I know the answer to this, I just want to know if anyone else does:
What has four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three at night?
Anyone who gets it right will earn my respect.
Mankind.
Erm… Sure, I can go with that, johnboy. For any dopers that don’t know how we got that, pretend a human lifetime was one day, then in the morning we would be a baby, walking on arms and legs which can be said as four legs.
In the afternoon we would be child/teenager/adult and walking on normal 2 legs.
At night we would be an old fart using a cane.
Mind, this riddle was come up with when people believed sphinxs were real creatures and they didn’t have those Rascal scooters for people who had trouble walking, they just had a cane.
I thought Man was the answer to The Riddle of the Sphinx™.
A man.
Of course, as someone (Zelazny? Pratchett?) pointed out, this isn’t accurate or fair at all. (Most of this post is cribbed from whatever author did this routine first)
If we assume the average human life span is 80 years, a normal baby is only crawling for…what? two years or so? And that’s hardly from 12:01 am to say…12:01 pm, which would be from age 0-40 on our scale.
And the third part assumes that a cane will be used. My grandma didn’t need a walking device at all until well after age 80, and then she used a walker.
And what about the differently abled?
How 'bout this varient, for accuracy:
*
What usually goes on all fours from 12:01 am to 1:30 am or so. Then, if not differently abled, goes on two legs until either old age, an accident or sickness causes it to go on more legs…um…or wheels?
*
And for our next riddle, what’s green and red and goes round and round?
Fenris
It is, mobo85, johnboy just said mankind and I wanted him to know it was just plain man not the whole species. That sounds lame, I know, but oh well.
I hate metaphorical sphinxes.
RE: Metaphorical sphinxes
I would come right back at ya’ NutWrench and say “great band name” but I’m too new here to smart off yet!
I think pretty much everybody reads Oedipus Rex, the Greek story in which this riddle appears, in high school or college, so the feat of solving it is perhaps not what you make it out to be.