Today's Riddle

Blogging makes me think. And although that's not always a good thing, having a blog is. Because thinking makes my mind spin, and writing stuff down helps. Especially when I can come back to it and read it later.

I have this whiteboard at work, behind my desk. Don't ask me why. It was just lying there and I put it up, because I'm a sucker for white spaces waiting to be turned into something. So I started writing riddles on there, and people at work try to solve them.

So I put up a new riddle yesterday, which I at first thought was pretty clever. Now of course most riddles have more than one possible answers and it's a bitch spending my day saying 'Oh, very clever but um...that's not the answer I'm looking for'. My board, my riddles, my answers. Deal with it.

Ok so here is the riddle:

Where can anyone but you sit?

Try to figure it out. Go on, work your noodle. And please don't be wusses and Google the answer like some people I won't name *coughSABScough*. Bless me. And no, the answer isn't on your face (although if you can do this, I hear Cirque du Soleil is looking for contorsionists) or on your lap (you pervs). No, there is a more subtle and poetic answer. And that answer is:

Next to you.

Now as I said, I thought that was pretty cool at first. But the more I think about it, the more that answer bothers me.

I've been sitting beside myself for way too long for it not to bother me. I've been sitting there, watching myself go through pain, joy, and stupid stuff. I've been holding my own hand, been handing myself tissues and been laughing at myself all too long to believe that this answer makes any sense at all.

You totally CAN sit beside yourself. With joy, grief and anger. You can hover, watch, learn and scowl. Not that it does any good, mind you, but still.

I like sitting next to myself in contemplation. Feels much better than sitting inside myself in dread. Makes it easier to go 'tsk tsk' when you're watching someone else make those mistakes, doesn't it?

Anyway, I dunno. I think the right answer might still be lurking out there. Where can anyone but you sit? The question should be where can you sit that no one else can. I think, for now at least, the answer will be where I'm already sitting. And no one reading this better DARE try.

And so with that I leave you with a much better riddle:

A hundred prisoners are each locked in a room with three pirates, one of whom will walk the plank in the morning. Each prisoner has 10 bottles of wine, one of which has been poisoned; and each pirate has 12 coins, one of which is counterfeit and weighs either more or less than a genuine coin. In the room is a single switch, which the prisoner may either leave as it is, or flip. Before being led into the rooms, the prisoners are all made to wear either a red hat or a blue hat; they can see all the other prisoners' hats, but not their own. Meanwhile, a six-digit prime number of monkeys multiply until their digits reverse, then all have to get across a river using a canoe that can hold at most two monkeys at a time. But half the monkeys always lie and the other half always tell the truth. Given that the Nth prisoner knows that one of the monkeys doesn't know that a pirate doesn't know the product of two numbers between 1 and 100 without knowing that the N+1th prisoner has flipped the switch in his room or not after having determined which bottle of wine was poisoned and what color his hat is, what is the solution to this puzzle?

Hah. Have fun.