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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Monday, August 31
This is a story about the willow ptarmigan—Alaska's state bird—and the little town near Fairbanks that was almost named for it.

Perhaps you've heard of the Klondike Gold Rush, when gallant miners flocked to the Yukon looking to make a buck. A few of them wandered west into Alaska, took the lay of the land, and founded an itty-bitty settlement on the Fortymile River. They were going to call it Ptarmigan after the local game bird that kept them well-fed when pickin's were paltry, but something fouled their plans. What was the matter? They were scared of misspelling it and becoming a laughingstock! Rather than brood over it, they scratched "Ptarmigan" and gave their town a more common name at which, surely, no one would ever cackle.

What did they call it?

(By the way, you can still visit this town, but there are only 7 year-round residents left. The miners have long since flown the coop.)

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

Many of us know Joel as Dr. Via (Latin for street). Which of these Proof School teachers can you recognize from Latin versions of their surnames?
  1. Collis
  2. Faber
  3. Subsilvana
  4. Homo Novus
  5. Centum Fontes
  6. De Campo
  7. Ausa Est
Feel free to use Google if you're stumped; you'll still need your brain too, I promise. Thanks to Joel for help creating this puzzle!

Hint Teachers #1–3 have last names that are English words (or are made up of English words). Teachers #4–6 have last names that are words in other languages (or are made up of words in other languages). You're on your own for #7. *evil laugh*

Solution
  1. Hill (Dr. Hill); Atticus discovered that Horowitz is related to a Slavic word for 'hill'
  2. Smith (Mia)
  3. Underwood (Dr. U)
  4. Neumann (Dr. Neumann): German for 'new man'; Katya points out that 'new man' could also refer to Graham
  5. Sifuentes (Zachary): possibly from cien fuentes, Spanish for 'a hundred fountains'
  6. Vandervelde (Dr.V): Dutch for 'of the field'; Charlie says it should be De Agro, but I couldn't resist the pun on 'campus'
  7. Durst (Doc Durst): durst is an archaic form of dared, though this is probably not the origin of the name
It's good that Dr. U and Dr.V aren't Dr. U and Dr.V in Latin, because we'd have trouble telling them apart.

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Inca, Katya, Newton, Nicholas, Leo S., Atticus, Anna J., Maddy, Jessica, Charlie, Yana, and Zachary S. (the underline means a perfect 7/7). 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.