Puzzles | PitchKnives and Butter Forks

"Riddles always make me a bit peckish," he is probably thinking.

This week, I came across a collection of poetry riddles that Jonathan Swift and his pals used to mail back and forth to each other as a form of light entertainment in 1724. (Let’s pause for a moment and appreciate that there was an age in which mailing puzzles to one’s best friends was considered a raucous good time. I think I was born in the wrong era.) I was particularly amused by one called “On the Posteriors,” which is really worth looking up. But I also found this one, which is related to the culinary arts and therefore scores a place on this blog. Can you figure out who the “I” of this poem is?

Though I, alas! a prisoner be,
My trade is prisoners to set free.
No slave his lord’s commands obeys
With such insinuating ways.
My genius piercing, sharp, and bright,
Wherein the men of wit delight.
The clergy keep me for their ease,
And turn and wind me as they please. Continue reading →

In scouring the Internet for this Friday’s pop quiz, I found an OK Cupid page devoted to “singles interested in obscure kitchen gadgets.” Believe me, they covered quite a spectrum, these singles, from a chipper looking New Zealander making a peace sign at the camera to a scowling woman from Tempe whose eye shadow was almost as impressive as her cleavage.

At any rate, gadgets clearly have wide appeal and since we had fun a few weeks ago with our historic utensil puzzle, we thought we’d let our readers test their wits with some more modern marvels. If you can identify all nine of the items below, you should start your own culinary school…or at least troll for some new admirers on OK Cupid.