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Sunday Puzzle: BR-ing it on

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: Every answer today is a word, name, or phrase in which the only consonants are B and R, repeated as often as necessary. All the other letters are vowels.


Ex. Prickly bush --> BRIAR
1. Material in an automobile tire
2. Thief
3. Hairstylist
4. Congregation leader at a synogogue
5. Illegal payment
6. Doll from Mattel
7. Elephant of children's literature
8. Singer Justin
9. First lady married to the first George Bush
10. Small donkey
11. Fence or other obstacle
12. Island in French Polynesia with a repetitive name (2 wds.)
13. Cub in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon (3 wds.)

Last week's challenge: Name a country of six or more letters. Change two letters in it to name the resident of another country's capital.

Challenge answer: Pakistan --> Parisian

Winner: Nancy Newfeld of Huntington, West Virginia.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Steve Baggish, of Arlington, Mass. Take the 9 letters of EARTH SIGN. Repeating them as often as necessary, you can spell the four-word title of a classic movie in 15 letters. You can also use them to spell the four-word title of a classic song in 19 letters. What two titles are these?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, Dec. 2, 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.

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).