Who meets us with impunity in the face?

[tahnan]

I was recently pointed at http://www.janko.at/Raetsel/index.htm, which has a lot of very nice applet-based Nikoli and Nikoli-style logic puzzles. But of course I couldn't help looking at the Sprachrätsel page, in spite of the fact that I only speak enough German to know that that probably means "Word puzzles" (or "speech puzzles" or something). I was sorry to discover that I can't type an umlauted vowel into the dropquote applet, because I think I was doing a decent job of solving those just based on knowing a handful of function words (die, der, nicht, Sie, that sort of thing), supplemented with a rough idea of what letter combinations are possible in German. Alas, without the ability to type in the vowels with umlauts, I'll never find out if I was right.

But I just love the "Um die Ecke gedacht" pages, which I read via Google Translate, which tells me that the name translates to "To think the corner" (but which I suspect is probably the same idiom as "think outside the box"?). Some of the translated riddles and answers are pretty clear even in translation: "What falls through the window without breaking it? - The Light", or "On what pillows can not sleep? - On ink pad or on the Pincushion". But some of them look like they're probably based on German wordplay, which makes them not only opaque when translated, but hilarious. A few of my favorites, from the first two pages of think-the-corner questions—questions first, answers behind the cut, translations directly from Google.

2. Social legumes
5. What you can not express with words?
9. As you say, "Gamsfeder the hat" or "Gamsfeder on a hat"?
14. What is the same dentist and a coward?
15. How many managers does it take to get from Earth to the Moon?
16. Iron-containing laxatives?
20. Who meets us with impunity in the face?

2. Contact lenses
5. A sponge or a lemon or a pimple
9. None of the two, because there are no Gamsfeder, but only a Gamsbart. [I suspect this is roughly the same riddle as "Which is correct, 5 and 7 is 13, or 5 and 7 are 13?" But with Gamsfeder/Gamsbart untranslated, it's surreal.]
14. Both of tear
15. One, they need only be long enough
16. Handcuffs
20. The welding

Taken as a whole, #20 is far and away my favorite, but I really love the utter nonsequitur status of #5. (Try telling the joke in English sometime, just to see what happens.) I'm sure that someone who speaks German could explain these—but really, no need. They're perfect as they are.

Comments

[cnoocy]

Was ist weiß und quadratisch?

[tahnan]

Keine Seife, Radio.

[yomikoma]

Ü

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

At the risk of ruining the jokes, or at least the surrealism:

2. Linsen = 'lenses' or 'lentils'
5. This one works in English if you change the answer to "breast milk." (Ausdrücken = 'express' or 'squeeze')
9. You're right that it's basically like the "5 and 7" riddle, but I think there's a bit of an extra twist. Gansfeder ('goose feather') is a more obvious correction, but Gamsbart is also a kind of decoration found on hats.
14. How is a dentist like a coward? They both pull out.
15. Leitern here should presumably be translated as 'ladders' rather than 'managers' ('leaders'), but your version is a hell of a lot funnier.
16. abführen = 'lead away' (as in handcuffs) or 'evacuate (one's bowels)' (as with a laxative)
20. Schweiß should probably have been translated as 'sweat' rather than 'welding' here.

[tahnan]

The lenses/lentils I pretty much suspected; there were a few others (like 16) that were pretty clearly based on something being polysemous in German. 5, 15, and 20 I did look up. (I had a feeling that 15 was just a mistranslation of something for "managers", but it is funnier that way, isn't it?)

[colorwheel]

redundant banker.

[tablesaw]

If you're looking for logic puzzles in German, you might look at Croco-Puzzle.de. There's a fairly comprehensive walkthrough available, and it's got an addictive ranking system.

[(Anonymous)]

Spnggng. Lmnmn. Pmplmrf. Wow, it's right!

-- Trip

[(Anonymous)]

My favorite only-makes-sense-in-Spanish joke:

Q: What does a fish do?
A: Nothing.

-Proj