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NPR's puzzle master Will Shortz puts the pieces of his life together for us

On-air challenge: Here are some sentences. In each one, find two words that sound like to other words that are synonyms.

Example: I can pare an apple, too à pair, two

1. My dog's paws go0t stuck under the cars break.

2. Today's spelling lesson is about words with silence "e's".

3. In India, several lower castes are in the throes of change.

4. The wild hare has a hankering for bagels and lox.

5. After his shift ended, the worker hied to the bank to cash his paycheck.

6. The seamstress would vary the way she'd sewed.

This week's challenge: This is a two-week creative challenge. Name a geographical place. Then describe it acrostically using the letters in its name. For example, ALBANY could be described acrostically as "Administering Legislative Business At New York." The place can be anywhere in the world — the U.S. or abroad. Entries will be judged on originality, sense, naturalness of wording, elegance, and overall effect. You may submit up to three entries. The person who sends the best entry in my opinion will play puzzle on the air with me in two weeks.

Submit your answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Wednesday, November 15th at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Ayesha Rascoe is a White House correspondent for NPR. She is currently covering her third presidential administration. Rascoe's White House coverage has included a number of high profile foreign trips, including President Trump's 2019 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, and President Obama's final NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland in 2016. As a part of the White House team, she's also a regular on the NPR Politics Podcast.