Have You Stopped Eating Iron?

--- by JLS
for the GC

The idea being that

"Tu non cessas edere ferrum" can be a trick.

Similarly, Grice considers the 'wife-beat' in WoW:Presupp. & Conv. Impl., and notably in "Causal theory of perception'. This from M. Quinion, online.

Weird Words: Carwhichet

Let me riddle you a riddle:

"How far is it from the first of July to London Bridge?"

Stumped for an answer?

Then try this one:

"If a bushel of apples cost ten shillings, how long will it take for an
oyster to eat its way through a barrel of soap?"

These two perplexing queries were provided by John Camden Hotten,
in his Slang Dictionary of 1865, as examples to illustrate the word
"carwhichet", or rather "carriwitchet", as he preferred to spell
it.

His version was as good as anybody's, since the term has never
been used enough to settle to an agreed form and everybody who has
used it has made their own guess about the spelling.

A carwhichet (let's stick with that version) is a hoaxing question
or conundrum, sometimes a mere pun or bit of verbal byplay. Here is
one of its more ancient appearances:

-----

A Quibbler is a Jugler of Words, that shows Tricks
with them, to make them appear what they were not meant
for, and serve two Senses at once. ...

He dances on a Rope of Sand, does the Somerset, Strapado, and half-
strapado with Words, plays at all manner of Games with
Clinches, Carwickets and Quibbles, and talks under-Leg.

The Character of a Quibbler, from the Genuine Remains
in Verse and Prose of Mr Samuel Butler, Volume 2. Though
published in 1759, this was actually written in 1680.

A "clinch" (or "clench") and a "quibble" were other names
for the games with words that Butler's quibbler was so
expert at.

"Quibble" only later took on its modern sense
of a petty or legalistic objection.

"Under-leg" remains mysterious.

Nobody knows where the word comes from, however you spell it.

A link with French "colifichet" has been cautiously suggested.

In that language, it refers to a small object without much value, a
bauble, knick-knack or trinket, which had developed from an old
word for a hair accessory.

And so on.