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Sunday Puzzle: A Capital Challenge

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: Every answer today is the name of a U.S. state capital. Which state capital:

1. Rhymes with "noisy"?

2. Contains the letters of COMBS in left-to-right order?

3. Consists of the chemical symbols for gold and sulfur followed by the full name of a third chemical element?

4. Contains a silent O as its third letter?

5. Ends in an "O" sound — but does not contain the letter O?

6. Consists of a candidate for president in 1988 + a president in the 1970s?

7. Ends with the first name of this program's host?

Last week's challenge: This challenge comes from Joel Fagliano, the digital puzzles editor of The New York Times. Name a major U.S. city in 10 letters. If you have the right one, you can rearrange its letters to get two 5-letter words that are synonyms. What are they?

Challenge answer: Challenge answer: Sacramento --> scent, aroma

Winner: Tova Tenenbaum of Philadelphia

This week's challenge: This comes from listener James Matthews of Little Rock, Ark. The challenge is to make a 9-letter word meaning "left" using only a B and one D. Can you do it?

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, Jan. 17 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).