H E L L O
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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Wednesday, February 17
Answer me these questions three:
  1. What are the three principal ingredients in Turducken?
  2. The monstrosity on the book cover (first image) is a curious amalgam of what three creatures?
  3. The map (second image) covers parts of what three states?

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

Abe's heart attack was caused by firecrackers; George's by eating too many donuts.

This sentence is, if you like, a very short story. But it's also timely. How many sly references to current/upcoming observances can you spot?

Solution Only Mr. Gregg knew about the donuts, which are not so familiar in California. (In parts of the country with a large Polish community, like Chicago and Detroit, everyone knows about Pączki Day!) I liked Peter's reading of my clues:
Too (like two) + Donuts -- Feb 20 (like 🍩2/2🍩/2🍩2🍩)

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Peter M., Summer, Leo S., Inca, Jacob C., the Greggs, and Kate. 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.