Q: Pupil of the eye as the most expansive male organ

[Charles Doyle]

It's an interesting "problem" in the
game/art/ritual/formulaic activity of riddling (which modern
Americans do comparatively little of):  Who gets to decide
what the "right" solution is--on the basis of what implicit
rules?

If the riddle-poser asks "What has many eyes but can't see?"
and wishes the solution to be "A potato" but someone instead
answers "A shoe" or "A paper of needles" or "Mississippi,"
can the alternative answers, however seemingly suitable, be
ruled erroneous?

Often, of course, the solution is attached to the
descriptive part of a riddle by tradition; that is, the
RIDDLE comprises not only the description but also the
identification of what is being described, which is to be
guessed. The folkgroup itself, except for neophytes,
possesses the right answer.  "A riddle, a riddle, a hole in
the middle" describes a doughnut, not a bagel or an
innertube.

Likewise, the right answer can be "firetruck," not "fleck"
or "fenduck."  It simply IS!

Which is not to say there can't be a range of traditional,
authorized answers--or room for ingenuity in parodying a
riddle by offering new answers ("What's black and
white . . . ?), some of which, then, may themselves become
traditional . . . .

--Charlie
____________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 11:16:06 -0400
>From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>Subject: Re: Q: Pupil of the eye as the most expansive male
organ
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-
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>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>Subject:      Re: Q: Pupil of the eye as the most expansive
male organ
>------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>At 6/24/2006 10:12 AM, JL wrote:
>>You're right about "fleck," etc.  But "firetruck" was the
answer.
>>
>>   I'll bet the stipulation was "ends in -UCK."
>
>Or "starts with F and ends with -UCK"?  There are too many
>four-letter words just ending with -UCK.
>
>>   That would make "firetruck" the only possible answer -
assuming
>> the "other" F-word is "not a word."
>
>The only five-letter word is fluck.   The only six-letter
word is
>flouck.  Seven-letter words are fee-buck, fen-duck, and
>funduck.  Eight-letter words are fly-stuck, fool-duck, and
>fore-luck.  (Lots of funny-sounding words.)  There are a few
>nine-letter compounds.  And firetruck is not in OED2!
>
>Joel
>\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
>
>
>
>>   JL
>>
>>"Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>Sender: American Dialect Society
>>Poster: "Joel S. Berson"
>>Subject: Re: Q: Pupil of the eye as the most expansive
male organ
>>-----------------------------------------------------------
--------------------
>>
>>At 6/24/2006 09:15 AM, JL wrote:
>> >Bill's list is far more rigorous than my classmate's.
Only the first
>> >six riddles are familiar to me.
>> >
>> > I heard Number 2 in, I believe, the spring of 1965. It
was
>> > rumored in my high school that the well-known frenetic
host of a
>> > local TV "kid's show" (much watched by teens of the day
for its
>> > absurd humor) had been fined or taken off the air for
asking,
>> > "Kids, what's the shortest word there is that starts
with F and
>> > ends with CK ?" The answer, of course, was "firetruck."
(Check
>> > your 1965 dictionary !)
>>
>>This puzzled me the first time I saw it here, but I let it
pass. No
>>mas! Aren't flack/fleck/flick/flock as well as frock
shorter than
>>firetruck? And common enough today--I ignore the four-
letter "fack"
>>and "feck", as well as some additional but apparently very
uncommon
>>or obsolete 5-letter words (viz. OED2).
>>
>>Joel
>>
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