Happy Tuesday! Here's a quirky little tune from the Beach Boys called "Vega-Tables". The instrumentation is as quirky as the lyrics; for example, a bottle is played (and then emptied into a glass) at 0:13.
What "instrument" provides the rhythm from 0:52 to 1:12? Legend has it that the instrument was "played" by Paul McCartney of the Beatles, who, if you believe another urban legend, was dead at the time lost calories in the process.
Hint
Improbable as it may seem, the instrument in question provides the flavoring for the drink seen below, which, according to Wikipedia, is "easy to find in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and in South Florida, but rather obscure elsewhere."
Bonus: What is the name of your favorite vega-table?
Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution
In the mists beyond the Pacific lies a city variously known as Cisco or San Anc—both names are controversial—where they speak a dialect of English curious to our ears. The people of that city live in miniums, work out at the nasium, and fill their mobiles with oline (when they aren't getting around by omni or usine). And just in case you didn't get the randum, they even have a school for kids who love ematics.
How would the people of Cisco use the following words in a sentence? (One sentence per word, or you can cram them all into one sentence should it please you.)
Bonus round: What word means skillful rhetoric to us, but a place for science to the Ciscans?
Solution
So many great responses! I'm just going to share two, from Jacob and Graham:
In (San Fran)cisco, words are shortened in the opposite way than they are normally. Sandwiches are sold at the (deli)catessen, often with (mayo)nnaise as a topping; the zoo is filled with (rhino)ceroses and (chimp)anzees; they catch the in(flu)enza, and the males among them wear (tux)edos at formal events. The bonus is (lab)oratory. This might imately be my orite puzzle so far!
(The males of which species, Jacob...?)
1,2,5. After getting my inenza shot, I felt safe for days,
so I went to the catessen for a sandwich with nnaise.
3,4,6. At the zoo, the ceros and anzee were somewhat neat-o,
but the penguin wore an edo.
Graham also asks, "How do Ciscans who study ematics tell the difference between an imum and an imum?" (｡_。).｡oO(??)
At least we can agree with our sister city on one thing. A taxicab is known as a taxi for short... or a cab.
Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Anna K., Peter M., Leo S., Newton, Maddy, Jacob C., Connor, Yana, Charlie, Dr. Yetman, Graham, and "iste Gregg and wife" (the underlined solvers got all 6 and the bonus). 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.
