...and the mome raths out grabe.

I thought about making this last question really difficult, but judging from the way people quickly dropped out from guessing at the last two, I'll make it a little easier.  Before we get to it, though, I want to mention Lewis Carroll one more time.  If any of you are interested in reading his works there is a fantastic book out there called Lewis Carroll: The Complete, Fully Illustrated Works.  It comes in one large, hardcover, leather bound, gold-edged volume with nearly all of his works inside.  It even has the reproduction of his original hand-written version of Alice in Wonderland as well as a number of his mathematical and logical equations (which are way beyond my understanding).  My mother-in-law got it for me for Christmas a few years ago and the kids and I have really treasured it.  There's something very special about pulling this large important-looking volume off the shelf and hear the wonderful stories about Alice.  Even the kids can tell it's particularly nice...nicer than a semi-toddler-chewed paperback, anyway.  Alright, I've gone on enough.  Here's your last riddle.  Thanks for having fun with us this week.  We'll be sure to do this again next year.  Now, on to...

Riddle #5:

Twenty-four red socks and twenty-four blue socks are lying in a drawer in a dark room.  What is the minimum number of socks I must take out of the drawer which will guarantee that I have at least two socks of the same color?

...all mimsy were the borogoves...

Want another reason to like Lewis Carroll?  He was also left-handed!  Ah, those lefties…so brilliant…so creative…so handsome…

Ahem.

So onto…

Riddle #4

…which is a little more complex. 

It comes from the Shakespearean play The Merchant of Venice.  There were three caskets – gold, silver, and lead – inside one of which was a portrait of Portia, a wealthy heiress who is bound by a clause in her father’s will that forces her to marry whichever suitor chooses correctly among three caskets.  The suitor was to choose one of the caskets, and if he was lucky enough (or wise enough) to choose the one with the portrait, then he could claim Portia as his bride.  On the lid of each casket were inscriptions to help the suitor choose wisely.

Portia explained to her suitors that the casket lids would each contain two statements and that no lid contained more than one false statement.  She had the following inscriptions put on the caskets:

GOLD:

(1)   The portrait is not in here.

(2)  The artist of the portrait is from Venice.

 

SILVER:

(1)   The portrait is not in the gold casket.

(2)  The artist of the portrait is really from Florence.

 

LEAD:

(1)   The portrait is not in here.

(2)  The portrait is really in the silver casket.

 

Which casket contains the portrait of Portia?

Extra credit: In the actual play, who chose the right casket?

...did gyre and gimble in the wabe...

So far so good...I think. Lisa has been on a real winning streak so far. I, however, discovered that that I can rearrange the letters in my name spell "Jane Sparrow Heading." So if I ever become a famous children’s’ book author, I'll be sure to use that as my pseudonym. 

For today's riddle we're going to do an old one that’s still good. It involves lies and truth telling again. The problem is about knights and knaves.

Riddle #3:

There is a certain island in which all the inhabitants are either "knights" or "knaves." Knights always tell the truth and knaves always lie.
You visit this island one day and see three men - we'll call them Moe, Larry, and Curly - standing together in a garden. You ask Moe, "How many knights are among you?" Moe answers but rather indistinctly, so you ask Larry, "What did Moe say?" Larry replies, "Moe said that there is one knight among us." At this point the third man, Curly, says, "Don't believe Larry; he is lying! Nyuk nyuk nyuk."

The question is, what are Moe, Larry, and Curly?

(Hint: the answer is not "The 3 Stooges")

Good luck!

...and the slithy toves...

Happy Birthday Lewis Carroll!

A little interesting fact about Lewis Carroll: he came up with his name by rearranging the letters in his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Another marginally sane person did that later in the 1960's; Jim Morrison rearranged his name to spell Mr. Mojo Rising. Anyone out there want to give it a try with their own name?

In the meantime here's…

Riddle #2:

When Alice entered the Forest of Forgetfulness, she did not forget everything; only certain things.  She often forgot her name, and the one thing she was most likely to forget was the day of the week.  Now, the Lion and the Unicorn were frequent visitors to the forest.  These two are strange creatures.  The Lion lies on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and tells the truth the other days of the week.  The Unicorn, on the other hand, lies on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, but tells the truth on the other days of the week.

One day Alice met the Lion and the Unicorn resting under a tree.  They made the following statements: 

Lion: Yesterday was one of my lying days.

Unicorn: Yesterday was one of my lying days too.

From these two statements, Alice (who was a very bright girl) was able to deduce the day of the week.

What day was it?

'Twas brilling...

Tomorrow (January 27th) is the 177th birthday of one of my most favorite authors: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. Besides being a brilliant writer Carroll was an accomplished mathematician and a logician. One of his favorite pastimes was writing and solving logic puzzles. 

In honor of his birthday, we here at Meatball and Ravioli are going to make this week “Riddle Week.” Each day we’ll post a new riddle. Be sure to weigh in with what you think is the right answer. We’ll post answer a day or two after we give the riddle…we don’t want to make it too easy.

Without further ado, here it is…

Riddle #1:

You walk into a room and see a man looking at a portrait on the wall. You ask him who the man in the painting is. He answers:

“Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man’s father is my father’s son.”

Who is the man in the painting?