The Shakespeare Teacher is out. It’s your move.

Today’s challenge is based on the most recent Conundrum, which was a logic problem called Poker Game 2.

The answer is the Queen of Spades and the Six of Spades.

Your challenge is to select the five cards on the board to make that answer correct. Everything else about the problem will stay the same.

First person to post a correct entry (by March 10) is the winner.

UPDATE: I’ll leave this challenge active a little longer if anyone wants to try it.

The Shakespeare Teacher is out. It’s your move.

Today’s challenge is the Thursday Morning Riddle. The answer is:

KEY is correct. Way to go, Bill!

Now, you write the riddle.

Entries should follow the same format as earlier riddles: four lines of anapestic tetrameter with rhyme scheme AAAA (all four lines rhyme). Riddles are written in the first person (i.e., from the point of view of “Key”). Semicolons are used to mark a change in word meaning. The word “Key” should not be in the riddle.

Entries are due by March 10, and a winner will be chosen after that time.

UPDATE: Contest won by Annalisa. See comments for all entries.

The Shakespeare Teacher is out. It’s your move.

For the anagram challenge, I’ve chosen a passage from Henry IV, Part Two. The dying King Henry IV is giving advice to his son Hal, who will soon become King Henry V. He suggests that Hal take his nation to war in a foreign country to distract them from the illegitimacy of his rule.

From Henry IV, Part Two:

Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes…?

Entries should use all of the letters in the original quote without adding any. Punctuation may be changed freely, but you may not add numerals or use any punctuation that needs to be pronounced (such as & or @). The best anagrams have some thematic resonance with the original quote. See earlier anagrams for samples.  You may find this a useful tool along the way, and you can check your final anagram here before posting.

Entries are due by March 10, and a winner will be chosen after that time.

You may have noticed that posting has been light lately. Now, I’m going to need to step away from the blog for about a month. I would like to call upon my readers to help keep the ball in the air until I return.

I used to read a magazine called Games, which had a regular feature called “Your Move” that featured puzzles submitted by readers. Building on that idea, I now turn this blog over to you.

Every five days, I will post a challenge or prompt related to one of my regular features. (Actually, I’ve already written them and they are scheduled to appear every five days. Even this post was written days ago.) I’ll post a Shakespeare passage; you make the anagram. I’ll post the answer; you write the riddle. And so on.

I will return on March 11 and will select the best entry for each challenge. As always, winner gets a name check in the post.

I may stop in from time to time to make comments and/or delete spam, but the next live post will likely be on or after March 11.

Today being Monday, I’d like to begin with the Question of the Week. There’s no challenge here, but I’d like to invite you to peruse past questions and revive an interesting discussion that has petered out. You can also keep an eye on the comments, either in the right-hand side bar or the RSS feed, and join in a conversation revived by someone else.

It’s your move. Have a good month!

I’m perception with eyes, the result of a gaze;
I’m to meet for a date; or attendance at plays;
I am calling a bet with a possible raise;
And the main jurisdiction a bishop surveys.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Sara. See comments for answer.