The Annotated Conundrums

Buried in this simple riddle is a deliciously pointed piece of political satire on the Tammany-style machine politics of the day, specifically as it relates to the bear-postmaster dynamic.
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In 1902, the only book more popular than the King James Bible was the joke book Conundrums New and Old. It was lost to history until recently, when Daily Show writers Sam Means and Elliott Kalan rediscovered the seminal volume and began the important scholarly work of annotating each of the hundreds of riddles, puzzles, and gags contained therein. Their website, The Annotated Conundrums, helpfully explains the humor, as well as the historical context, to modern readers unfamiliar with the early 20th-century practice of ursine time-keeping, what fish were considered the most romantic by people at the time, or the poultry-based failures of the Hayes presidency.

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