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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Monday, February 1
Every year I torment friends, family, and myself with the King William's College General Knowledge Quiz, an outlandishly difficult trivia contest. (I don't think I've ever cracked 10%.)

This question appeared once on the quiz:

In which story was insomnia caused by a deeply hidden pulse?
I had little doubt about my answer—a story by a 19th century American master of the macabre. But as it turned out, that wasn't the answer at all. Can you guess what I guessed, and what the right answer was?

Hint #1 Consider all the definitions of pulse.

Hint #2 The answer was a well-known fairy tale.

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

I alphabetized the Proofniks! There's Will, Erica, Ellie, Elliot, Ella, Ena, Emil, Emmett, Reade, [105 names omitted], Michael, Marie, Matthew, Maddy, and Max.

What?

Oh.

Sorry, I thought that was how alphabetization worked.

Well, anyway, tell me the names of hypothetical Proofniks who, if they were to join the school, would come first in my list (before Will) and last (after Max).

Hint If dictionaries were alphabetized in this manner, the last entry would be a purely consonantal expression of pleasure from eating delicious food. And the first entry would be six letters, usually spelled in all caps... well, look, if I told you more, it would rather spoil the puzzle.

Solution This is what alphabetization would look like if the alphabet were in QWERTY keyboard order! Here are the names that were proposed to go first and last...

First: Quentin, Quinlan, Quinn, Wendy

Last: Maximilian, Mac, Mace, Mack, Mackenzie, Mabel, Mandy, Manny, Mami

The words referenced in the hint are "mmm" and "QWERTY" itself. (Though I recently learned the word QQ from Milo, so if that were in my dictionary then it would be first.)

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Jacob C., Leo S., Peter M., Yana, Jason, and the Greggs. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!

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.