Unsolved Riddle from 1873

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I am a frequent reader of Futility Closet as it often has some great math and logic puzzles, but today’s post has got me curious, can the Straight Dope community solve it?

As it is from 1873, I will presume that the copyright is long expired so I will post the riddle here:

The solution not being visual but being easier for a woman to get the solution is truly stumping me. I’m thinking aether or phlogiston or something similar except for the man vs. woman comment at the end. So any thoughts by the Dope?

2

That’s a whale of a riddle.

3

Yes. And the woman being able to guess is because of whale bone corsets.

4

Darkness destroys me, and light is my death?

5

My WAG – bagpipes.

No?

6

Dead whale = whale oil = light. ‘Darkness destroys me’ is reaching, but hey it fits.

7

It’s fairly long to do cut and paste under fair use, but post 8 here:

makes a decent case for “whale”

not sure I buy it, but it’s better than what I can come up with so far

8

Also note there are several versions of this poem floating around - may 95% similar, but some differences

9

Closest I came up with is “bubble”, which is okay for:
I’m a bird of gay plumage, yet less like a bird,
Nothing ever in Nature was seen.
Touch the earth I expire, in water I die,
In air I lose breath, yet can swim and can fly;

and
And I only keep going by holding my breath.

but not so much for the others.

10

Whales can fly?

Regards,
Shodan

11

from the link I posted:

You should read it - I think I undersold it above

12

I can live with that.

Shodan, they breach, anyway.

13

Whales don’t die in water, either - they live there.

:shrug:

I like “what have I got in my pocket” better.

Regards,
Shodan

14

Eventually, they die.

15

If a non-beaching whale never leaves the water, where else is it going to die?

Is that the game where your uncle makes you feel around in his pocket and you try to guess what’s in there? I can’t say I liked that game much.

16

Interesting. I like how the date of the poem really is required for many of the clues- so my phlogiston wasn’t too far off :wink:

But Prof. Pepperwinkle’s bubble is a great take on it (the only thing that I can’t get to fit is the orchestra clue).

Thanks all!

17

Is that a whale in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

18

It must give us three guesses.

Regards,
Shodan

19

Krill. Or nothing!

20

Lawrence Welk’s bubble machine had a tape player with the canned music for the song.

Also blubber was used to sweeten brass’ tones.