Riddle:
My Grandpa Joe is nearly a hundred years old, and he has been experiencing some memory loss recently. Around breakfast time the other day, he was in the kitchen, and couldn’t find something he was desperately hunting. “Where are those delicious little puffs of goodness your mother always keeps in here?” he asked me. “You know, the ones that sound like they came out of a swamp; you know, those tasty little cylinders made of sugar, water, corn syrup, gelatin, and glucose. How does your mother expect me to have my morning cup of cocoa?” he asked in a frustrated manner. “I am looking for those white things which are often found out in the woods near campfires. Why, there was even a giant one I saw last week when I was watching that original Ghostbusters movie with you,” said Grandpa Joe. With the help of all the clues he had just given me, I was able to locate the items my grandfather had been seeking. Can you tell me what those items were?
Answer: They sound like they come from a Swamp because they are: MARSH MALLOWS.
Riddle:
I have your ohs and your wishes, Your life force and your death gasp. You can visit me, or we can get stuck together; Either way, you'll arrive pale and leave quenched. What am I?
Answer: A well.
“Your ohs”: The interjection “oh, well” uses “well” as a conversational filler. “Your wishes”: A “wishing well” is where people toss coins and make wishes. “Your life force”: Wells hold water, essential for life; drinking from a well sustains you. “Your death gasp”: “Farewell” (said at life’s end) contains “well,” and grief often “wells up” as tears. “You can visit me”: A literal water well is a place you go to draw water. “We can get stuck together”: “As well” means “together/also,” and “well… well” is a phrase people repeat when stuck or hesitating. “Arrive pale and leave quenched”: A pun on “pail/pale”—you come with a pail to the well and leave with thirst quenched and the pail filled; or you come looking drained (“pale”) and leave revived by water. All clues point to “well” through its literal meaning (water source) and its many idiomatic uses.
