A connection between Riley Riddles and I

Question

The following riddle was inspired by what is referred to as "Riley Puzzles / Riddles" (example).

Another Riley Riddle! This one keeps to the traditions, but it might be a little too hard. I will give out hints every $24$ hours.

My prefix is a question.

My suffix, mean but golden.

My infix has two heads,

But I have bars instead.

What am I?

The answer has $4$ letters, and the title is a clue.

Other inspirations include this riddle and this one, too.

All the capitalized letters in the title make out to be arri, a motion picture company — Duck, Aug 17 '18 at 02:43
@Duck That was just a pure coincidence (...or was it not, subconsciously?), but it would be even better if you could relate that to the actual answer :) — Mr Pie, Aug 17 '18 at 02:45
Hmm I feel like the suffix here is -au, but the only words that end in au is prau, luau, beau, and unau — Prince North Læraðr, Aug 17 '18 at 02:50
@North when I say what my affixes are, think vocally; (ROT13) gur fhssvk vf abg "nh" :) — Mr Pie, Aug 17 '18 at 02:54
The suffix is mean but golden; the golden mean? Arri the company, take out one r and it becomes the first three letters of Aristotle, the person who started this idea — Duck, Aug 17 '18 at 02:54
@Duck (ROT13) lbh tbg gur fhssvk! Nevfgbgyr'f 'tbyqra zrna' (12 iveghrf) vf whfg n syhxr! Jbj!! — Mr Pie, Aug 17 '18 at 02:55
@Duck (ROT13) Ab, gur fhssvk vf gur tbyqra zrna, be ng yrnfg, fbhaqf yvxr vg :D — Mr Pie, Aug 17 '18 at 03:02

Gareth McCaughan · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-17T03:28:40.210

6

I think you are

wifi.

My prefix is a question.

"Why?"

My suffix, mean but golden.

Phi.

My infix has two heads,

"if". Not sure exactly why "two heads", though. Perhaps they refer to the antecedent and consequent. Perhaps they're the two letters. Perhaps something I haven't thought of. [EDITED to add:] OP explains in comments that this is a reference to the $\Leftrightarrow$ symbol for "iff", though personally I pronounce that "if and only if" which isn't exactly the infix here :-).

But I have bars instead.

Used to indicate strength of wifi signal.

The title ("A connection between Riley Riddles and I")

is presumably punning on the word connection: OP reads and posts Riley riddles over wifi.

edited Aug 17 '18 at 03:28

answered Aug 17 '18 at 03:06

Gareth McCaughan

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rot13 Jung unccrarq gb gur tbyqra zrna? – Duck Aug 17 '18 at 03:08
(ROT13) unir lbh urneq bs "vs naq bayl vs"? :) – Mr Pie Aug 17 '18 at 03:09
@Duck (ROT13) Cuv vf gur tbyqra zrna nf jryy. Zrna = nirentr (be engvb, va guvf cnegvphyne pbagrkg, V fhccbfr). – Mr Pie Aug 17 '18 at 03:10
Oh, I see, I just thought that it would be more philosophical. – Duck Aug 17 '18 at 03:11
@user477343 Yes, I have, but I don't understand what relevance it has here: it's not what appears in the word (one "f" too few) and I'm not sure in what sense it has "two heads" anyway. (More like two tails, no?) – Gareth McCaughan Aug 17 '18 at 03:15
$\iff$ is an arrow with... – Mr Pie Aug 17 '18 at 03:16
Oh, I see. It feels a bit strange to say "X has two heads" when the actual situation is that X has one head while something else that sounds like X differs from X by having two heads instead of one. But no matter :-). – Gareth McCaughan Aug 17 '18 at 03:18
Well, I wanted it to be short and sweet and also rhyming, so I only had few words to work with. Sorry if it sounded quite vague, but (ROT13) pbatenghyngvbaf ba trggvat gur nafjre pbeerpg! V jvyy npprcg vg naq tvir lbh n gvpx va 20 ubhef jura V pna hcibgr naq rfpncr zl qnvyl ibgvat yvzvg. (Nyfb, vg jvyy tvir fbzr gvzr sbe bgure hfref gb nggrzcg naq fbyivat gur chmmyr naq ubcrshyyl rawbl vg.) :D Edit: Oh, and one last thing: you might want to explain the title as well, if you want; though I think it is fairly obvious now :) – Mr Pie Aug 17 '18 at 03:21
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@user477343 Short and sweet and rhyming? Hmm. "Start definitely, end poultry, mid masculinity, thus next we'll see." How's that, then? :-) – Hugh Meyers Aug 17 '18 at 08:03
Well, congratulations! $\color{green}{\checkmark}$ – Mr Pie Aug 18 '18 at 07:49

A connection between Riley Riddles and I

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