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 five-letter answer in this week's puzzle must complete a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase.
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In this week's puzzle, we'll give you a category. Every answer must start with each of the letters C-O-M-B-S.
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A good golf game will help you with next week's challenge.
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What a wonderful world this would be if you knew a lot about geography.
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For every prompt in this week's puzzle, answer with a word or name that has three syllables in four letters.
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NPR's Rachel Martin and Puzzlemaster Will Shortz play the puzzle with David Lefkowitz of Los Angeles.
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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-.
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For every six-letter word given in this week's puzzle, insert two letters in the exact center to complete a familiar eight-letter word.
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Change a letter in each word to make two new words. The letter you change must be in the same position in each word. And the letter you change each of them to will be the same letter of the alphabet.
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Today's puzzle involves wordplay on some well-known Canadian place names.