All,
This is the very first Rogue Riddle of 2022. The Rogue Riddles have appeared on PUNY every week for over 21 years now with just one unfortunate exception). The game grew out of an earlier Riddle Chain which Gary Hallock had begun about 23+ years ago. That chain passed riddles around in sequence among just a few players. Gary then expanded the game to the general PUNY list in the form of the Rogue Riddles.
Over the years, the Rogue Riddles themselves have taken various forms and have provided varying levels of difficulty. There have been different hosts with different styles, but in each case the challenge has been the same -- to create riddles sufficiently difficult to be entertaining, without being so difficult that they are not readily solved with a bit of insight. Given the differing levels of potential players, this is no mean task! ;-)
Because of the recent resurgence in interest in limericks, and in a nod to the recent riddle format of our founder, Gary Hallock, who recently has favored limerick riddles, this week’s Rogue Riddle set includes of fourteen limericks, and will be posted both on PUNY and on the Limericks ‘n’ Haiku list (which I began back in 1998 to move limericks and other poetry from the PUNY list to its own list).
Without further ado, then, (and certainly with no intent of adieu!), here is this week's Rogue Riddle.
========================================
Rogue Riddle #1107
A New Start
This is the first Rogue Riddle of the year, and as such .
This week’s Rogue Riddle consists of twenty riddles, but in a different mix from past Rogue Riddles.
Because of the recent resurgence in interest in limericks, this week’s Rogue Riddle set includes fourteen limericks. The fifteen answers to these fourteen limericks can be rearranged to form two sentences appropriate to this week’s Rogue’s theme. These two sentences form two bonus riddles.
To round out the number of riddles to the usual twenty, five more riddles have been added to the fourteen limericks. Each of these riddles has punned and unpunned answers, both of which must be provided for full credit.
The riddle will run until 5:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday. As usual, the first person to solve all the riddles will be declared the winner. If no one has solved all the riddles by 5:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday, the one with the most correct answers will be declared the winner and will host Rogue Riddle #1108 next week.
As with previous riddle sets, the word BLANK can replace more than one word. In other words, seeing the word BLANK does not indicate how many words should replace the word BLANK. Further, the article preceding the word “blank” will always be “a,” never “an,” regardless of he punned word.
There is a theme, which should become obvious as one begins to solve the riddles.
Now, on to the riddles.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
1.
The hoop’s a piece of jewelry gear
An adornment there or here.
While some suppose
It’s best in the nose,
Some others lobe the BLANK.
2.
The scared coven of witches
Was overcome with serious twitches:
They learned the crowd
Had been allowed
To harry them with BLANK.
3.
The creature really was new,
Resembled no other I knew.
A wilder beast
Come from the east --
They tell me its called a BLANK.
4.
Yet another West End day,
At a truly cunning play,
Whose clever capper
Elicited a dapper
And very English, “BLANK!”
5. BLANK: A surprising divine or supernatural disclosure reached after a night of noisy carousing.
6. BLANK: To purchase something to give to a particular actress.
7.
The headman’s axe’s not for free –
Its victim pays the BLANK.
Ask not for whom
The empty tomb –
It takes a toll of BLANK.
8.
They say that those who sell
Their souls for gain are fell.
Among the worst,
And vilely cursed --
And they shall go to BLANK.
9. When faced with a homeless person behaving quite strangely and irrationally, why might trimming his fingernails help settle the person down? Because it’s a BLANK.
10. BLANK: Something usually carried on the bottle of rich, sweet wine.
11.
Expressing the year in one-six,
The number is easy to fix –
A simple relation:
The founded the nation
In 17 BLANK.
