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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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. -
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. -
For each four-letter word — not a euphemism, in this case — insert two letters to complete a common six-letter word.
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Given an answer, you name the song. All you have to do is anagram one word in the made-up title you're given to complete the correct title of the song. -
Given a five-letter word and a six-letter, rearrange the letters of the shorter word to find a synonym for the longer word. -
Today's puzzle involves wordplay on some well-known Canadian place names. -
In each pair of clues, the answer to the first clue is a word that contains the consecutive letters A-R. Drop the A-R, and the remaining letters in order will form a word that answers the second clue.
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Today's puzzle is called "Monkey Business." Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase starting with "M" and "B" — as in "monkey business." -
Every answer today is a made-up two-word phrase, in which the two words rhyme. The initials of the two words will be provided, along with a one-word clue.
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Each word provided is an anagram of something you might see in a kitchen. For example, "skin" is an anagram of "sink."
