You didn't mention if the poisoned guy was Ian Thorpe of Thorpedo fame...

Or, indeed, more or less anyone who can swim. I'm willing to wager I could swim it, and I can reach 6 feet out of the water to get onto the platform if it is raised :)

He voted for Bush

This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

bugger :)

How far can you walk into a forest (ill find a better one :S)

all the way into it, then you're at the middle and time to start running on the spot!

Another death one, ask Qs if you haven't heard it...

A man is lying dead on the floor. In his hand is a revolver with which he has just shot himself. By his side is a length of wood.

The room is completely bare other than a bed. Under the bed is a small pile of wood shavings.

Why?

He had a claim to fame as the shortest man in the world, and measured himself against the wood frequently. One day, the second shortest man in the world shaved a bit off the piece of wood. Thinking he was growing, and thus facing the loss of dis livelihood, our protagonist could not bear to go on.

maybe he should've used a ruler instead?

TIO - hope you hadn't heard that already!

More death and destruction.

A birdwatcher sees an unexpected bird, and realises he has only a short while left to live.

Why?

anyone answer this yet from page 1?

couples figure skating

it's one of those mine canaries that croaks when noxious gasses are filling up the mine. if you don't get out, you croak too.

Anyone reply to this one yet?

This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

My answer: There's no letter E in the excerpt. The most common letter of the English language is missing.


I'll throw out an easy one

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black. None of the street lights are working due to a power failure caused by a local storm. A car with two broken headlights drives towards the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting him. How could the driver have seen the dog in time?

...it's daytime?

There are 4, not counting mixed doubles tennis. They are yachting, ice dancing, badminton and all of the equestrian events.
(Got this one 3/4 right at a trivia night last week)

<EDIT> For an answer to your specific question, equestrian is the only sport in which men and women compete on an equal footing, ie. a man or a woman may win, not necessarily both.

I feel I need to add this for the sake of completeness:

What's the difference between a duck?

I could make a really big post but I'll just leave ytou with the source of that potential enormity in size. (so big...its offensive!)

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=duck

schmuck: nope, not down a mine

TIO: one of its legs is both the same?

or there's always scandelous' answer:

whether he walks to school or carries a pail.

Well done, cliche :P

If anyone says "bluebird of happiness" in answer to your riddle, I'm going to scream

For the Q/A game: did the species of the bird indicate to the birdwatcher that he wasn't in the location he thought he was?

Was the birdwatcher in possession of his liberty (ie. not any kind of prisoner or captive) when he saw the bird?

TIO: birdwatcher knew exactly where he was, correctly
birdwatcher was a free man, though his movements were temporarily restricted (possibly confusing)

Which answer do you use for the duck? I'd never heard the second until scandelous posted it on the humour board.

The birdwatcher saw a vulture circling him? Vultures somehow know to circle things that are about to die so they can eat them after they die.

wlcm - I'm sure vultures aren't that picky. But I like the idea :). No, not a vulture - and he was much more sure than that, that he was about to die when he saw the bird.

Not the bluebird of happiness, but the Bluebird of Bus coming at him at he crossed the street... :D

Is he watching from a plane and he:
1) Just spotted a large bird that will screw up his engine causing him to crash fataly?
2) Is about to hit a very rare bird in front of a fanatical PETA sniper?
3) realizes he is careening into a Romulan Bird of Prey
4) sees soviet spy tech disguised as a rare bird and knows he is about to get shot down by a "peta" sniper armed with a "rifle"

Xell101 - correct, he's just seen a bird (rare or otherwise) get sucked into the engine!

Cliche, I always used the one about his legs.

OK, another one for you.

I have a box in front of me. Noone has told me what's inside it. I did not see the object being put in there. The box is closed. Yet I know what is inside. Why?

For those going "aha!" - the box is opaque ;)

You are aware that the box contains air?
The box is labelled?

TIO - nope, no air in the box ;) well, air - but not just air
The box isn't labelled

number 11 was a racehorse, #22 was one too. #11 won a race, #22 won one too.

was it a glass box? wire mesh box? some sort of see-through box?

Opaque.
Does the box have a distinctive shape of some sort that indicates the contents? A Happy Meal Box, for example?

wlcm - not glass/wire mesh etc - I couldn't see into it; it was opaque

Kadath - I like. But no, pretty standard rectangular box without markings.

1) Does the box have a hole in it?
2) Is it an animal, and you can hear it?
3) I have Soviet Spy Tech.
4) I'm in old country (In old country, you don't discover contents of box, box contents discover you, and it did!)

Xell101 - no hole in the box. It's an animal, but not a live one and it's very quiet. You may have spy tech, but I don't.

And old country? WTF? Please explain...

whats in the box?

floonine - not a yes/no, but in this case it's a stuffed cat. Could be almost anything really.

no, because if you don't know then your credibility is shot... :)