i haven't mentioned this before but, one of the strangest things i found while reading about riddles, is the new exeter book of riddles. if you're wondering how you can have a new exeter book, the folks at enitharmon press, london, have commissioned one hundred english poets to compose a hundred modern riddles to for an anthology to match the original exeter book. if this sounds promising, i might add that one of the two editors is kevin crossley-holland, who translated the original exeter riddles for penguin, and many other anglo-saxon works, although, with a bent for writing children's books, he seems at times to me to be another robert lancelyn green - beowulf, arthurian romances, norse myths all translated and retold for children. if you want to take a look at the new exeter, you might, but trust someone who's been reading riddles for many months now that this isn't very good, as riddle collections go. in fact, i bring this up as an example of a failure. what is funny to me is that a glance through the appendix of answers give: compact disc, camera, computer, fax, and mobile phone, for the technological-inclined, also passport, supermarket trolley, the national health service, the natural world: stars, rain, clouds, rainbow - and the comet hale-bopp. and raymond chandler.