Will Shortz
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).
Will sold his first puzzle professionally when he was 14 — to Venture, a denominational youth magazine. At 16 he became a regular contributor to Dell puzzle publications. He is the only person in the world to hold a college degree in Enigmatology, the study of puzzles, which he earned from Indiana University in 1974.
Born in 1952 and raised on an Arabian horse farm in Indiana, Will now lives near New York City in a Tudor-style house filled with books and Arts and Crafts furniture. When he's not at work, he enjoys bicycling, movies, reading, travel, and collecting antique puzzle books and magazines.
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Every answer this week is an anagram of a six-letter girl's name. Take the name and the synonym and identify the anagram. -
Every answer this week is an anagram of a six-letter girl's name. Take the name and the synonym and identify the anagram.
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Every answer this week takes the last two letters from a category chosen to create a new word. -
Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word ends in the letter -E, and the second word starts GO-. -
In this week's puzzle, change one letter of each word and rearrange the result to get a new word that can follow it, to complete a common two-word phrase. -
Every answer in this week's puzzle is the name of an article of apparel. For each anagram given, name the item. -
Three words will be given in this week's puzzle, starting with the letters F, B and I, respectively. Find a word that can follow each one to complete a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase. -
Words with five letters transform into six-letter words when puzzlemaster Will Shortz and winner and WBEZ listener P.D. Wadler of Chicago join NPR's Rachel Martin for the weekly challenge. -
In this week's Sunday Puzzle, for each word given, think of a synonym whose first and second letters, in order, are the second and third letters, respectively, of the given word. -
Every answer this week is the name of a state. For all the words given, ignore the vowels in them. The consonants in them are the same consonants, in the same order, as in the state.
