My favorite riddle

My favorite riddle is this:

Q. What do you sit on, sleep on, and brush your teeth with?

Now before I tell you the answer, walk slowly through the question for a moment with me.  It starts out simple enough (what do you sit on…?), and mid-way through seems like there’s still an answer (…sleep on?), and then it throws you a curve ball (…and brush your teeth with?!?), and you’re left wondering What’s the trick this time, Mark? But wait! There is no trick!  Observe:

Q. What do you sit on, sleep on, and brush your teeth with?

A. a chair, a bed, and a toothbrush.

I love this to pieces.  Three pieces, to be exact, and there’s a real moment of aha! lurking in here.  Although it maybe have been suggested, or not, the question is not asking you for one object with which to do these three different things.  And in fact, if you try to find one such object, the best you’ll do is one that doesn’t exactly fit the needs of all three tasks very well.

So the lesson here is this: if you’re me, and you’re trying to figure out what you can use to make a blog and a wiki, the answer to the riddle is: a blogging setup AND a wiki setup.  Welcome to the former.

-Mark