The Curious History of the Riddle

The Curious History of the Riddle PDF Author: Marcel Danesi Ph.D.
Publisher: Wellfleet Press
ISBN: 1577151984
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book

Book Description
The Curious History of the Riddle investigates the fascinating origin and history of the riddle, from the very first riddle (the Riddle of the Sphinx) to the twenty-first century, with riddles found in pop culture, including movies (Us), television shows (Game of Thrones) video games, and escape rooms. Riddles are ageless, timeless, and so common that we hardly ever reflect upon what they are and how they originated. Most importantly, their invention helped in the development of lateral thinking, the form of thinking that is the foundation of all kinds of discoveries, from mathematics to science and beyond. In The Curious History of the Riddle, puzzle expert Marcel Danesi delves deep into the riddle's origin and history and covers these fascinating topics: 1. The Riddle of the Sphinx: Origins, Legends, Patterns What creature walks on all fours at dawn, two at midday, and three at twilight? (answer: man) 2. The Greek Anthology and the Exeter Book: Medieval Views and Uses of Riddles This chapter looks at the spread of the riddle in recreational and educational contexts. 3. The Merry Book of Riddles: Riddles in the Renaissance By the late Renaissance, riddles were being tailored more and more to produce humorous or whimsical effects. 4. Enigmas, Charades, and Conundrums: Riddles from the 1600s to the Twentieth Century After the Renaissance, riddles had become virtually every literate European person’s favorite form of recreation, and were included as regular features of many newspapers and periodicals 5. The Twentieth Century: Riddles as Children’s Literature In the twentieth century, riddles became specialized for children, spreading throughout children’s literature and educational manuals. 6. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Riddles Go to the Movies and Online In this chapter, the focus is on riddles in various entertainment media, from best-selling novels such as Harry Potter, to movies, such as the Batman series. 7. Connections: Riddles and Rebuses This chapter explores the structure of rebuses as visual riddles, connecting them historically. Part history book, part puzzle book, The Curious History of the Riddle is fully illustrated with over 200 riddles interspersed throughout the text for solving.

The Curious History of the Riddle

The Curious History of the Riddle PDF Author: Marcel Danesi Ph.D.
Publisher: Wellfleet Press
ISBN: 1577151984
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book

Book Description
The Curious History of the Riddle investigates the fascinating origin and history of the riddle, from the very first riddle (the Riddle of the Sphinx) to the twenty-first century, with riddles found in pop culture, including movies (Us), television shows (Game of Thrones) video games, and escape rooms. Riddles are ageless, timeless, and so common that we hardly ever reflect upon what they are and how they originated. Most importantly, their invention helped in the development of lateral thinking, the form of thinking that is the foundation of all kinds of discoveries, from mathematics to science and beyond. In The Curious History of the Riddle, puzzle expert Marcel Danesi delves deep into the riddle's origin and history and covers these fascinating topics: 1. The Riddle of the Sphinx: Origins, Legends, Patterns What creature walks on all fours at dawn, two at midday, and three at twilight? (answer: man) 2. The Greek Anthology and the Exeter Book: Medieval Views and Uses of Riddles This chapter looks at the spread of the riddle in recreational and educational contexts. 3. The Merry Book of Riddles: Riddles in the Renaissance By the late Renaissance, riddles were being tailored more and more to produce humorous or whimsical effects. 4. Enigmas, Charades, and Conundrums: Riddles from the 1600s to the Twentieth Century After the Renaissance, riddles had become virtually every literate European person’s favorite form of recreation, and were included as regular features of many newspapers and periodicals 5. The Twentieth Century: Riddles as Children’s Literature In the twentieth century, riddles became specialized for children, spreading throughout children’s literature and educational manuals. 6. The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Riddles Go to the Movies and Online In this chapter, the focus is on riddles in various entertainment media, from best-selling novels such as Harry Potter, to movies, such as the Batman series. 7. Connections: Riddles and Rebuses This chapter explores the structure of rebuses as visual riddles, connecting them historically. Part history book, part puzzle book, The Curious History of the Riddle is fully illustrated with over 200 riddles interspersed throughout the text for solving.

The Curious History of the Crossword

The Curious History of the Crossword PDF Author: Ben Tausig
Publisher: Race Point Pub
ISBN: 1937994457
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 195

Get Book

Book Description
Discover the curious history of the world's most addictive game and its unusual upbringing. Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the beloved crossword puzzle, readers can solve over 100 different puzzles from top constructors.

The Curious History of the Crossword

The Curious History of the Crossword PDF Author: Ben Tausig
Publisher: Race Point Publishing
ISBN: 1627881255
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Get Book

Book Description
DIV2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the crossword puzzle. Journalist Arthur Wynne had wanted to devise a new game for the back of the newspaper back in 1913, so he created a diamond grid and called it a “Word-Cross,” and thus the first crossword puzzle was born./divDIV Editor and crossword constructor Ben Tausig examines the curious history of the world’s most addictive game and its unusual upbringing. Accompanied by 100 unique and challenging puzzles from the past 100 years, he examines the evolution of grid shape, how basic expected knowledge of the reader has changed, the puzzles that break the “breakfast table rule” and more. Featuring puzzles from top constructors like Will Shortz, Brendan Emmett Quigley, Matt Jones, Cathy Millhauser, Maura Jacobson, and more. Try your pen or pencil on the crosswords your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents did decades ago!/div

Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine

Jasper and the Riddle of Riley's Mine PDF Author: Caroline Starr Rose
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0147511887
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book

Book Description
Hoping to strike it rich, two brothers escape an abusive father and set out on a treacherous journey to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Desperate to get away from their drunkard of a father, eleven-year-old Jasper and his older brother Melvin often talk of running away, of heading north to Alaska to chase riches beyond their wildest dreams. The Klondike Gold Rush is calling, and Melvin has finally decided the time to go is now—even if that means leaving Jasper behind. But Jasper has other plans, and follows his brother aboard a steamer as a stowaway. Onboard the ship, Jasper overhears a rumor about One-Eyed Riley, an old coot who's long since gone, but is said to have left clues to the location of his stake, which still has plenty of gold left. The first person to unravel the clues and find the mine can stake the claim and become filthy rich. Jasper is quick to catch gold fever and knows he and Melvin can find the mine—all they have to do is survive the rough Alaskan terrain, along with the steep competition from the unscrupulous and dangerous people they encounter along the way. In an endearing, funny, pitch-perfect middle grade voice, Caroline Starr Rose tells another stellar historical adventure young readers will long remember.

The Riddles of the Sphinx

The Riddles of the Sphinx PDF Author: Anna Shechtman
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 006327549X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book

Book Description
"A surprising and ambitious investigation of language and the varied ways women resist the paradoxes of patriarchy both on and off the page."—New York Times Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest. The indisputable “queen of crosswords,” Anna Shechtman published her first New York Times puzzle at age nineteen, and later, helped to spearhead the The New Yorker’s popular crossword section. Working with a medium often criticized as exclusionary, elitist, and out-of-touch, Anna is one of very few women in the field of puzzle making, where she strives to make the everyday diversion more diverse. In this fascinating work—part memoir, part cultural analysis—she excavates the hidden history of the crossword and the overlooked women who have been central to its creation and evolution, from the “Crossword Craze” of the 1920s to the role of digital technology today. As she tells the story of her own experience in the CrossWorld, she analyzes the roles assigned to women in American culture, the boxes they’ve been allowed to fill, and the ways that they’ve used puzzles to negotiate the constraints and play of desire under patriarchy. The result is an unforgettable and engrossing work of art, a loving and revealing homage to one of our most treasured, entertaining, and ultimately political pastimes.

In Enigmate

In Enigmate PDF Author: Erin Sebo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781846826344
Category : Riddles
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
"This book is a study of a single riddle as it is transmitted, translated and transformed over more than a thousand years. Beginning with the influential late antique riddle text Aenigmata Symphosii, In Enigmate charts an arc through the extraordinary popularity of riddles in Anglo-Saxon England, their decline as a learned literary form after the Norman conquest, their emergence in early modern ballads and beyond. At the centre of this study is the creation riddle, perhaps the best-known riddle in early England. Versions of it survive in both popular and elite literature, and because it is constructed around an enigmatic description of creation, it reveals changing cosmological and cosmographical conceptions as it is retold and reimagined. Even those versions composed by theologians often display a tension between the author’s theological understandings (as attested in ‘scholarly’ works) and what they seem to have actually imagined. More interesting, perhaps, are popular versions of the riddle, which offer a glimpse of how creation was imagined outside the scholarly class. Together, the iterations of this riddle represent a unique opportunity to study the imaginary geography of medieval society as it changed over time."--Publisher's website.

The Riddle of the Labyrinth

The Riddle of the Labyrinth PDF Author: Margalit Fox
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062228889
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book

Book Description
In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece’s Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe’s earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain a mystery. Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean—the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen—to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the deipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

The Husband's Message & the Accompanying Riddles of the Exeter Book

The Husband's Message & the Accompanying Riddles of the Exeter Book PDF Author: Francis Adelbert Blackburn
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Exeter book
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Get Book

Book Description


Sleuth & Solve: 20+ Mind-Twisting Mysteries

Sleuth & Solve: 20+ Mind-Twisting Mysteries PDF Author:
Publisher: Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9781452177137
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Welcome to the world of Sleuth & Solve, a collection of 20 clever mysteries where the clues are in the details and crafty twists put readers' wits to the test. Read the clues, work on solving them, then lift the flap to reveal the answer to each mystery. Sleuth & Solve encourages readers of all ages to practice deduction, inference, and logical reasoning to crack each case—and develop critical thinking skills at the same time. • A compelling collection of interactive, inference-based mysteries • Makes a perfect gift for puzzle lovers and super-sleuths of every age • The first book in a series of mind-bending mini-mysteries There is perhaps nothing more enticing than a mystery waiting to be solved, and Sleuth & Solve has twenty riddles just waiting to be cracked. Readers may play alone or with friends, collecting points for cracking each case and determining whose sleuthing skills reign supreme. • A wonderful gift for fans of brain teasers and puzzles, mystery aficionados, parents and educators looking for a read-together book that encourages critical thinking, mystery-loving older readers, and adults seeking the perfect mix of challenging logic puzzles and quick entertainment • Great for teachers and librarians seeking a book that even the most reluctant readers can't resist • Perfect for those who loved Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

The Friendship Riddle

The Friendship Riddle PDF Author: Megan Frazer Blakemore
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 161963631X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book

Book Description
With nods to classic fantasy expertly woven into this surprising and emotionally-charged journey through the ups and downs of middle school, Megan Frazer Blakemore proves that even the bravest heroes need true friends by their side. Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty has been a lone wolf at her new middle school ever since her best friend, Charlotte, ditched her for “cooler” friends. Who needs friends when you have fantasy novels? Roaming the stacks of her town's library is enough for Ruth. Until she finds a note in an old book...and in that note is a riddle, one that Ruth can't solve alone. With a tantalizing set of clues before her, Ruth must admit she needs help, the kind that usually comes from friends. Lena and Coco, two kids in her class could be an option, but allowing them in will require courage, and Ruth must decide: Is embarking on this quest worth opening herself up again?