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        riddles >> what am i >> To win my first (medium)
        
(Message started by: aero_guy on Mar 16^th, 2003, 2:09pm)

Title: To win my first (medium)
Post by aero_guy on Mar 16^th, 2003, 2:09pm

Remember, medium is a relative term and who am I riddles usually aren't that hard.

To win my first men struggle all their lives,-
Yet willingly present it to their wives.

The wise man no great fortune has amassed,
But lives his life contented with my last.

An infant is my whole at early age;
And Lot's wife was my whole on Scripture?s page.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by maryl on Mar 26^th, 2003, 9:01am

something about a pillar of salt, I'm trying to piece this together? Any suggestions? :-/

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by Speaker on Mar 26^th, 2003, 10:53pm

I got the salt part also, and while doing a little out of the box thinking discovered that the more correct translation should be pillar of asphalt. Biblical scholors believe that the term used did not refer to NaCl, but to the black tar like substance that bubbled out of the ground and was used to cover roads. That brings us no closer.

I think that this riddle refers to the first and last parts of a word in the first two stanzas. Then the entire word in the last stanza. So you could get maybe.

Paycheck-health
Cash-love
Bread-peace

Salt was also used to refer to a man's earnings or value.
How about

Saltpeace
Salt water taffy

love-pride

That one works because men will give love to their wives, but doesn't work unless they need to struggle for it all their lives.

Maybe it is a whole sentence.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by BNC on Mar 27^th, 2003, 3:59am

on 03/26/03 at 22:53:38, Speaker wrote:

...the more correct translation should be pillar of asphalt...

the Hebrew word used is "melach", which is salt (at least in modern Hebrew).

But I was thinking -- maybe the reference to Lot's wife is what she was before turning to salt pilar: curious.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by aero_guy on Mar 27^th, 2003, 11:15am

Finally someone is trying this one, and it is turning out a little harder than I imagined. So, here are some hints:

hint 1: how to solve this kind of problem
Speaker was correct that "first" and "last" refer to syllables, and "whole" refers to the whole final answer. An example riddle is:

My first is dark;
My second round:
My whole may mark
A hate profound.

The answer is blackball. Black is dark, ball is round, blackball is what you do to exclude someone (like blacklisting them).

hint 2:[hide]Salt and asphalt are the wrong track. I would ignore the Lot's wife part and use it as a check once you have found an answer that fits everything else. The first stanza is the easiest. Once you figure out a one syllable answer to that that is good, try finding something to tack onto the the end of it that will make the whole fit the infant part of the riddle. Also, no one has guessed either part yet. BNC, the reference to Lot's wife is what she was before AND after turning to salt.[/hide]

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by cho on Mar 27^th, 2003, 11:33am

I figured it out some time ago, but then, I've been through the desert.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by aero_guy on Mar 27^th, 2003, 11:39am

Ha cho! That took me couple of minutes to realize it's good to be out of the rain.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by wowbagger on Mar 27^th, 2003, 12:11pm

Ha! Now I have it! :D

Thanks for your posts, cho and aero_guy! - They were the really useful hints. I knew the meaning of "part" and "whole", but normally I don't get very far with these What-am-I riddles.

This is a nice one, however. I like it. :)
BTW:
aero_guy, you are American, right?

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by aero_guy on Mar 27^th, 2003, 2:19pm

Yup, is there something in my manner of speach that particularly gives it away?

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by harpanet on Mar 28^th, 2003, 2:46pm

All I can come up with so far is [hide]person[/hide].
Syllable 1 being [hide]purse (cash)[/hide]
But then I can't make the connection with the desert and out of the rain hints.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by aero_guy on Mar 28^th, 2003, 5:10pm

The desert and the rain are VERY obscure hints that will not make any sense until you get it, and maybe not even then.

Wowbagger, sorry, my last post looks really stupid. I should have known what you meant.

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by wowbagger on Mar 28^th, 2003, 5:28pm

on 03/28/03 at 17:10:26, aero_guy wrote:

The desert and the rain are VERY obscure hints that will not make any sense until you get it, and maybe not even then.

Or it might just work the other way round. As soon as I understood the relation between these two obscure posts, I had the solution. Not the ordinary way to solve this riddle, I admit.

Quote:

Wowbagger, sorry, my last post looks really stupid. I should have known what you meant.

I refrained from replying to see how long it'll take you to figure out. ;D

Title: Re: To win my first (medium)
Post by Speaker on Apr 2^nd, 2003, 4:24pm

Well, better late than never. I have been following this thread since its inception, and looked at it yesterday with as much luck as I had had previously. All great hints serving my efforts to little avail.

Then, as I left the office, it hit me. I was filled with chagrin and a deep feeling that my riddling ability was wallowing in a shallow pit of lameness. ::)