Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for May 29, 2019

At least his remains were put to good use.

Mmm. Chocolate.

All the king’s men, hmm?

The cake recipe called for eggs, and Humpty was Extra Large already.

Now that’s what I call a sweet farewell!

Nowhere in the poem does it say that Humpty Dumpty is an egg!

“if I knew you were falling I’d have baked a cake, baked a cake, baked a cake…”

I’ve read that the King’s “Horses” doesn’t refer to animals…. it means his mounted troops.

IE, “He sent 40 men and 20 horses” means there were 40 foot soldiers and 20 knights on horseback.

In any case, the poem doesn’t say that Humpty Dumpty is an egg because it was a riddle…

You’re supposed to figure out what’s being described, and “an egg” is the answer!

By the nineteenth century, though, it was put to music, and became so familiar that the answer was well-known….

Sung to children, and printed in books as a nursery rhyme, it was illustrated with an egg, because everybody already knew the “secret”.

If you read the scenes with Humpty Dumpty in “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” he’s elusive about what he is, and even what words mean….

which is extra humorous to those who know he’s actually a riddle, so not meant to be clear.

Lots of old riddles list the attributes of something, or tell a fanciful tale about it, maybe in a humorous or somewhat misleading way, to make the guessing harder….

and you’re supposed to figure out what’s being described.

They’re puzzles, not jokes.

Check out a Victorian children’s book….

or even Gollum and Bilbo trading riddles, in "The Hobbit:

“Thirty white horses on a red hill,

First they champ,

Then they stamp,

Then they stand still."

(Teeth)

What a crumby way to eulogize Humpty…all the kings men get a piece…..

This strip never ceases to crack me up.

Serves him right…

RIP Humpty Dumpty – you were a good egg.

Special Report - New evidence leads researchers to believe that Humpty Dumpty was PUSHED - Film at 11!

No wonder the King’s men didn’t want to put him together again!

Although he is no longer among the living, Humpty’s essence will always be within us!

It’s a riddle, the answer to which is “an egg.”