Today's Puzzle
Monday, May 10
These are dictionary definitions of what four thematically related verbs?
- to lower the head or body suddenly
- to lose one's nerve—usually used with out
- to sharply poke or pinch the buttocks
- to complain, grumble
Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution
Chinook, Deep Blue, AlphaGo, and Watson are AIs famous for defeating humans at various games (checkers, chess, go, and
Jeopardy!, respectively).
Now humans have been beaten in yet another field of competition by an AI called Dr. Fill. What kind of competition?
Solution
The hint was in the name; Dr. Fill fills crosswords. Here's the story.
Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Jacob C., Inca, Graham, and Dr. Yetman, and honorable mention to Peter M. for his answer of "hotdog eating contests". 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 2020 to March 2021.