Riddles

There actually aren’t “57 varieties” of Heinz ketchup, and never were. Company founder H.J. Heinz thought his product should have a number, and he liked 57. Hint: Hit the glass bottle on the “57,” not the bottom, to get the ketchup to flow.

Sliced bread was first manufactured by machine and sold in the 1920s by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. It was the greatest thing since…unsliced bread?

Canada is south of Detroit (just look at a map).

For comparison, an elephant’s heart weighs around 30 pounds. And a human heart? A mere 10 ounces.

This is one animal myth that’s true: Eating parts of a pufferfish can kill you because, in a defense mechanism to ward off predators, it contains a deadly chemical called tetrodotoxin. There’s enough in one pufferfish to kill 30 people—and there’s no antidote. Still, pufferfish, called fugu, is a highly-prized delicacy in Japan, but can only be…[Read more]

Flamingoes are only pink because of chemicals called carotenoids in the algae and fish (which also eat the algae) they eat; their feathers are grayish-white when they’re born.

The green code in The Matrix was actually created from symbols in the code designer’s wife’s sushi cookbook.

It’s impossible to hum while holding your nose (just try it!).

The longest fingernails ever were over 42 feet in total and belonged to American Diana Armstrong, recognized as the new record holder in March 2022. The previous record was held by American Lee Redmond, with fingernails over 28 feet in total.

A mash-up of two words to make a new word (such as breakfast and lunch into brunch, or motel from motor and hotel) is called a portmanteau. In case you’re wondering, the word “portmanteau” itself is not a portmanteau; it’s a compound word that refers to a duel-sided suitcase.

German chocolate cake doesn’t come from Germany. It was named for a person, Sam German, who created a type of baking chocolate for Baker’s in 1852.

Pound cake got its name because the original recipe required a pound each of butter, flour, sugar and eggs. That’s a lot of cake—but it was meant to last for a long time.

The biggest pizza ever created was 13,580 square feet, made in Rome, Italy, in 2012. The pizza was gluten-free and named “Ottavia” after a roman emperor.

The first footprints on the moon will remain there for a million years.

Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, wasn’t the first to introduce Christmas trees to Britain from his native Germany—Queen Charlotte did that in the late 1700s. But, Victoria and Albert are credited with popularizing the custom in the mid-1800s.

Lincoln Logs were created by John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in the 1920s. They were named after Abraham Lincoln, who grew up in a log cabin.

Freelancers originally referred to self-employed, sword-wielding mercenaries: literally “free lancers.”

You can still stay at the world’s oldest hotel, Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, which was founded in 705 AD.

Each year, 16 million thunderstorms happen around the world, and at any given moment, there are about 2,000 thunderstorms in progress.

Only two people have ever swam the entire length of the 2,350-mile Mississippi River: Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Strel in 2002 and American former Navy SEAL Chris Ring in 2015. Strel swam for 68 days in a row; Ring took one day off a week, taking 181 days.

What month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: All of them

What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age

You see a boat filled with people, yet there isn’t a single person on board. How is that possible?
Answer: All the people on the boat are married.

The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness

What is black when it’s clean and white when it’s dirty?
Answer: A chalkboard

What invention lets you look right through a wall?
Answer: A window

It belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do. What is it?
Answer: Your name

What has legs, but doesn’t walk?
Answer: A table

What is cut on a table, but is never eaten?
Answer: A deck of cards

What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin

It stalks the countryside with ears that can’t hear. What is it?
Answer: Corn

If two’s company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Nine

Two fathers and two sons are in a car, yet there are only three people in the car. How?
Answer: They are a grandfather, father and son.

A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?
Answer: Four sisters and three brothers

You see me once in June, twice in November and not at all in May. What am I?
Answer: The letter “e”

What is 3/7 chicken, 2/3 cat and 2/4 goat?
Answer: Chicago

I am a word that begins with the letter “i.” If you add the letter “a” to me, I become a new word with a different meaning, but that sounds exactly the same. What word am I?
Answer: Isle (add “a” to make “aisle”)

What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light

What breaks yet never falls, and what falls yet never breaks?
Answer: Day, and night

With pointed fangs I sit and wait; with piercing force I crunch out fate; grabbing victims, proclaiming might; physically joining with a single bite. What am I?
Answer: A stapler