Birth of a Word

Time for the new puzzler.

This puzzler has to do with the birth of a word, you might say.

Here we go.

So, as usual, I don't have all the facts straight. But I will make them up as I go along.

During the 19th century, there were these disgruntled French peasants who worked in the fields sowing and harvesting the crops.

These peasants would go into the fields of their rich landlords and would trample the crops wearing their wooden peasant shoes.

Out of this behavior, a new word was born.

This word has entered not just the French vocabulary, but the English vocabulary as well.

And is a very common word, a word that you perhaps hear every day.

What is that word?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Door Number Two

Time for the new puzzler.

Well, this one is an old puzzler. But we are using it again, so now we will consider it new.

We are using this one again because it is perhaps one of the best puzzlers of all time. And it has been so long since we used it, the people who heard it before have surely forgotten.

Here we go.

You may remember the game show called Let's Make A Deal.

This show originally aired in the 1960s and then they did a remake in 2009.

Anyway, in the game, the contestant was presented with three doors.

Door #1, Door #2 and Door #3.

Behind one of the doors was a wonderful prize, and behind the other two doors were crummy prizes known as zonks.

Okay so here is the puzzler.

Pretend that you are the contestant.

The host tells you to pick a door. Your chances of picking a zonk is 2 in 3, and your chances of picking the good door is 1 in 3.

So you pick Door #2. The host says, "I'm gonna show you what is behind one of the doors that you didn't pick."

So because he is the host, he knows where the good prize is, and where the bad prizes are. So he shows you Door #1, which is a zonk.

He then says to you, "Would you like to keep Door #2 which you've chosen, or would you like to switch to Door #3?"

So, should you switch to Door #3? Or should you stick with your original choice, Door #2?