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Sunday Puzzle: Thing from thing

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge

I’m going to name some things. For each one you tell me something the thing has that starts with the same first two letters that the thing does.

Ex. TRee —> TRunk (A tree has a trunk, and both tree and trunk start with TR)

1. Dresser

2. Bird

3. Play

4. Stairway

5. Lettuce

6. Makeup kit

7. Skeleton

8. Week

9. Quiz

10. Petunia

11. Rodeo

12. Pool table

Last week’s challenge

Spell out the numbers from 13 to 20 — THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN, NINETEEN, TWENTY. Select one letter from each word, in order, to name another number. No anagramming is necessary. What number is it?

Answer: Infinity

Winner

Karen Hillerman of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This week’s challenge

This week’s challenge comes from Ben Bass, of Chicago. Think of a state capital and say it out loud. Change one vowel sound in it to name something many schoolkids study. What things are these?

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, September 3 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has appeared on Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).

Will sold his first puzzle professionally when he was 14 — to Venture, a denominational youth magazine. At 16 he became a regular contributor to Dell puzzle publications. He is the only person in the world to hold a college degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, which he earned from Indiana University in 1974.

Born in 1952 and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Indiana, Will now lives near New York City in a Tudor-style house filled with books and Arts and Crafts furniture. When he's not at work, he enjoys bicycling, movies, reading, travel, and collecting antique puzzle books and magazines.

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