© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Sunday Puzzle: Solve Me M-A-Y-B-E

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge:I've brought a game of categories based on the word "maybe." For each category I give, name something in it starting with each of the letters M-A-Y-B-E.

For example, if the category were "chemical elements," you might say mercury, argon, yttrium, barium and erbium. Any answer that works is OK, and you can give the answers in any order.

1. Animals in zoos
2. Four-letter boy's names
3. Place names in Canada
4. Colors
5. Things to consume at breakfast

Last week's challenge: This challenge came from Ben Bass of Chicago, who's now making cryptograms twice a week for the New York Times. Name a famous American landmark in eight letters. The first four letters in order are the first four letters of the name of a famous person associated with this landmark. Who is it? Here's a hint: The famous person's name also has eight letters.

Challenge answer:Alcatraz --> Al Capone

Winner: Drew Packham of Roswell, Ga.

This week's challenge:This week's challenge comes from listener Mark Halpin of Cold Spring, Ky. Think of two common phrases in the form "___ and ___," in which the blanks stand for four-letter words. All four words in those two phrases have different first letters, but the last three letters in the words are the same. What are the phrases?

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 by Thursday, May 7, at 3 p.m. ET.

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).