Riddle-me-ree

Not ellipsoid but ovoid

What needs to be broken before it can be used?

No idea? Here’s another clue:

A box without hinges, key, or lid,
yet golden treasure inside is hid

Still in the dark with this riddle? This witty doggerel by Luis d’Antin van Rooten gives another, perhaps more obscure, hint:

Un petit d’un petit
S’étonne aux Halles
Un petit d’un petit
Ah! degrés te fallen
Indolent qui ne sort cesse
Indolent qui ne se mène
Qu’importe un petit
Tout gai de Reguennes.

No? Another question then: what is former vicar’s daughter and esteemed Prime Minister Teresa May calling ‘ridiculous’?

Easter’s very important. It’s important to me. It’s a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world. So I think what the National Trust is doing is frankly just ridiculous.

Lest you’re still puzzled, she’s complaining that in just one context giant chocolate manufacturer Cadbury’s dropped the word Easter from the promotion for their annual hunt.

Let’s be clear: Easter is from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre, which the Venerable Bede in the 8th century claimed was the pagan goddess of Spring. Secondly, I think you’ll find no reference to this distinctive object in the New Testament in connection with the Resurrection. And thirdly, encouraging children to go searching for ovoid chocolates — I don’t recall it being a biblical injunction.

I think the stance they have taken is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t know what they are thinking about frankly.

Methinks Mrs May frankly doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She has yellow-and-white matter on her face, meaning the joke’s on her.

Or should that be yolk?

The goddess Ostara or Eostre by Johannes Gehrts (1884)

Happy Easter!