Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Take A Ride On The Plural Side

On-air challenge: Two clues will be provided. The first is for a brand name that ends in the letter S and sounds like it's plural. Change the first letter to spell a new word that is plural and answers the second clue. Example: tennis shoes, places to sleep; the answer would be Keds and beds.

Last week's challenge: This challenge came from listener Ben Kaufman of Portland, Ore. Think of a popular TV show about cooking — a show everyone has heard of. Remove the second and third letters of the first word and insert them after the first letter of the second word. The answer will be a phrase for a different kind of cooking. What is it?

Answer: Breaking Bad (which is about cooking meth), baking bread

Winner: Rodrick Crider of Washington, D.C.

Next week's challenge: Name something in five letters that's nice to have a lot of in the summer. Change the last letter to the following letter of the alphabet. Rearrange the result, and you'll name something else that you probably have a lot of in the summer, but that you probably don't want. What is it? (HINT: the second thing is a form of the first thing.)

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: July 20, 2014 at 12:00 AM EDT
The original "Next Week's Challenge" posted on this page has been replaced with the challenge that aired on Weekend Edition Sunday's July 20 broadcast. We apologize for the error.
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).