Father Inire Theory cont.

James Wynn · 11 Dec 2010, 00:47 · from 2010-December.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:47:57 -0600
Subject: (urth) Father Inire Theory cont.
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>>> Adam Thornton wrote:
>>> Why IS a raven like a writing-desk, anyway?

> Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:
> The answer I gave twenty years ago and appears in various faqs:
> They both have inky quills.

 From Cecil Adams:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1173/why-is-a-raven-like-a-writing-desk

Lewis Carroll himself got bugged about this so much that he was moved to 
write the following in the preface to the 1896 edition of his book:

    Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any
    answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well
    put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate
    answer, viz: 'Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are
    /very/ flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!' This,
    however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally
    invented, had no answer at all.

Did this discourage people? No. They figured, that dope Carroll, he's 
too dumb to figure out his own riddle, setting aside the halfhearted 
attempt just quoted. So they ventured answers of their own, some of the 
more notable of which are recorded in Martin Gardner's /The Annotated 
Alice/ and /More Annotated Alice/:

    * Because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being
      musical notes. (Sam Loyd, 1914)
    * Because Poe wrote on both. (Ibid)
    * Because there is a B in both and an N in neither. (Aldous Huxley,
      1928)
    * Because it slopes with a flap. (Cyril Pearson, undated)



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