On-air Challenge: Today's puzzle is all about "me." Specifically, every answer is a word or name in which the accented syllable "me," in any spelling, appears somewhere inside it.
Example: Serving to fix or correct things --> REMEDIAL
1. Person who tells jokes
2. Single-celled creature
3. Friend in Mexico
4. Minor criminal infraction
5. Part of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014
6. Country located between Turkey and Azerbaijan
7. Ancient Greek mathematician and inventor
8. In Greek myth, the Titan who's said to have created humanity from clay
9. Basic kind of acid
10. Composer Shostakovich
Last week's challenge: This challenge came from listener Derrick Niederman, of Charleston, S.C. Starting in Montana, you can drive into South Dakota and then into Iowa. Those three states have the postal abbreviations MT, SD, and IA — whose letters can be rearranged to spell AMIDST. The challenge is to do this with four connected states to make an eight-letter word. That is, start in a certain state, drive to another, then another, and then another. Take the postal abbreviations of the four states you visit, mix the letters up and use them to spell a common eight-letter word. Derrick and I know of only one answer. Can you do this?
Challenge answer: FLAGRANT (FL-GA-TN-AR)
Also accepted:
• ANIMATOR (IA-MO-AR-TN)
• CONDEMNS (SD-NE-CO-NM)
• DIAMONDS (ND-SD-IA-MO)
• DIOCESAN (SD-IA-NE-CO)
• DIORAMAS (SD-IA-MO-AR)
• NOMINATE (NE-IA-MO-TN)
• ORNAMENT (AR-TN-MO-NE)
• RANSOMED (SD-NE-MO-AR)
Winner: Marc Colello of Carlsbad, Calif.
This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Ed Pegg Jr., who runs mathpuzzle.com. Think of someone who has been in the news this year in a positive way. Say this person's first initial and last name out loud. It will sound like an important person in U.S. history. Who is it?
If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, Feb. 11, 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.
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