We got zero each.

Ian: We are failures at these riddles. Oh my God.

Paige: But now we can just use them out with our friends and pretend we knew them and make them feel dumb. We can be like, “it was so easy.”

Ian: Yeah, we're the riddle masters. What do you mean you don't understand this? We got all of these right when we first read them.

Paige: It would be funny if we have a few drinks and we're like, “seventeen faces” and just messing them up.

Ian: Completely screw up the question as well. It’s a possibility. So, Paige, we did terribly.

Paige: Oops. Yeah, but we did say that we were going to so, it was to be expected.

Ian: Yeah, at least we had low expectations of how we were going to do.

Paige: Listeners, it’s another activity you can do, do some riddles with your friends and outsmart them. Yeah, it's fun.

Ian: Or use it to pick up somebody at the bar.

Paige: True, exactly.

Ian: Yeah, a good way to flirt. So, we got a lot of uses for riddles, just figure out the answer first.

Paige: Okay listeners, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online. Thanks for listening.

Ian: We'll see you next time.

Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

 1.     irritating (adjective): annoying; bothersome.

a.     Riddles can be irritating when they are difficult.

2.     charming (adjective): pleasant; nice; attractive; polite; friendly.

a.     He was so charming that everyone in the town loved him.

3.     to start off on the wrong foot (idiom): to begin something badly.

a.     We started off on the wrong foot and had to repair our relationship.

4.     to starve (verb): to suffer severely or die from hunger.

a.     I brought a lot of food for us so we don’t starve on the trip.

5.     to tap out (phrasal verb): to give up; to surrender

a.     I will go ahead and tap out because I don’t know the answer.

6.     tricky (adjective): difficult; risky.

a.     Riddles are definitely tricky for us!

7.     cheesy (adjective): silly.

a.     The movie that we saw last night was so cheesy.

8.     bear with (someone) (phrasal verb): to have patience with someone.

a.     This is a long story so bear with me…

9.     carnival (noun): a public event which has entertainment, games, rides, food, etc.

a.     Do you want to go to the carnival this weekend?

10.  scale (noun): a tool used for measuring weight.

a.     I’m afraid to step on the scale after all the food I’ve eaten in quarantine…

11.  play on words (idiom): a funny use of a word with more than one meaning or that sounds like another word.

a.     This riddle is funny because it is a play on words.

12.  trickster (noun): a person who cheats, deceives, or confuses someone.

a.     The trickster convinced him to play the game so that he would lose.

13.  metaphorical (adjective): figurative; symbolic.

a.     The metaphorical meaning is different from the figurative meaning.

14.  oh for three (phrase): a phrase used to express the record of something. In this case, zero wins and four losses.

a.     We are oh for three on these difficult riddles.

15.  dice (noun): small cube with numbers on each side used for playing games.

a.     Did you bring the dice so that we can play the game?

16.  to outsmart (verb): to defeat or win against someone by being clever or smart.

a.     My sister always outsmarts me when we talk about riddles.

17.  to pick up somebody up (phrasal verb): to successfully attract someone by flirting.

a.     He tried his best to pick somebody up from the bar but he had no luck.

18.  to flirt (verb): to talk to someone who you think is attractive in a way to try to get their attention and amusement.

a.     He wanted to flirt with the girl at the other table but he was too nervous.