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Sunday Puzzle: Letterheads

NPR

On-air challenge: Every answer today is a word or name that sounds like it starts with two spoken letters of the alphabet.
Ex. Element #55 --> CESIUM (C-Z-um) or Wanting what other people have --> ENVIOUS (N-V-ous)

1. Degree or SpeedStick product
2. Green insect related to grasshoppers and crickets
3. Pilot
4. San ___, Calif.
5. Brainstorm
6. No person in particular
7. Obsolete, like old-fashioned language
8. Forty-three doubled

Last week's challenge: Last week's challenge comes from listener Julia Lewis, of Fort Collins, Colo. Take the name of a major American city. Hidden inside it in consecutive letters is the name of a Japanese food. Remove that. The remaining letters can be rearranged to to spell some Mexican foods. Name the city and the foods.

Challenge answer: SACRAMENTO --> RAMEN — > TACOS

Winner: Lee Ann Koehler of New Albany, Ind.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from Todd McClary, who's a member of the National Puzzlers' League. Think of a place where a plant might grow, in two words. Spoonerize it — that is, switch the initial consonant or consonants of the two words. The result will name another place where a plant might grow, and a plant that might grow in either place.

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, July 8, at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.

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

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).