Hey, you ever heard that one? Turn me on my side and I am everything. What’s that all about? I heard it from my neighbor, she’s always coming up with these brain teasers. This one got me good, though.
So, this thing, whatever it is, it’s like the whole world when it’s sideways. Sounds big, right? Like the sky or the ocean, maybe? But you ain’t gonna find the answer looking out the window, oh no. This one’s a real head-scratcher. Makes you think hard.
Thinkin’ Real Hard
I sat there, chewing on it for a good long while. Turn me on my side and I am everything. What could be everything? It’s gotta be something we all know, something common. Not some fancy thingamajig only them city folk know about.
And then it says, “Cut me in half and I am nothing.” Now that’s a strange thing to say. How can something be everything and then nothing, just by cutting it? It don’t make no sense. Unless… unless it ain’t a real thing, like a pie or a piece of wood.
Maybe it’s one of them word tricks. Like when they say “a piece of cake” and it just means something’s easy. But what words do we got that mean everything? And how do you cut a word in half? It’s like tryin’ to catch the wind.
- Turn me on my side and I am everything.
- Cut me in half and I am nothing.
- What am I?
Numbers Game
Then it hit me, maybe it ain’t words at all. Maybe it’s them numbers. Folks always say numbers rule the world. And you can write numbers down, so you could kinda “cut” them in a way. I started messing around with the numbers I know.
One, two, three, they don’t do nothing special when you turn them sideways. And cutting them in half, well, it just don’t look right. Four, five, six, same story. They’re just regular numbers, ain’t got no magic in ’em, far as I can see.
Seven, that’s a lucky one, they say. But turn it sideways, it just looks like a pointy thing. And cut it in half, you just get two little lines. Nope, that ain’t it either. I was about to give up, my head was spinning like a top.
The Answer, Plain as Day
Then I got to eight. Now, eight’s a funny number. It’s all curvy, like a snake or a road winding through the hills. I wrote it down big on a piece of paper. Turn me on my side and I am everything. I turned the paper sideways, and what do you know? That eight turned into something else.
It looked like that sign them smart folks use, the one that means forever, or never-ending. They call it “infinity.” And that’s kinda like everything, ain’t it? Forever is a long, long time, and it covers everything that ever was and ever will be. I reckon that’s gotta be it! But what about the other part?
Cut me in half and I am nothing. I looked at that eight again, standing up straight. I imagined cutting it right down the middle, from top to bottom. What would you get? Two little circles, one on top of the other. And what’s a circle? It’s a zero, a big ol’ nothing!
Well, I’ll be. The answer was eight all along. Turn me on my side, and it’s like that infinity thing, meaning everything. Cut it in half, and you got two zeros, meaning nothing. Ain’t that something? It’s like a little bit of magic, hidden in plain sight. That’s a good riddle right there, that is.
So next time you hear someone say, “Turn me on my side and I am everything,” you just tell ’em, “Why, that’s an eight, plain as day.” It’s funny how the simplest things can be the most puzzling, and how the answer can be right under your nose the whole time. Makes you wonder what other secrets are hiding out there, just waiting to be found.
