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English

19, Student

Los Angeles, CA

24 April 2011

What word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?

A: Noon

Brennan heard this riddle from his friend and it stuck with him because he prefers riddles that are possible to figure out. He doesn’t know where the riddle comes form but he has a certain way of performing it to confuse the victim. As Brennan tells the story, He speeds over the directions so that they get lost on the person, which makes it way harder to figure out. He said he learned how to stress unimportant elements and de-stress important ones to throw off the listener. This kind of control compliments the folklore of the riddle.

Riddles are interesting pieces of folklore. They are most often seen in liminal places and times because they break the ice and are acceptable at those occasions. This is a traditional riddle meaning one can figure out the answer from the question and it’s not trying to be too tricky. Riddles like this one need to be collected because they preserve the tradition of riddling. You can find riddles like this throughout history like the riddle the Egyptian Sphinx used to ask.

Tim Perille

18

1027 W. 34^th St. Los Angele CA