[Ads-l] Pseudo-Riddle: When is a mouse if it spins? Because the higher it gets the fewer

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

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When Is a Mouse If It Spins? Because the Higher It Gets the Fewer
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/10/04/mouse-spins/

Garson

On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 5:39 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Nigel Rees's Newsletter of July 2018 discussed the following confusing
> pseudo-riddle:
>
> Why is a mouse when it spins?
> The higher, the fewer.
>
> Rees indicated that his correspondents remembered "teasing parents in
> the 1920s and 30s" sharing this brain tickler. Rees's current
> Newsletter of October 2018 contains some excellent citations located
> by researcher Dennis Lien who traced a version of the pseudo-riddle
> back to 1897.
>
> Building on this work, I located a story by Robert Overton containing
> the following nonsensical conundrum:
>
> When is a mouse if it spins?
> Because the higher it gets the fewer.
>
> Overton's tale appeared in a collection published in 1893, but a
> newspaper printed it in December 1892.
>
> I conjecture that Overton originated this pseudo-riddle, and it
> evolved over time. The protagonist of the story who is named Harehead
> hears the pseudo-riddle from a prankster named Smoogleslush. Harehead
> is unable to comprehend the question and answer. Eventually he is
> driven insane, and is sent to an asylum referred to as Colney Hatch.
> Below is the beginning of the story:
>
> Year: 1893
> Book: Ten Minutes: Holiday Yarns and Recitations
> Author: Robert Overton
> Publisher: Dean and Son, London
e awful
> evening when he asked me the riddle that cracked my brain. I tried to
> solve it—not only the question, but the answer, for the latter puzzled
> me more than the former. I couldn't. Until I solve it I am mad. I
> shall never solve it. My only hope is that the problem I am going to
> make public will turn other brains too. He took me unawares. He said
> abruptly:
>
> "You're pretty good at riddles, Harehead, aren't you? I've heard so."
>
> "Well, I've guessed a few," I said, modestly.
>
> "I'm afraid mine is too simple—too obvious," said Smoogleslush "to be
> worth your solution; but such as it is, here goes: When is a mouse if
> it spins?"
>
> "I beg pardon?"
>
> "When is a mouse if it spins?"

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