Puzzle

Q: What does an ambitious antelope say?

A. "Don't be a cantelope!"

Q: What do you call a massage parlor that only does men?

A: Massagynist

What do Roy Riegels and Douglas Corrigan have in common?

They both had directional difficulties.

Quote :

As well as its food use, [this] is also used as a lubricant in clocks, for making artists' paints, and in the cosmetics industry.

It also has a common name which is so offensive that it cannot be used anymore.

What is it?

There are two letters of the alphabet that occur, either one or both, in every U.S. state name — with two exceptions.

Name the letters and name the exception states.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Quote :

As well as its food use, [this] is also used as a lubricant in clocks, for making artists' paints, and in the cosmetics industry.

It also has a common name which is so offensive that it cannot be used anymore.

What is it?

All I can come up with is sperm oil, from the whale of the same name.
Is that really now considered offensive? Or am I incorrect?

NoCoPilot wrote:

There are two letters of the alphabet that occur, either one or both, in every U.S. state name — with two exceptions.

Name the letters and name the exception states.

Are you sure you are phrasing this question correctly?
Or am I just unable to understand it?

_Howard wrote:

All I can come up with is sperm oil, from the whale of the same name.
Is that really now considered offensive? Or am I incorrect?

”Sperm oil” is not the answer I’m looking for.

_Howard wrote:

Are you sure you are phrasing this question correctly?
Or am I just unable to understand it?

i was trying to reduce the question to its smallest essential elements. Sorry if I reduced it too far. Let me try again.

There are two letters that occur in every state name — either both letters, or in a few cases, just one of the letters. The only exceptions are two states, of the 50 United States, which break this pattern.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Quote :

As well as its food use, [this] is also used as a lubricant in clocks, for making artists' paints, and in the cosmetics industry.

It also has a common name which is so offensive that it cannot be used anymore.

What is it?

Brazil nut oil.
The offensive slang term for I remember well, although I haven't heard it in many decades. But the slang refers to the nut, not to the oil.

NoCoPilot wrote:

There are two letters that occur in every state name — either both letters, or in a few cases, just one of the letters. The only exceptions are two states, of the 50 United States, which break this pattern.

The best I can do is 'a' and 'n', which results in three exceptions: Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio.

You are correct, there are three states. Sorry I had the set-up wrong!

_Howard wrote:

Brazil nut oil.

Correct again.

NoCoPilot wrote:

You are correct, there are three states.  Sorry I had the set-up wrong!

Thank you! I was going nuts trying to figure out where I got that wrong.