Friday, April 20, 2007

Answer to a riddle

I have to say I'm a little disappointed no one took up the challenge of the meaning of 'Erewhon.' I am going to assume the blog was so exciting you all forgot about it by the time you reached the end of the blog. I'm going to tell you anyway because I think it's rather clever.

Samuel Butler named a part of New Zealand 'Erewhon,' because it is 'Nowhere' spelt backwards.

Okay, you might say, the 'w' and the 'h' have not been translated properly and I tell you that was simply in the interest of phonetics.

The people who live on Erewhon station literally live - nowhere!

21 comments:

Maalie said...

I knew that! I knew that! Oh, what a pity I hadn't read this aforewards!

Same as Dylan Thomas in his poem Under Milkwood invented a Welsh town called Llareggub. Work it out!

kiwi mother said...

Are you in Russia yet Maalie?

Maalie said...

Hi K.M.! No I leave at 06.05 from manchester airport Saturday morning. I'll have to be up about 3.00am, lucky I'm having a lift from B-in-L to the airport!

simon said...

buggerall

:o)

what is an Ovlov?

Ju's little sister said...

Someone reversing a Volvo?

simon said...

ha ha ha !!! yep....

kiwi mother said...

Aha Simon - she is too quick for you !!

simon said...

seems so!

Ju's little sister said...

;-)

simon said...

I have a riddle!

3 men rent a room @$30.00 for the night.

They retire to the room. At this point the hotel manager realises he has charged them too much and it should have been $25.00

He sends the bell boy up to give them $5.00 change.

The bell boy cannot divide the $5.00 between the 3 men so he decides to give them $3.00 and keep $2.00 for himself.

so that means each amn paid $9.00 each x3 equals $27.00.

If we add the $2.00 the bell boy kept ..that makes $29.00

what happened to the $1.00???

TCA said...

Surely there is no missing dollar as if the belly boy kept $2 then 30-2 = 28 and each chap paid $9.333333333333 etc dollars each.

B.B

Maalie said...

Simon, $25 seems very cheap for a room. Are you sure you don't mean UK Pounds Sterling?

Ju's little sister said...

Maybe the hotel receipt program forgot the zeroes on the end.

And why did three men rent one room for one night? What were they doing?

Maalie said...

I detect runcibility afoot...

Maalie said...

TCA: I am aware of this paradox, but it's hard to get my head round it. If you take an individual man (Man A), he coughed up a ten-buck note to put into the kitty. Then the bell boy gave him one back. You could understand his acquiescence that had only parted with 9 bucks. Then repeat for Men B and C.

If I gave you 10 buck and then I got one back I would consider that I had disposed of nine. Wouldn't you?

Anyway, would they really be given a refund if the manager had thought he'd got away with it?

Ju's little sister said...

If the manager was so terribly honest that he thought the men wanted their $5 back, why did he trust it to the bellboy and not simply refund them when they checked out?

Maalie said...

Exactly. And then he could have given them exactly one dollar and 1.6 recurring cents each.

Ju's little sister said...

only if he had enough 3/1/3 cent coins....

simon said...

when are we getting a new posting? :o)

Ju's little sister said...

When something interesting happens in my life!!!!

simon said...

but it is! what about another hockey injury or sumthin'