This week’s puzzle:

A young man who fell from popularity at an early age pulls a stunt to impress his new friends and is taught a lesson. In the end, he earns the respect of his peers (while alienating his mother), but it does him no good at all.

Last week’s puzzle:

A small business owner who always ends up on the losing side of fights is a selective music-hater. In the end he tells his old friends to leave him and makes new friends with his enemies.

And the answer is . . . ▼

For some folks it was cause for distress
Kasparov claimed his foes did transgress
But what could it mean
When a mere machine
Beat a master in a match of chess?

Event: Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in a dramatic Game 6, becoming the first computer to beat a reigning world champion in a chess match
Year: 1997
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Blue_%28chess_computer%29

The animals were, in order: dog, cow (or ox), horse, monkey, bird, and cat.

犬　牛　馬　猿　鳥　猫

Now for the scoring.  Fifty points each to Shirley and Dragon for being on the right track (last time I checked, horses also have four legs and a tail).  A Fan gets 100 points for poking fun at his brother and making obscure song references, plus another hundred for his three guesses.  Then he goes into the double bonus for saying that E was a dinosaur (because, as we all know, dinosaurs evolved into birds), with a triple word score for identifying cat as dog and vice versa.  Unfortunately, the system is not capable of calculating so many points all at once, so he has been reset to 1.

But anyway, time for this week’s challenge, which is on the family.  Since yesterday was Mother’s Day, pick the character for “mother” out of this lineup of family members.

A. 兄　B. 姉　C. 妹　D. 弟　E. 父　F. 母

The world was filled with awful noise
And then in silence passed
Until the air was once more rent
By a horrific blast

Barret’s shouts came to a head
He opened fire: POW!
Rage expended, he whipped round
“So!  What do we do now?”

This week’s puzzle:

A small business owner who always ends up on the losing side of fights is a selective music-hater. In the end he tells his old friends to leave him and makes new friends with his enemies.

Last week’s puzzle:

The President of the United States fires a nuclear missile at a target within his own country, but almost no one cares. Then later he gives away the secret to destroying the most powerful weapon on Earth and is lauded as a great hero.

And the answer is . . . ▼

Portugal was of ill humor full
Screamed ’til faces turned blue—no, purple
“All this brand-new terrain—
Why should it go to Spain?
If you ask me, all this is just bull!”

Event: Pope Alexander VI issues the papal bull Inter caetera, granting rights to the majority of the New World to Spain
Year: 1493
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_caetera
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas

And the answer is . . . C!  Here are the days of the week in the correct order, starting with Sunday:

日　月　火　水　木　金　土

The days in Japanese, rather than being named after the sun, the moon, and various ancient European deities, are named after the sun, the moon, and the classical Chinese elements.  They are fire (Tuesday), water (Wednesday), wood (Thursday), metal (Friday), and earth (Saturday).

We hereby award 10 MWP’s to A Fan for having the most creative answer, 3 to Dragon for using logic in a situation where there’s no reason to expect it to work, and 2 to Shirley for knowing how to pick her ponies.

And speaking of ponies, this week’s challenge is animals.  Since most of my readers have at least some experience with dogs, let’s see if you can pick the dog out from this lineup.  Bonus points to anyone who wants to try to guess what the other animals are (yes, they’re all animals).

A. 犬　B. 牛　C. 馬　D. 猿　E. 鳥　F. 猫