Puzzle of the Day has ended for the 2020–21 school year, but the
archive lives on. See you in the fall!
In the Before Times, I handwrote my daily puzzle on a name tag. So it shall be again in the After Times. But the PotD website has been great for posting puzzles with images. Before this format is retired, I have four more questions for you about random photos I took on my cellphone.
From top to bottom, left to right:
- What is being advertised on this poster?
- Why did I pay $60 for this hamburger? (I don't even eat meat!)
- Why did I take this picture of the ground in August 2017?
- If you see this car, what should you be prepared for it to do?
Solution
- Balloon animals.
- It's a cake (the flagship product of Oakland's Merritt Bakery). Though perhaps the real reason I paid $60 for a cake is that it was for a work event, and I was going to get reimbursed. 😄
- Note the crescents of light. I took this picture during the great solar eclipse of 2017.
- Like the year of remote school, THIS TOO shall… pass.
Congratulations to yesterday's solvers
🎓Jessica⭐, Peter V.⭐, Anna J., Peter M., Alex Z., Inca, Dr. Yetman⭐, Graham⭐, and Kate. Thanks to everybody who made a guess!
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? Check out the complete archive.
