From Each According To Their Own

Question

I was amused to hear the following conversation between three of my acquaintances.

1: What is it?
2: Look! That bird has got two beaks. Men! Walnuts for eyes every one!
3: Calm down, woman. That bird is always getting underfoot. Watch channel four. Oblivion’s on.
1: Cruise is a knockout!
3: And he certainly adorns all his passages.

I solved it. Can you?

Hint

To find the answer, it helps to have some background information regarding my acquaintances which I have thoughtfully provided.

You're welcome.

Another Hint

It also helps to use the title.

Meta Hint On the First Hint

What information on the acquaintances?

Meta Hint On the Other Hint

According to their own what?

With a hint that is as mind-bending as the actual riddle, all I can do is bookmark this to see how it is answered! — Phylyp, Jan 29 '18 at 12:42
With the hints, I thought it might have something to do with specific letters in the sentences (person 1, 1st letters, etc). The first one gives wii, which might point to the console, but the second line gives complete nonsense (ohiaoweeaoyvn to be precise) — Lolgast, Feb 05 '18 at 15:19

gnovice · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-05T19:17:00.867

24

The answer to the riddle is...

the word deck!

I got there by...

using every word from speaker 1, every second word from speaker 2, and every third word from speaker 3 (carrying over the count between lines) to get this:
"What is it? That has two Men! for every woman. is underfoot. four. Cruise is a knockout! And adorns passages."
But this can be rewritten by removing some punctuation, adding a few well placed commas, and changing some words a bit to the following:

"What is it that has two men for every woman, is underfoot for (a) cruise¹, is a knockout, and adorns passages?"
And the answer to each part is a deck of cards (a king and jack for every queen), a ships deck, to deck (punch) someone, and deck the halls!

¹A better interpretation might be "underfoot for crews", i.e. crews on a ship.

edited Feb 05 '18 at 19:17

answered Feb 05 '18 at 18:03

gnovice

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Falalalala la la check mark! – Hugh Meyers Feb 05 '18 at 18:05
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(I was actually thinking of a play on the actor’s name but the answer is the same.) – Hugh Meyers Feb 05 '18 at 18:07
@HughMeyers: Ahhh, I see the other meaning. I'll add it. – gnovice Feb 05 '18 at 18:26
Absolutely! Congrats. – Hugh Meyers Feb 05 '18 at 18:43

Fifth_H0r5eman · Answer 2 · 2018-02-05T16:39:59.727

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From my own comment:

Using every "one" word of speaker 1, every second word of 2, etc, we get: What is it - that has two men for every - woman... and then what seems to be gibberish.

For easy reading I'll put the remainder here:

is underfoot four - Cruise is a knockout - certainly his

I'll add more to this if I can find a way to extend it to make more sense.

edited Feb 05 '18 at 16:39

answered Feb 05 '18 at 16:15

Fifth_H0r5eman

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Yay! Progress on the steganography tag! How about the other two? – Hugh Meyers Feb 05 '18 at 16:33
Well I think riddle is self evident :p Wordplay I always find takes more of a eureka moment... – Fifth_H0r5eman Feb 05 '18 at 16:42
Almost there with the steganography. Try another way on the last speech. – Hugh Meyers Feb 05 '18 at 17:24
I'm thinking the last line is "And adorns passages", which makes more sense but doesn't quite fit with the method for the other lines. – F1Krazy Feb 05 '18 at 17:28

From Each According To Their Own

2 Answers2