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

Today's Puzzle

Thursday, March 25
What's the maximum number of different punctuation marks you can put in a row while conforming to normal rules of style? Spaces don't count, and all the punctuation must be used for a grammatical purpose, i.e., this kind of thing is cheating:
The symbols above the numbers on a QWERTY keyboard are !@#$%^&*().

   


     Note: Clicking "Submit" will send your response to Dr. Shapiro.

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

What's the common connection?

Solution The connection is Greek letters (Delta Airlines, Catherine Zeta-Jones, kappa, chi-square distribution, Omega Watch).

You might not have heard of the Japanese kappa, but I bet you've seen kappa (cucumber) rolls on a sushi menu. Note what favorite food the kappa in the picture is munching on.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Maddy, Jacob C., the Greggs, Kate, Dr. Yetman, and Graham. 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.