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        riddles >> what am i >> How many am I?
        
(Message started by: maryl on Jun 5^th, 2003, 8:39am)

Title: How many am I?
Post by maryl on Jun 5^th, 2003, 8:39am

My first is a number, my second another,
And each, I assure you, wil rhyme with the other.
My first you will find is one-fifth of my second,
And trly my whole a long period reckoned.
Yet my first and my second(nay, think not I cozen),
When added together will make but two dozen.

How many am I?

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by wowbagger on Jun 5^th, 2003, 8:56am

The math isn't too complicated, I'd say - but do they really rhyme? Or am I on the wrong track once again?

Nice that your (or at least my) solution is connected with "the answer". ;D

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by maryl on Jun 5^th, 2003, 9:13am

on 06/05/03 at 08:56:59, wowbagger wrote:

The math isn't too complicated, I'd say - but do they really rhyme? Or am I on the wrong track once again?

Nice that your (or at least my) solution is connected with "the answer". ;D

And each, I assure you, wil rhyme with the other

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by visitor on Jun 5^th, 2003, 10:46am

Do they rhyme? I think Lincoln addressed that very question.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by wowbagger on Jun 5^th, 2003, 10:57am

I appreciate your efforts, visitor. Alas, your post will probably not be of any help to me. :-/

I'm still meditating about what rhymes with what...

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by Icarus on Jun 5^th, 2003, 6:48pm

Wowbagger, visitor is refering to Abe Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address", which starts off "Four score and seven years ago...". This speech was given 87 years after the founding of the U.S.A.

However, since this is the only place where most Americans have ever come across this particular archaic meaning of "score", it is not surprising that those of you for whom English is a second language, and who did not grow up with a steady diet of American History, wouldn't know it.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by visitor on Jun 5^th, 2003, 8:28pm

I think he got that. But he just can't grasp a linguistic system in which awe doesn't rhyme with oar and fort is not a homonym of fought.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by wowbagger on Jun 6^th, 2003, 4:19am

Thanks for clearing up this mystery, Icarus.
I had no idea that such a notable personality of American history, well, counted like the French still do. But then again, I know even less about the history of counting than about American history. ;)

on 06/05/03 at 20:28:12, visitor wrote:

I think he got that. But he just can't grasp a linguistic system in which awe doesn't rhyme with oar and fort is not a homonym of fought.

Well, no, I didn't get it. The rhyming part (usually) isn't the problem, it's all about factual knowledge.

Actually, this riddle is a good example for a typical problem I sometimes encounter: Not only is the riddle itself more or less culture specific, but also the obfuscated hints by you, visitor, or others.
I really am grateful for the different perspective and alternative way to solve the riddle these hints offer. Plus one can learn something new. It's just that I'm a bit reluctant to delve into it at times.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by Leonid Broukhis on Jun 6^th, 2003, 9:32am

on 06/05/03 at 18:48:05, Icarus wrote:

However, since this is the only place where most Americans have ever come across this particular archaic meaning of "score", it is not surprising that those of you for whom English is a second language, and who did not grow up with a steady diet of American History, wouldn't know it.

Knowing French with its quatre-vingt does help. But again, is it "fourscore", "four-score", or "four score"?

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by wowbagger on Jun 6^th, 2003, 9:46am

on 06/06/03 at 09:32:48, Leonid Broukhis wrote:

Knowing French with its quatre-vingt does help.

Not always - it didn't help me!

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by maryl on Jun 6^th, 2003, 12:47pm

Icarus, that's an excellent point, and not always easy to get around; to some the riddle comes easy, while to others it might as well be in braille.
I guess we just do what we can do, and ask questions too.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by Icarus on Jun 6^th, 2003, 6:19pm

You can't limit yourself to puzzles that everyone will have an equal chance at - for starters, there is no such thing! And even giving warnings that a particular puzzle may require knowlege those from other cultures don't have readily available doesn't work, because this gives too much of a hint to those who do have the knowlege, making the riddle trivial.

So just give the puzzle, and don't worry about who may not be able to get it through no fault of their own. (Just remember that it ISN'T their fault!) It's not entirely fair, but life never is.

Leonid, it is "four score". This is not really an English equivalent of the French numeral system. Score = 20 is like dozen = 12, and gross = 144. "Score" is not part of an actual counting system, but rather an alias for a single commonly encountered quantity.

Title: Re: How many am I?
Post by maryl on Jun 19^th, 2003, 9:26am

Here's a little joke to go with this riddle:

An older man wearing a stovepipe hat, a waistcoat and a phony beard sat
down at a bar and ordered a drink. As the bartender set it down, he
asked, 'Going to a party ?'

'Yeah,' the man answered, 'I'm supposed to come dressed as my love
life.'

'But you look like Abe Lincoln.' protested the barkeep.

'That's right. My last four scores were seven years ago.'