Qualifying Questions
A large part of the tradition of the order involves the qualifying questions that prospective members have to answer. These fun questions are actually small riddles: Each of them suggests a vulgar or lewd answer, however the candidate has to provide a completely innocuous answer to the same question.
A popular example would be the question:
| “ | What does a woman do sitting down, that a dog does on three legs, and a man does standing up? | ” |
The obvious answer to this question would be "pee" or "urinate", but the correct answer to is "shake hands" (as western etiquette demands that a man needs to rise from his seat to shake hands, while a woman needs not).
- What does a cow have four of and woman only two?
- What is a four letter word ending in K that means to have intercourse?
- What is it on a man that is round, hard, and sticks so far out his pajamas that you can hang a hat on it?
A candidate must answer four from a list of twenty-five of such questions. While there is a traditional set of questions, some modern clubs also make up new initiation questions along the same lines.
Read more about this topic: Ancient Order Of Turtles
Famous quotes containing the word questions:
“Science asks no questions about the ontological pedigree or a priori character of a theory, but is content to judge it by its performance; and it is thus that a knowledge of nature, having all the certainty which the senses are competent to inspire, has been attained—a knowledge which maintains a strict neutrality toward all philosophical systems and concerns itself not with the genesis or a priori grounds of ideas.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)