Puzzle of the Day

I recently saw the custom license plate SUERTE8. This gave me enough information to make a reasonable guess that the owner speaks two specific languages (other than English). What two languages?

I'll allow Google for this puzzle. (Note: The answer has nothing to do with alcoholic beverages.)

BONUS: When you think about it, SUERTE8 is a marvel of efficiency. It isn't easy to convey in just 7 characters that you are familiar with two languages—and what those languages are. Can you create another vanity plate that does this? The DMV allows letters, numbers, ✋, ♡, ☆, and ＋.

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

I grew up going to the UC Davis Coffee House, a student-run restaurant. The CoHo, as it's called, published a cookbook of its recipes, hand-lettered with whimsical illustrations. Can you recognize the five dishes illustrated below? You can mouse over each picture for a hint.

It's a kind of cookie. It's a kind of soup.
This musical excerpt consists of three what? It's a kind of cake. This one is 'Veggie ____', but you might know the non-vegetarian version better. What is that veggie doing, anyway?

Solution

Ginger Snaps, Cream of Broccoli Soup, Lemon Bars, Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, and Veggie Loaf.

My favorite wrong answers: Limoncello, Veggie "Bored" (Board), Veggie Lone-sagna, and Veggie Chili ('cause that veggie is chillin).

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Inca, Jacob C., Lucia, Maddy, and perfect scorers Yana, Charlie, and Mr. Gregg. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!

This is my favorite drawing in the book. I don't think there's a pun involved. It's just cute

About This Site

Though he now teaches mathematics, Dr. (né Mr.) Shapiro's first job in a K–12 school was as a lunch monitor in Davis, CA. It was there that he originated the Puzzle of the Day, even rewarding correct answers with tickets in denominations like "15 points" (though without a clear idea of how he'd ultimately redeem these). Dr. Shapiro's favorite puzzle from this pre-professional era was "Tell me the location of the beehive on this campus."

Ten years later, Dr. Shapiro revived Puzzle of the Day at Proof School, writing each day's puzzle on a name tag. After 600 puzzles or so, he was just starting to feel normal about students reading his chest all the time when campus closed and the puzzle, like the rest of our lives, moved online. New puzzles are posted daily on school days.

Want to catch up on old PotDs? There's an archive currently containing puzzles from March to December 2020.

Today's Puzzle

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

About This Site