Help me solve this difficult riddle

January 7, 2008 2:37 PM

Help me solve this riddle.... "There's something special about Washington, and the heart sometimes rules the head which can often affect ones health, but thats not all, discover and calculate the end result." It's possible that the answer is one word. Please help....

I solved a puzzle called the ISIS.
After solving this puzzle, there is an opportunity to win a prize if you can solve a riddle.

There are many different riddles & although you get to choose your riddle, you only choose by number...you don't know the riddle until after you decide. Once the riddle is solved....if you've chosen that one....your done.

I've put a great deal of thought into this...figuring perhaps it was that denzel washington movie....so i guessed;
gun, death, life, heart transplant.... none are correct.

posted by foodybat to writing & language (34 comments total)

Apple?
posted by occhiblu at 2:46 PM on January 7, 2008

Just brainstorming...
There was a Denzel movie about a heart transplant.

But generally, I would think that if Washington boils down to Denzel, George, D.C., or state, then D.C. sounds most likely given the reference to "rules the head" ruling as in governs, head as in the capital etc.
posted by juv3nal at 3:43 PM on January 7, 2008

Hmm. My brain is insisting on "Dick Cheney" as an answer. I think this is a sign I've lived in D.C. too long.

Some of train of thought stuff that perhaps to help your brain storming:
Washington--> D.C. (a district and not a city, or city that has no state), Washington State, George Washington, Washington Monument
Heart and head--> also brings to mind produce for me (heart of palm, heart of romaine lettuce, head of lettuce, head of cabbage)
posted by divka at 4:18 PM on January 7, 2008

Hating snow,
Wanting hos,
Saw nothing.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:23 PM on January 7, 2008 [2 favorites]

On further consideration, given the game is the "ISIS puzzle," maybe the washington monument angle is the one to go with, it being an obelisk and all (see #5 thru #8 here). Maybe there's some kind of hokey illuminati/rosicrucian/davinci code theme going on.
posted by juv3nal at 4:56 PM on January 7, 2008

Well...so if the monument is one point from which we're calculating (like say a center point on the map)...what would the head, heart, and health be?

Head= library of Congress, archives
Health= N.I.H. (admittedly outside of D.C., but not by much)
Heart= ummmm....nothing coming to mind.
posted by divka at 5:14 PM on January 7, 2008

A google search turned up the fact that with the ISIS puzzle, the first person to solve each riddle is the only one to receive a prize, which goes up to $2000. Given that, I think it's a bit distasteful to use AskMe to not only win the prize, but keep others from doing so. I'm posting this in case it might change other responders' mind about helping with the riddle (also to give the OP the chance to tell me I'm mistaken, if appropriate).
posted by occhiblu at 5:19 PM on January 7, 2008

occhiblu - there is no rule or statement from the makers of isis that mentions anything about limiting your research.... I expect everyone who was able to open the isis (there is a 5% club, that actually was calculated basis the sale of the puzzle vs the number of people who were able to open it to 2.5%) will be using every tool at their disposal, especially the internet.

I fully expect that the makers of the puzzle know & expect this.

Regarding all of the above answers (apple also being incorrect)... I only get 1 guess per 24 hour period.

I believe many of the above maybe on the right track... but ultimately it's up to me to decide which to submit. I was beginning to focus on the last part which was discover & calculate the end result.... so perhaps it's another cryptogram (as you must solve 10 to get the clues on how to open the puzzle)....

Please KEEP THE IDEAS COMING....i will work with some of the ideas above.

THANKS!
posted by foodybat at 5:46 PM on January 7, 2008

Maybe something related to the 4-H. Each H in their 4 leaf clover logo stands for something: Head, Heart, Hands and Health..
posted by JaredSeth at 6:14 PM on January 7, 2008

Is it "There's" and "thats" in the riddle, or did you just type it in incorrectly?
posted by Eringatang at 6:33 PM on January 7, 2008

The Washington line throws me, but the "calculate" part makes me think it's got to be mathematical.

Maybe 1 for Washington, 4 for the 4-H

5?
posted by JaredSeth at 6:38 PM on January 7, 2008

Nah, that would be too easy.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:41 PM on January 7, 2008

Oh... and the "ones" - it should be one's - is "ones" in the riddle?
posted by Eringatang at 6:57 PM on January 7, 2008

Don't forget to do a quick trawl of the biographies of people called 'Washington'.
posted by Phalene at 9:08 PM on January 7, 2008

Washington has an H-street, if that is important.
posted by Eringatang at 9:31 PM on January 7, 2008

calculate the end result

This makes me think it's a number.
posted by filmgeek at 10:16 PM on January 7, 2008

Eringatang - i didn't mistype the riddle.... there are no apostrophes in the riddle at all (The first word Theres shouldn't have an apostrophe).

I believe JaredSeth & filmgeek are on the right track....calculate to me means the answer is somehow related with a number.... but of course, i could be wrong ...
posted by foodybat at 3:29 AM on January 8, 2008

Going with the calculation theory, the line "heart often rules the head" could be read to mean "heart over head", i.e. heart / head

So if you were working with Washington as Washington DC, you might assume the "head" is the president, which might be represented as 1600 in the equation. I'm not sold that we're working with DC though.

Given that, I am not sure how you would figure in the "affect ones health". Noting the lack of apostrophe, instead of assuming it is a type for "one's" consider how it might relate to the number one (for example, the ones column).
posted by mikepop at 5:42 AM on January 8, 2008

The wording is clunky and aspotrophes have been elimnated. This is not a "What has seven eyes but no nose" type of riddle. The question is on another layer. I am counting numbers of letters in the words. What might be special about washington is that it has 10 letters. What that means, I do not know.

6 9 7 5 10, 3 3 5 9 5 3 4 5 4 5 6 4 6, 3 5 3 3, 8 3 9 3 3 6

If I counted right.

I tried going 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 = W A S H I N G T O N

Then the numbers make:

NOGI,SSIOISHISINHN,SISS,TSOSSN with "Washington" eliminated from the sentence.

Too bad that isn't a one-word answer.
posted by Eringatang at 8:40 AM on January 8, 2008

I think the commas are important as well.
posted by Eringatang at 8:43 AM on January 8, 2008

Still thinking "out loud" but Eringatang mentioned the 10 characters in Washington and hands would complete the 4-H motto. Maybe "fingers"?
posted by JaredSeth at 9:46 AM on January 8, 2008

another thing odd about the wording is "discover and calculate" the end result. If you could discover the end result you wouldn't have to calculate it.

Washington is the only state named after a president, but not sure how that would figure in.
posted by mikepop at 10:52 AM on January 8, 2008

could heart rules over head affecting ones health translate to a medical condition where the heart rules over the brain ?

then perhaps there might be some correlation between that and "washington" -- take it from there ?

i would think its easier to guess the context of washington after finding out a bit more about the rest of the riddle
posted by cusecase at 10:54 AM on January 8, 2008

also, dont know how "special" but Washington is
1 consonant - vowel - 2 consonants - vowel - 3 consonants - vowel - consonant
posted by cusecase at 10:59 AM on January 8, 2008

foodybat, could you provide the exact wording of the instructions or whatnot for when you chose this riddle (for example did it actually call them riddles? challenges? puzzles?) or any other details? There might be hints there.
posted by mikepop at 11:37 AM on January 8, 2008

"Be the first to work out the password from the clue below."

"The clue for Mystery Prize #12 is as follows:

Theres something special about Washington, and the heart sometimes rules the head which can often affect ones health, but thats not all, discover and calculate the end result."


the above is exactly PRECISELY what is written. I can only submit 1 answer per 24 hour period & I got 131 others guessing at this since 16/10/2007 11:12:25 & the last guess was on 08/01/2008 21:56:27 - btw. nobody sees anyone else's guesses.
posted by foodybat at 7:04 PM on January 8, 2008

discover and calculate: these words seemed strange, until someone suggested D.C.
posted by ms.v. at 7:14 PM on January 8, 2008

foodybat, I just sent you email to the address listed in your profile and via mefi mail
posted by mikepop at 10:07 PM on January 8, 2008

My initial thought was that the answer has something to do with a dollar bill.
posted by Vavuzi at 10:24 PM on January 8, 2008

all of these are good ideas & I will works them them to try to come up with the solution. Due to the fact that I can only submit 1 guess every 24 hours... it may take awhile....

thank you all for your ideas...... (particularly filmgeek....always seemingly on the right track!)
posted by foodybat at 6:29 AM on January 11, 2008

You know the more I think about this, the more I keep coming back to the "4-H" or something related to it.

The "something special" about Washington? The 4th letter is H.

Why omit the hands from the 4-H slogan? Because head, heart and health gives you 4 H's.

If that damn "discover and calculate" didn't seem to hint at D.C., I'd be almost positive it was "4-H". Is there anything special about the 4-H in D.C.?
posted by JaredSeth at 6:33 PM on January 11, 2008

Unless the 4-H in Washington is supposed to be the clue to the latter half. So figure that "something special" establishes that it's the 4-H they're talking about, gives you part of the slogan and says "but thats not all" to indicate "hands".

God I hate riddles. I'm going to stop now, I swear.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:46 PM on January 11, 2008

Still not solved yet....so i got a chance.... i've tried hand, forehand, fingers.
I'll keep at it.... it's probably staring us in the face....
posted by foodybat at 7:13 PM on January 15, 2008

Still not solved yet..... any one have any fresh insight on this riddle?
posted by foodybat at 5:52 PM on March 30, 2008