Can you solve this riddle?

[Stupot]

@Renodox - Santa Clause?

Santa Claus     (don't let the Tim Allen "Santa Clause" movie fool you) 

No no, you see, Santa is my uncle... he's a relative clause

[Renodox]

Not even close.  This is not based on Silent Night, Deadly Night.

[Tinytim]

Sounds good to me festilligambe;-D. It's a matter of adding one ammount and taking away the other.

[Tinytim]

Concerning the elevator riddle I thought the rain was relevant.

Spoiler

The man is a midget and can only reach to the 12th floor button. Other passengers can press the 20th floor button for him or he uses his umbrella when it's raining. My only reservation with this answer is, why doesn't he carry his umbrella always?

[close]

Not being American, am I missing out on the murderer mystery?

[Stupot]

On the American Independence Day Penelope was murdered
In August Roy was killed
On Labor Day Ibsen met his untimely end.
People thought they were safe till on Halloween Carl died.
Everyone could be thankful on thanksgiving because the murder was caught in the act of trying to kill Emily.

What was the murderer's name?

Penelope
Roy
Ibsen
Carl
Emily

Price?

[Renodox]

Stupot got his last name but his first name is in there too.

[Kweepa]

Jason.
Ugh, that is one egotistical murderer.

[Renodox]

Very good, his name was Jason Price.  However, it would be neat for the others to see your reasoning.

[Kweepa]

July = American Independence Day
August
September = Labor Day
October = Halloween
November = Thanksgiving

Whee!

[Stupot]

Mayor of London Boris Johnson recently made some insulting [for some people, I couldn't give a shit] remarks about people with low IQs.
Earlier today he was given three "IQ" questions [which were really just riddles, I doubt these came from Mensa] on a radio show.  He got the first two wrong and refused to answer the third.

I got the first two right, but admit I couldn't answer the third. I have since worked out why the answer was what it was, though. How will you do?
The questions did have multiple choice answers, but I'll leave them out for now.  If you solve the riddle, you won't need them anyway. But be prepared to justify your answers.  Use spoiler tags so other people can have a think about them before seeing the answer.

1. A man builds a house with four sides of rectangular construction. Each side having a southern exposure.  A big bear comes along. What colour is the bear?

2. Take two apples from three apples, what do you have?

3. I went to bed at eight o'clock in the evening and I wound up my clock to set the alarm to sound at nine o'clock in the morning. How many hours would I get before being woken by the alarm?

[CaptainD]

I take it the obvious answers to 2 and 3 are not the answers being looked for?!

I'm thinking 1 might be something to do with

Spoiler

being at one of the poles

[close]

?

[Stupot]

I take it the obvious answers to 2 and 3 are not the answers being looked for?!

I'm thinking 1 might be something to do with

Spoiler

being at one of the poles

[close]

?

You are barking up all the right trees

[CaptainD]

Okay, I think I may have got them all...

1 -

Spoiler

White, as it would be a polar bear since you're at the North Pole?  (Really embarrassed if it's the South Pole and I've managed to work it out completely wrong!! )

[close]

2 -

Spoiler

You have two apples - as this is what you have taken.  (Obviously the tendency would be to do the math and subtract 3 from 2, but that isn't actually the question. )

[close]

3 -

Spoiler

I think this is in the sentence construction.  "I went to bed at eight o'clock in the evening and I wound up my clock to set the alarm..." - this seems to imply two separate actions.  Whilst at first glance it seems that you would be setting the alarm at 8pm, thus meaning 13 hours before the alarm goes off, I think the sentence structure actually implies that you set the alarm when you woke up at 9am - thus my answer is 24 hours.

[close]

Was I right, doc?  Was I, was I?

[Stupot]

Two out of three ain't bad.  You got the #3 wrong. 

Spoiler

The clue is in the word choice rather than the sentence construction

[close]

[selmiak]

1:

Spoiler

white as you are indeed on the northpole

[close]

2:

Spoiler

You have 2 apples in your possession of you take 2 of the 3 apples.

[close]

3:

Spoiler

1h because when you go to bed at 8 and set the alarm to 9 the next morning it still rings after 1h. Not when I set the alarm on my cellphone though, but I think this is the correct answer to this riddle that will soon be oblivious in the digital age

[close]

[Stupot]

@Selmiak. You have all three correct.

Spoiler

I think this is not actually an out-dated riddle. It is a modern riddle that uses our modern digital notions of alarm clocks to create a red herring.  If we rush into the riddle, we're supposed to think 13 hours is correct because we all know we can set our digital clocks to a 24-hour period.  But the phrase "wound up", rather than being a remnant of an out-dated riddle, is actually a carefully placed, subtle clue that tells us exactly what we need to know about the nature of the clock in order to arrive at the correct answer.

[close]

[Renodox]

1. I am very irritating, so much that one who made me didn't want me.
But someone wanted me so bad, I was torn from my maker,
And a fortune was paid so that I could be kept close.
What am I?

2. Spell total destruction using only three letters and a number.

[Adeel]

2.

Spoiler

BO0M

[close]

[Renodox]

No not quite.  Good guess though.

[Stupot]

Spoiler

BAN9?

[close]