# riddle--can anyone answer this?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 15, 2000, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664 "2000-07-15T12:34:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/1 "2000-07-15T12:34:27Z")
"I sit stern on the rock while I’m raising the wind,
But the storm once abated, I’m gentle and kind.
Kings sit at my feet who wait at my nod
To kneel in the dust on the ground I have trod.
I’m seen by the world and known by but a few.
The Gentile detests me, I’m pork to the Jew.
My weight is three pounds, my length is a mile,
And when once discovered, you’ll say with a smile -
That the first and the last are the pride of the isle.
The answer is a word of one syllable.
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### Author:  [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/2 "2000-07-15T14:29:39Z")
Yes.
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/3 "2000-07-15T20:22:33Z")
gry?
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### Author:  [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/4 "2000-07-15T20:31:06Z")
Pasted from the _Teeming Millions In-Jokes Page_ for the edification of newbies:
> [@](#):
>
> **Gry** – “There are three words in the English language that end with the letters -gry. The first two are hungry and angry. What’s the third?” Cecil actually did answer this, and if you ask it here, people will hate you forever and ever. _[explained by Kyla Sedai]_
Just a guess **gabbyhayes** , but is the answer a duck?
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### Author:  [@gabbyhayes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gabbyhayes)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/5 "2000-07-15T21:08:08Z")
duck doesn’t fulfill very many of the requirements.
there are only two words that end with “gry”–angry and hungry. There are additional words in the dictionary, like half-angry or gold-hungry but I doubt you would accept them. The “three words ending in gry” connundrum is famous and reappears in every generation like a virus. You could easily coin some words. Hungry and angry are adjectives formed from hunger and anger. All you need to do is pick a noun that ends in “ger” and by the same rule form an adjective from it. Something covered with fingers might be described as fingry. If a joke book is full of zingers, it might be described as zingry. A large choir is singry, snaps are gingry, an advanced case of tuberculosis in which the patient is coughing up pieces of lung, known colloquially as “lungers” would be lungry.
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2000, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/6 "2000-07-15T21:47:41Z")
Gabby, don’t make me come over there…
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/7 "2000-07-16T03:37:11Z")
McGuffin?
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### Author:  [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/8 "2000-07-16T04:24:10Z")
lol, Mjollnir!
Was it the thing in the briefcase in _Pulp Fiction_?
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/9 "2000-07-16T09:12:02Z")
Spam.
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### Author:  [@Skwerl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skwerl)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/10 "2000-07-16T16:51:28Z")
Does someone at least know if this is a genuine riddle? I’d be more than a little bitter if I spent a week trying to figure it out and then someone posts “Oh yeah, I remember reading about this…It’s some hoax a college kid came up with. There is no answer!”
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/11 "2000-07-16T17:51:06Z")
Well, the first four lines would fit Shakespeare’s Prospero (lead character in _The Tempest_, but that falls apart with everything from “seen by the world” on. The Sun also fits parts of it, but not all. I think that the key clue is “My weight is three pounds, my length is a mile”… What’s long and lightweight, folks?
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/12 "2000-07-16T18:06:23Z")
Cord? Stick? Time? Song? Wrap? Stretch? String? Death? Life? Steam? Breath? Storm? Cramp? Day? Year?
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/13 "2000-07-16T18:12:17Z")
I found a link to a _deja_ post last night, which indicated it goes back to the mid-1850’s but without the last two lines? With out the last two lines someone postulated “raven”.
Sorry to not inclue links as I was tired/drunk when I found it.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/14 "2000-07-16T18:16:51Z")
Sorry. I should have made clear the supposed original riddle didn’t specify a one syllable answer. Perhaps **crow** was the original answer?
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### Author:  [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/15 "2000-07-16T19:00:08Z")
Ok, I can answer this one, but I don’t want to ruin the fun of figuring it out for anyone else who may be reading this thread. 😉
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/16 "2000-07-16T19:09:50Z")
**Brat** Just answer me this…do you have any knowledge that it goes back to the last century, or did you just figure it out on your own?? Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/17 "2000-07-16T19:16:26Z")
sorry, samclem, I was just being a smart-ass, I really have no clue.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/18 "2000-07-16T19:36:42Z")
[/qs.xp?ST=PS&svcclass=dnyr&QRY=gentile+detests+me&defaultOp=AND&DBS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=score&maxhits=25"]the link]([http://www.deja.com/](http://www.deja.com/)[ST\_rn=ps)
This will give you the links from [deja.com](http://deja.com)(actually, alt. brain.teasers message board.
Hope this helps…and if my link is screwed up, sorry…
[Edited by manhattan on 07-16-2000 at 07:28 PM]
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/19 "2000-07-16T19:51:49Z")
[/qs.xp?ST=PS&svcclass=dnyr&QRY=gentile+detests+me&defaultOp=AND&D BS=1&OP=dnquery.xp&LNG=ALL&subjects=&groups=&authors=&fromdate=&todate=&showsort=score&maxhits"]the link again]([http://www.deja.com/](http://www.deja.com/)[ST\_rn=ps)
[Edited by manhattan on 07-16-2000 at 07:30 PM]
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/riddle-can-anyone-answer-this/25664/20 "2000-07-16T19:54:07Z")
Sorry to make a mess of it. It **seems** to have a life of its own. **HELP, MANNY!**
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