I’m an elegant garment of velvet or wool;
I am worn by a count, but removed for a bull;
A vacation location enjoyed to the full;
And when Superman visits you, Jim says don’t pull.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Kimi. See comments for answer.

From the American Research Group:

November 13, 2007 – Impeachment

A total of 64% of American voters say that President George W. Bush has abused his powers as president. Of the 64%, 14% (9% of all voters) say the abuses are not serious enough to warrant impeachment, 33% (21% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses, but he should not be impeached, and 53% (34% of all voters) say the abuses rise to the level of impeachable offenses and Mr. Bush should be impeached and removed from office.

The respondents didn’t specify whether they were specifically referring to the administration’s policy on torture. They didn’t say if they were talking about how they cherry-picked intelligence to justify a wrong-headed war, or how they compromised national security by outing a covert CIA operative, merely as retribution for her husband calling them on their lies. The respondents may not have been specifically responding to warrantless wiretapping and secret military tribunals. They may have simply been thinking of how the administration handed over all government regulation to the industries being regulated. The data doesn’t say. All they were asked was if President Bush abused his power, and 64% said he did. The data also doesn’t show what the other 36% were thinking.

When you look at the data, though, something else is striking.

I’m surprised, though I guess I shouldn’t be, that so few people gave Response 2. Imagine a graph of this data. Usually a distribution like this would slope up, slope down, or rise in the middle like a bell curve. That this data set has such a sharp dip in the middle is a testament to just how polarizing this president has been. 64% of Republicans feel that President Bush has not abused his powers as president at all, while 50% of Democrats feel he should be impeached for it.

Also, more than one-fifth of respondents in general felt that his abuses had risen to the level of an impeachable offense, but that he shouldn’t be impeached. Isn’t that being soft on crime? Or perhaps we just remember the last time an opposition Congress impeached a sitting president, and are unwilling to go through all of that again, even if it’s warranted this time.

Because for 36% of the population, warrants are sooooo 20th century.

England has had eight kings named Henry, all before Shakespeare was born.

How many of the eight appear as characters in Shakespeare’s 37 canonical plays?

For your answer to be valid, please list each such Henry, and at least one play in which he appears. It is not necessary to list all of the plays in which each Henry appears, but maybe we can do that after the Conundrum is solved.

Note: The Henry does not need to have been king at the time – nor, for that matter, called Henry.

UPDATE: Question answered by K-Lyn. See comments for answer.

There’s a new website called FreeRice that helps you improve your vocabulary and fight world hunger. When you go there, you play a simple but addictive vocabulary game, and every time you answer a question correctly, the site donates ten grains of rice through the UN World Food Program.

At first, I thought this was another site to get humans to participate in an automated task that computers can’t do, like read book scans or create picture captions. But it works by generating advertising revenue. When you click on the answers, you indicate your visit to the advertisers, and they pay for the rice.

I just donated 2200 grains of rice, and was able to reach a vocabulary level of 48. And I was worried I was going to be unproductive today!

From A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

Fetch me that flower; the herb I show’d thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Would these instant loves be hollow? Or is the market in cue for the demand? They let freewheeling pharmaceutical elements hoot with joy to fix date-rape medicine.

First, read the rules of the game.

This week’s challenge is presidential hopeful John Edwards.

I was able to link John Edwards to Sir Francis Bacon in six degrees or fewer, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, November 15.

Good luck!

And congratulations to UnixMan for winning last week’s challenge by linking Dan Aykroyd to Sir Francis Bacon in three degrees:

Dan Aykroyd > Richard Nixon > William Shakespeare > Francis Bacon

Dan Aykroyd appeared on Saturday Night Live impersonating Richard Nixon, who in high school showed a penchant for the writings of William Shakespeare, who is believed by some to be Sir Francis Bacon.

I’m eleven or seven, but naught in between;
I’m the best grade of meat; or a rib cut cuisine;
I’m the minister chosen to lead for the Queen;
I’m a rate used by banks; or Meridian mean.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by K-Lyn. See comments for answer.

Four poker friends played a hand of five-card stud. Each player was dealt one hole card face down, and then four additional cards face up. The cards were dealt, as in standard poker, one at a time around the table, from one regular poker deck. However, instead of betting each round, they decided to deal all twenty cards out in the beginning, and let winner take all!

1. As it turned out, any two consecutive cards dealt in this hand were either different color cards of the same rank or were consecutive ranks of the same suit, considering Aces as high cards only.

2. At least three of the four hole cards were Queens.

3. The last card dealt was a Heart.

4. At least one player was dealt more than one Ten. Nobody was ever dealt a Nine.

5. No Diamond was ever dealt immediately before or after a Spade.

6. Ron was dealt no Clubs, Lenny was dealt no Kings, Nick was dealt at least one Jack, and Frank’s hole card was a Spade.

Who won, and with what hand?

UPDATE: Puzzle solved by ArtVark. See comments for answer.

One year to go.

Who will be the next president of the United States?

This is meant to be a prediction, not an endorsement, but feel free to throw in your preferences as well.