Ever had trouble convincing somebody that “this man” is your son and not you yourself?
My dad just couldn’t be persuaded even when I pointed to the people involved as I told the thing back to him.
The whole thing, which rules out nephews, goes:
“Brothers and sisters have I none
But this man’s father is my father’s son.”
(If you have a different version that actually does point to the speaker, please share.)
Have you tried asking him:
Brothers and sisters have I none
But this man is my father’s son
and seeing if he can see the difference between that and the original version?
How could your father have children besides you and those children not be your brothers or sisters?
Yes. In fact, I did that very thing once when he had trotted the thing out for others to marvel at. I think he was too embarrassed to admit his mistake and we never spoke of it again after that. I think he thought I was trying to drive him crazy.
You would be surprised how many websites/hits you get when you do a search on the riddle.
Ignore my post. I just reread the OP, gave it a few moments of thought and had my mind blown.
So let it be written; so let it be done. – Yul Brynner
A nice explanation of it is:
“If you don’t have any brothers or sisters, who is your father’s son?” (It’s you, of course)
So “This man’s father is my father’s son” becomes “This man’s father is me” or “I am this man’s father”.
If you look at a picture and say “I am this man’s father”, you have to be looking at a picture of your own son.
“This man” is never used to refer to yourself.
I think that it is Grandma that you really need to talk to. She’s the only one who can tell us what really happened that gin-soaked night, so long ago.
shijinn thinks you might be wrong.
This guy disagrees with him as well.
(Tip o’ the hat to Rickey Henderson): Superhal never said that referring to yourself in the third person is not ok. Superhal wouldn’t say that, and what Superhal says, Superhal means.
It is in this man’s Army!
About 15 years ago I listened to two guys at my (then) office argue about this for nearly a day. I finally drew it out for them and that seemed to satisfy them.
[ol]
[li]I have no brothers or sisters so I am an only child[/li][li]My father’s son = Me[/li][li](Substituting what we now know) This man’s father = me.[/li][li]This man must be my son.[/li][/ol]
Bonus points if you say it in a Darth Vader voice.