Riddles

[cantab]

Blind guess: Japanese?

And you've only gone and hit the target!

Explanation:

Up and down, or left and right, - Japanese can be written either vertically or horizontally

Mix and match, - Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana scripts, and the Roman alphabet, sometimes all in a single sentence.

but be polite. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_honorifics

Loaned for eyes, owned for ears - Written Kanji are of Chinese origin, but the spoken words are mostly native to Japan.

Still the origin's unclear. - The origin of Japanese and its relation to other languages.

Away from home not often found, - It's not that widely spoken outside its home country, unlike say English or Spanish.

Though in Hawaii there's its sound. - Something like 5-10% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese

On the net sometimes a mess, - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojibake and other display issues aren't uncommon with Japanese text.

That's all your clues, so take a guess. - Filler line.

[GoSlash27]

Thank goodness I've finally seen the answer! This one was threatening to deprive me of sleep!

-Slashy

[StrandedonEarth]

Wow. That's just... just... wow. Impressive even. Sherlock would be stumped.

[Red Iron Crown]

Well, that makes perfect sense. Well written riddle, cantab.

[The Mechanic]

Indeed, it was well written.

Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, Japanese...Japanese are said to be polite as far as I remember. It was worth a guess, obviously.

New riddle:

A ghostly light

known to be an illusion,

said to be a harbinger of doom,

never to land again.

Shouldn't be too hard, I guess.

[cantab]

Hmm...a comet?

[Dodgey]

Is it a lunar eclipse?

[The Mechanic]

No. Neither a comet nor an eclipse.

[cantab]

Sounds kinda like the Brocken spectre - when the low Sun casts your shadow onto clouds.

[The Mechanic]

Like this? Not quite that.

[Sun]

The Titantic? Tenchars

[Deadpangod3]

Supernova?

Asteroid?

Reentry?

Ghosts?

Titanic?

Aliens?

Kerbals?

Clouds?

Stars?

The moon?

[cantab]

That's one yeah.

Hmmhmmhmm...a sundog?

Edit: Since people have said Titanic, is it maybe the Flying Dutchman, mythical ship that's now reckoned to be a mirage?

[Sun]

I stick with my guess of the Titanic.

[The Mechanic]

It is the Flying Dutchman.

A ghostly light

known to be an illusion,

said to be a harbinger of doom,

never to land again. -> Land as in the nautical term of landing.

So, your turn again, cantab.

[cantab]

And we hear a collective groan from the rest of the thread

I'll have one later, got work atm

[iCT]

Blue Mün??

[cantab]

Not entirely convinced I've done a great job of it, but here goes.

A whole bunch of words all properly spelled,

New to the world, I cannot be held,

Well I could be, if you kill a tree,

But don't waste your money on solving me.

Know that gnu is not Unix,

Lame can convert your musics,

What's that to do with this riddle you say?

I'm sure you'll deduce the connection one day.

The answer to this is plain in your face,

So who will succeed, on this forum of space?

[Red Iron Crown]

Is it that riddle?

LAME and GNU are both recursive acronyms, maybe it's a recursive riddle.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Red Iron Crown

[cantab]

Is it that riddle?

LAME and GNU are both recursive acronyms, maybe it's a recursive riddle.

Well darn, that didn't last long!

A whole bunch of words all properly spelled, - Kinda obvious. I had planned to put the actual number of words but decided not to.

New to the world - because I only just wrote it.

I cannot be held, - it's on a computer screen. (And I forgot about smartphones and so on...)

Well I could be, if you kill a tree,

But don't waste your money on solving me. - If you printed it out, but that'd use paper and ink

Know that gnu is not Unix,

Lame can convert your musics, - As you mention, other examples of self-referential things

What's that to do with this riddle you say?

I'm sure you'll deduce the connection one day. - Just filler really

The answer to this is plain in your face, - Literally so as you're reading it

So who will succeed, on this forum of space? More filler

[Red Iron Crown]

Tough to get that balance, too hard and we're all stumped for days, too easy and it gets solved almost immediately.

New riddle:

Everyone has me

And everyone knows it

Though some want to hide me

Or try not to show it

Some wish I was smaller

Or even stopped growing

But in truth they want me

To increase without slowing.

[StrandedonEarth]

The first thing that comes to mind is a belly, but I'm not sure that fits the last couplet...

[cantab]

Is it one's age?

[Red Iron Crown]

Is it one's age?

You are altogether too good at this.

Everyone has me

And everyone knows it We all know that everyone has an age.

Though some want to hide me

Or try not to show it Many try to hide their age or look younger.

Some wish I was smaller

Or even stopped growing Some wish to be younger or stop aging.

But in truth they want me

To increase without slowing. But we all would rather continue to age than die.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Red Iron Crown

[cantab]

"Everyone has one" certainly narrows things down a bit

Anyway I don't feel like writing another right now, so I'll open the floor to whoever wants to post next.