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March is Women's History Month!

Sunday Puzzle: Next-To-Last

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: Here are words from categories. Each thing is next-to-last in its category alphabetically. You name the only other thing in the category that comes after mine alphabetically.

1. Two

2. Sleepy

3. Queens

4. Zambia

5. Swans a-swimming

Last week's challenge: This challenge came from listener Joe Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Name a famous person in history. The letters of the last name can be rearranged to name a popular game. And the letters in the first name can be rearranged to name an action in this game. Who is this famous person?

Challenge answer: Marco Polo; pool, carom.

Winner: Tom Zmozynski of Aurora, Ohio.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Jeremy Crane of Madison, Wis. Name a deity in ancient mythology. The first half of the name, phonetically, names a common object. The second half of the name, by spelling, names another object that is often put inside the first one. What is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you by Thursday, September 10th, at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Corrected: September 6, 2020 at 12:00 AM EDT
Previous audio and Web versions of this puzzle incorrectly implied that West Virginia is the second-to-last U.S. state in alphabetical order. Wisconsin is second to last. Also, in a previous audio version, we incorrectly said that Clare Luce was the publisher of Reader's Digest.
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).