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

Today's Puzzle

Thursday, August 27
I recently saw posters plastered in my neighborhood with this text in English and Spanish:

VOTE 4 JAMIE DLUZAK
A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

VOTA 4 JAMIE DLUZAK
UN HOMBRE DE LA GENTE

Reader, I laughed. Can you tell why I found Mr. Dluzak's pitch amusing?
(Note: It has nothing to do with his political positions, which I have not researched!)

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

The drawings above are etched in a medium called artist's conk, which is a type of what? (Hello, Proofniks! I've missed you!)

Solution Artist's conk is a mushroom (not a shell—that would be a conch).

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Leo S., Inca, Newton, Katya, Trent, Andrew, Ena, Reade, and Nico, and 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 June 2020.