Threading the Pants

It seems many people have learned this trick from the eternal font of practical knowledge: Mom.

The solution is easy, and if you didn't know it before, next time you have this problem try it out:

Pull the belt all the way out of the shorts. Take a medium sized safety pin (small if you were trying to fix the drawstring on a hooded sweatshirt) and fix the pin to the free end of the belt. Insert the pin into one of the open ends of the pants lining. Now, your fingers will have no trouble moving the pin through the lining of the pants, working from the outside by touch. Once the pin is out the other side, grab both ends (don't let the other end slip in, or you'll need to start over) and even out the pants. Ta da!

Extra credit: The ancient conundrum refers back to the legendary Daedalus, who according to myth constructed the Labyrinth of Crete, which housed the Minotaur. Daedalus was challenged by the king of Crete to run a thread through the shell of a conch.

Daedalus supposedly tied a thread to an ant which he dropped into the conch, and lured the ant through with a drop of honey at a hole on the tip.