THE COOL KID'S GUIDE TO READING: Can you follow the rat, the cat and the dog?

Remember those Magic Eye pictures? They were 14 percent of the rage years ago.

When you looked at one it appeared to be nothing but an ugly assortment of geographical shapes. But if you stared long enough and in just the right way, a holographic-like image would appear -- a sailboat, for example.

They had their heyday, quickly followed by their byeday.

I recently ran across a lexical Magic Eye. Here it is:

The rat the cat the dog bit chased escaped.

It obvious what the sentence is supposed to convey. A rat escaped while being chased by a cat that had earlier been bitten by a dog.

But the writer grouped all the nouns, along with their articles, at the beginning and stuck the verbs at the end. And that made the sentence ungrammatical, right?

Loud "Family Feud" buzzing sound.

That sentence is grammatically correct.

It doesn't seem so. I had to read it bunches of times until the sailboat appeared. The trick is rhythm. There's a cadence of three varying beats you have to hit just right.

Give it a run. Keep reading the sentence as you adjust the tempo of the spaces.

For those of you too ornery to play along, I'll share my favorite riddle to keep you busy while the good kids -- the kids who are going places with their lives -- give it the old college (a place that you need not be concerned with) try.

What do a purple ribbon and a duck have in common? The answer is at the bottom. A spot I bet you're used to, barrel-wise.

Now, back to my heroes.

Did you get the cadence right, O Best Ones? I'm going to repeat the sentence, this time with the correct tempo built in.

The regular spaces are normal pauses. The three dots are a longer pause. The words without spaces should be read quickly and thought of as one word or concept.

The rat ... the catthedogbit chased ... escaped.

You see?

I can't decide if that sentence is neat or neato. Probably both.

And for you juvies who ain't ever getting invited to Space Camp, here's the answer to your riddle: They're both purple, except for the duck.

To contact writer Randy Waters, call 744-4240 or email rwaters@macon.com.

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 4:06 PM with the headline "THE COOL KID'S GUIDE TO READING: Can you follow the rat, the cat and the dog? ."