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Dr. Shapiro's Puzzle of the Day

Today's Puzzle

Monday, November 9
This is the table of contents for what Wikipedia page?

   


     Note: Clicking "Submit" will send your response to Dr. Shapiro.

Yesterday's Puzzle + Solution

How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers was published in 1917. How it failed to find lasting fame is a mystery, because it is a charming and delightful work.

Here's a sample page:
And another:

Got it? Then let's see if you're ready to place out of Flornithology 101! What bird and plant (not always a flower) have been redacted from each page below? Tip: For optimum display, open one panel at a time.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5

Solution
  1. Parrot/carrot
  2. Pecan/toucan
  3. Hen/lichen (get it, "like-hen"?)
  4. Tern/turnip
  5. Larks/larkspur
The Gutenberg Project has put the whole book online. Enjoy!

With a bird or flower for those who got all five, congratulations to yesterday's solvers Maddy🦜, Inca🦚, Connor, Newton, Charlie🦅, Yana🦢, Kate🌻, and the Greggs🌺. 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.