ArcaMax

The following phrases are colloquialisms, idioms or proverbs that are written in their literal, and rather complicated form. Can you uncover their true meanings and solve this teaser?

Example: "Don't place the two wheeled vehicle in a position preceding the equine mammal," is the proverb "Don't put the cart before the horse."

1. Positive aesthetic appeal is solely the equivalent of the thickness of the epidermis.

2. The ground covering of slender leaved plants is always a more vibrant hue of a common secondary color in the proximity of the opposite surface of a structure serving as a boundary.

3. Produce the sound of sharp tapping by striking blows to a processed piece of secondary ...

In each sentence the name of a tree is hidden. The willow is hiding in the first sentence. Can you find the others?

1. I will owe you a favor if you drive me to the airport.
2. I am afraid of going up in elevators.
3. Drinking cocoa keeps me warm on long winter nights.
4. I hope the map leads us to buried treasure.
5. "Eat another bonbon," said our charming hostess.
6. Nepal may be the most interesting place I have ever visited.
7. Remember to fold the map, please.
8. I feel many lumps in this mattress.
9. Word processing is not as useful as pens and paper for creative brainstorming.

scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, thrutched, strengths, straights, scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, screeched, scraunched, broughams, and craunched.

All these words have one thing in common. What is it?

During a recent cipher convention, a binary code contest took place. The contest consisted of a binary code transmission where the spaces between the letters were missing and there was no punctuation. Each letter of the alphabet was translated into its binary equivalent based on its position in the alphabet, a=1, b=10, c=11, d=100, e=101, f=110, g=111, h=1000, i=1001, j=1010, k=1011, l=1100, m=1101, n=1110, o=1111, p=10000, q=10001, r=10010, s=10011, t=10100, u=10101, v=10110, w=10111, x=11000, y=11001, z=11010. Can you find 9 countries?

101011000011110
101111110010110011
100001111110011110100
110100101111011101
11100010011100101
1101111110010111111111111<...

If you run, you will need me,
If you live, you will breathe me.
When you climb a mountain,
I will start to disappear,
No matter how hard you listen,
No sound will enter your ear.
I'm a reason you're alive,
Without me you would surely die.
The way I come in is not the way I get out,
Another hint is that you use me more when you shout.
Without a helper I would not get in or out at all.

What am I, and what is my helper?

Below, 10 nine letter words have been broken into chunks of three letters. These chunks have been mixed up, no chunk is used twice and all chunks are used. Can you determine what the 10 words are?

cer ent ead rat uti spr
ful oun pro ann ope ockr
nce een oat est liv ionr
nou sev ion ast hou akfr
bre bea ens dim bed sebr

The following are famous books and their authors. Letters have been taken from each book and each author. From the letter list below fill in each letter to give the names of the books and authors.

D- Vi--i C-d-
Da- B-ow-

G-e-t E-pe-ta-io-s
Ch--le- D-c-e-s

To K--l A Mo-k--g Bird
Ha-p-r L-e

Fr-n-en-t-in
M--y Sh--l--

Of M--e An- M-n
J--n S-ei--e-k

The O-t-id--s
S. -. H--t-n

The A-v-ntu--s of H--kle-er-y F--n
M--k Tw--n

T-e Sil-n-e of t-e L-m-s
T--m-s Har--s

aaaaaaaaabbbcccccccddeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhiiiiiiiikkllnnnnnnnnnoooorrrrrrrrrrsssttuuxy

What common phrase is represented by this rebus?

Easy going:
Weak, "I'm going."
Tough, "I'm staying."

Medium going:
Weak, "I'm going."
Tough, "I'm staying."

Tough going:
Weak, "I can't do it, I'm staying!"
Tough, "Lets get going."

Checkers was meeting with the lazy Sorceress and Mr.Tin, two well known dog breeders. They were just ending a conversation about politics when Mr.Tin asked Checkers if he had ever owned a dog. Checkers, trying to make it seem as if he knows something about dogs said, "Yes, I used to have a Basenji. He would always bark when someone was coming up the driveway." Mr.Tin and the lazy Sorceress knew he was lying and decided to leave. What did he lie about?

Randy liked to give his children challenging games instead of television and video games. He incorporated the use of rebus puzzles into everyday life for his kids.

One day he made a rebus for them to try and decode. It was set up like this:

Some items were lying all over a church. The church was burning down, and this is the fate of the items.

Item one: Found near the front row pews. It was in the fire, and was lost.
Item two: Found near the front door. It was also in the fire, and was lost.
Item three: Found by the bell in the bell tower. Was away from the fire, and was saved.
Item four: Found in the bathroom. Was surrounded by fire, and was lost.

It took a while, ...

The following are famous books and their authors. Letters have been taken from each book and each author. From the letter list below fill in each letter to give the names of the books and authors.

An-e-s and D-m-ns
D-n -ro-n

Pe- Se-at-r-
S-ep-en K-n-

C-r-nic-es of N-r--a
C - L-wi-

A F-re-e-l to A-m-
E-n-st H-mi-gw-y

A M-sq-e of Me-c-
Ro-e-t Fr-s-

T-e Hu-t for R-d Oc-o-e-
T-m C-a-cy

Bl-ac-e-s
Jo-n Gri-h-m

aaaaaaabbbeeeeeegghhhhhiillllmnnnnoooorrrrrrssssttttuwwyy

I can be hard, I can be soft. I can scratch my fellow self, or I can be scratched. I'm not always as strong as another version of me. I can be used as a form or communication, as well as presents or luxury. Inside and outside the earth's crust I am made, and waiting times range from one day to millions of years. I come in many colors when I am solid, and I can also be grouped together to make another common solid. Controversy has been made about health concerns in which I am removed from the earth, from disease to sudden death. While a certain few are mentioned above, I grow constantly under your feet. Little do you know you always walk on me, even when you don't try. Mountains, mines, I ...

In each sentence a word is concealed, such as the word no in sentence five. If you can find the buried words and read them in order from 1 to 6, they will form a well-known proverb.

1.The word buried here has only one letter.
2.Did you find a jelly roll in Gaskin's Bakery?
3.It's the best one I've ever seen.
4.The rug at her stairway was made in India.
5.He's an old friend.
6.Amos sold his bicycle to a friend.

Billy recently won a contest to be on a hit trivia show, called "Trivillions", where the object of the game is to answer as many trivia questions as you can, and the more you answer, the more money you get.

Billy was psyched. He went to the store to buy a book on scarce facts. He found only two books. One was made in 2006 and the other was made in 1998. Since the old one was cheaper he went with that book.

He aced every question. The final question was, "How many oceans are there?" Easy one, he thought. When he gave his answer, "Four oceans", he got the question wrong! Why would he have not gotten the question wrong if he went with a current trivia book?