A. 嗅覚　B. 視覚　C. 触覚　D. 第六感　E. 聴覚　F. 平衡覚　G. 味覚

We at the Wandering Wordsman would like to say how much we appreciate Dragon’s enthusiasm.  Every week, it seems, she leaps directly into the fray, fighting to get her guess out there before anyone else.  They say that you can get something done fast or you can get it done right; Dragon, like any good American, chooses fast.  It would be nice if she were also right, but hey, that’s really just icing on the cake at that point.

This week’s first strike was at letter A, supposedly a man with a box in his hand reaching out to touch it in order to determine its identity.  But wait a second.  We already know what the box is: it’s a box.  What good is touching it going to do us at that point?  As physics has famously taught us, we can even blow up the box and not know for sure what’s inside.  Looks like we’re going to have to rely on one of our other senses here.  If the contents of the box are an extremely frightened cat, then hearing would probably be our best bet, but let’s assume it’s food.  Everyone likes food, and really, why would you put a cat in a box in the first place?  For determining the identity of the food, we are going to want to use our sense of smell, and that is exactly what A is.  Technically the square on the left is not a box but a mouth, because, you know, people . . . smell . . . with their mouths.

We were also pleased to see that a minor debate sprung up over the number of senses.  Dragon believes there are only five, and that anything else is mere Wordsman trickery.  Shirley, on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in the non-traditional senses than in the puzzle itself, and we can hardly blame her for that.  What these two participants had in common was their interest in choice D,  which Shirley identified as the juxtaposition of the humor and absurdity inherent in life, while Dragon chose to see a man desperately trying to stay above water as he is being pulled around by a motorboat.  Though they came at it from different angles, when you get down to the heart of it, did they not both see the sense of balance in D?  Wouldn’t it be great if that was what D actually meant?  It sure would, but things don’t seem to work that way on KYPC.  The sense of balance is F, while D is, quite literally, the “sixth sense” that Dragon chose to regard with such scorn (the Japanese for “spidey sense” is supaida sensu).

And now time to clean up and deal with all the other boring senses.  Theoman, in his typical manner, successfully located the sense of touch at C.  Your sense of vision is there at letter B, hearing at E, and taste comes in last at letter G (notice the same mouth that appeared in letter A.  Seems to make a little more sense here).

As some of you might know, the Major League Baseball playoffs start this week, so it’s time to have another baseball-themed challenge.  Last time we had players, and this time we have positions.  Make like a good double-play ground ball and find your way to the shortstop.

A. 指名打者　B. 代走　C. 中堅手　D. 投手　E. 捕手　F. 遊撃手