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

Today's Puzzle

Friday, October 30
POP QUIZ! The answers all have something in common.
🦇🎃🦇 I know what you're thinking, but this puzzle isn't Halloween-related. The orange and black theme is just to be festive. 🦇🎃🦇
  1. What's Bryce's sign?
  2. What do you call a masterless samurai?
  3. What family includes ravens, crows, and magpies?
  4. What is one of the largest companies in the paper adhesives industry?
  5. What was represented by tomatoes in a Puzzle of the Day earlier this week?
  6. What literary character did author Harper Lee model on her own father?
  7. Who is the most intellectual of the Brothers Karamazov?
  8. What do diplomats and cowboys call a negotiation?
  9. Tablespoon is to teaspoons as league is to...?
  10. TWO-PART ANSWER: What equals 2.248 × 10–13 lb?

   


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Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

A friend recently asked my wife for one of our recipes which we hadn't made in a while. Fortunately, she was able to track it down. Unfortunately, one item in the ingredient list was specified only as "2 Tbsp"! (See left.) At first we could not figure out what was missing, but after studying other recipes, she thinks she figured it out.

First things first, though. What is this recipe even for? (This dish may not be familiar to you, so I'll allow Google for today's puzzle; it's not entirely trivial to figure out what to search for!)

Then, once you think you know what dish this is, what, in your opinion, does it need 2 Tbsp of?

Solution It's a noodle kugel! We held a kugel bake-off once, and I am taking notes for the next one. Y'all suggested lemon juice (why not), lemon zest (now we're talking), brown sugar (ok), honey (ok), molasses (a little intense), brandy (that'd work), salt (WHOA NOT 2 TBSP), nutmeg (literally toxic 🤢), cream (ok), mayo (mais non!), cornstarch (gloopy 😢), flour (would've been my guess), matzo meal (this is just worse flour), and butter (my wife looked at 20 recipes and says this is the answer). Allie, please enjoy the slice above. 🦔

Congratulations to yesterday's solvers Inca, Maddy🧈, Peter M.🧈, Yana, Jacob C.🧈, Charlie, Kate🧈, Mr. and Mrs. Gregg🧈, Graham, and Mira. 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.