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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Tuesday, March 2
I recently learned a bit of humorous jargon from the U. S. Senate.

You might have heard about a proposal to increase the federal minimum wage to $15. That proposal was part of a spending bill, but got removed because the Senate parliamentarian ruled that it was off topic and could not be passed under the same rules as budget legislation.

The Senate could overrule her and pass the bill anyway, but it doesn't look like they will do that. They're following a rule they made for themselves, called the ____ Rule (named after the former senator who proposed it). Your puzzle for today is to name that senator, given two hints:

  1. The process of "scrubbing" off-topic items from budget legislation is called a "____ bath".
  2. The items that get removed from the legislation as a result are called "____ droppings".
(Same name goes in all the blanks, in case it isn't clear.)

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

I try not to keep too many single-purpose kitchen tools around, but it turns out I have a few. Can you guess what each of these is for?

Solution
  1. This device is for making neat dollops of batter (e.g., for cupcakes or pancakes). You pour the batter in and press the plunger.
  2. This is a citrus juicer I bought for $5 at a yard sale. It's vastly superior to this more common design.
  3. This is a cherry pitter.
  4. This is a strainer, very handy for draining the water from pasta without using a second pot or colander. You hold it against the rim of the pot and pour the water through.

Congratulations to yesterday's winners Maddy (2), Charlie (3), Alex Z. (2,3), Ena (2,3), Inca (3,4), Mrs. Gregg (3), and Peter M. (all four, after a live exhibition of tool 1 from various angles). 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.