1924
Been working on a riddle, and I wanted to see if you guys could figure out the answer.
Scientist have discovered a disease. This disease has had terrible effects in history. A virus it first appeared in the old Roman Republic, but was soon stopped. The leaders of every country feared it, for thousands of years afterward. A pandemic of it spread quickly in the late 16th century. The hardest hit place were the English colonies of America, where the disease spread unchecked. To make sure of their immunity Russia began a huge effort to make sure it would never reach them in 1917. It was carried by our troops into France in World War II. Many of the founding father’s never recovered from its effects. It even helped bring down the Soviet Union. Many fear that again American troops will spread it, unleashing it on Iraq, and now many cases have been reported. Do you know what this terrible disease could be?
[:D]FREEDOM![:D]
Well the idea came from work done under USRA during WWI but wasn’t completed until after the war sooooo – I guessed 1925
As for the other question - I would guess it is a sexually transmitted disease. I heard somewhere that HIV was unknown in the Soviet Union before the wall came down and the west moved in. Now it is rampant.
HIV was virtually unknown prior to 1980, so it wouldn’t have been around in Roman times, in the American Colonies, nor around World War II.
But I don’t know the answer. I suspect, since this is a riddle, that it is something common that you’ll never think of, like capitalism! (Which isn’t a virus, but it’s a cute answer!)
Darrell, being cute, but quiet…for now
I’d say democracy is the “disease”. Interesting riddle, hope I got it right…well maybe not as I like democracy.
I guessed 1932. This one stumped me!
Bird flu? Just kidding.
I guessed 1925.
Man you always trick me. But it is always fun to read the polls! [:D] Tim
Influenza! Killed a lot of soldiers in the First World War both here and overseas.
Will
I know the answer to your little riddle. I knew it when I first read it on the Trains Mag website…That’s kind of funny.[;)]
But there is nothing to highlight here for a secret message…
I guessed 1925, because it’s a nice, even quarter. Wait a second…
I’m pretty sure the disease was the flu. There was a nursery rhime (is that how you spell that?) about it, which isn’t hard to believe. Why do all these nursery things have to be about tragedy, like “Ring Around the Rosies”?[%-)]
1924, and the answer to the riddle is the Freedom Bug. Darrell and Southwest Chief guessed close enough!
There is this marvelous invention for those that have trouble spelling “rhyme” and other words, popularized by Noah Webster among others, called a “Dictionary”. Has definitions of the words, pronunciation, not just the correct “spelling” of the words. As Yogi used to say; “You could look it up”!
Will