"There's a crazy cat peeking through a lace bandana like a one-eyed Cheshire like a diamond-eye Jack. A leaf of all colors plays to a golden string fiddle to a Doctor E waterfall with puzzle attacks!" I'm not sure what this means, but I think it means it is time for the third problem of this season's Wright Challenge puzzle contest! Every fortnight, the mysterious Doctor E supplies another puzzle for you to think about, and at the end of the semester, prizes of $60, $40 and $20 go to the top three finishers, with handsome certificates, suitable for framing, going to all sufficiently high-scoring finishers. Eligible contestants include University of Northern Iowa students, Iowa high school students, and Illinois high school students!

Turning in the correct solution to this week's puzzle by October 31st will earn 2 puzzle points. A correct solution along with the name of a food that contains four A's will get 3 puzzle points!

Last year, Doctor E's friend Doctor Complehx taught him a curiously addictive word game. Doctor Complehx would come up with a secret five letter word with no repeated letters. Every turn, Doctor E gave her a five letter word (the guess could have repeated letters) and Doctor Complehx would score it by giving Doctor E one point for every letter in his word that was in her word.

For example, pretend Doctor Complehx's word was "LASER". Then a guess of "HAIRY" would get 2 points (the A and the R), and a guess of "LAPSE" would get 4 points (the A, E, S and L). Here is where it gets interesting: A guess of "JELLY" would get 3 points (one for the E and one for each L) and a guess of "EASES" would get 5 points (one for the A, one for each E, one for each S). Got it?

Here are the first six turns of one of their games:

RENEW
3
CHORE
3
OTTER
2
HOOTS
3
FLAIL
2
NINTH
1

At this point, Doctor E had enough information to determine the secret word. What was it?

The deadline for sending in solutions has expired. But feel free to take some time to work on this one, and click here to see the answer. Alternatively, click here to see the current challenge.

 


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