RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Itching to hear more about who's attacking whom on the campaign trail before tomorrow's Iowa caucuses? Yeah, me either. Let's play the puzzle.
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MARTIN: Joining me now is Will Shortz. He is puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle master. Good morning, Will.
WILL SHORTZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: What was last week's challenge?
SHORTZ: Yes. Well, I announced last week that it may have been one of the hardest challenges I have ever presented, and that turned out to be wildly wrong.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
SHORTZ: Either, I don't know, we have a lot of smart listeners or everyone rose to the challenge. Anyway, it came from listener Fred Piscop of Bellmore, Long Island. And I said take three phrases - turkey breast, ski slope, cash drawer. What very unusual property do they have in common? Well, the answer is in each phrase, the second word can be anagrammed to complete another common phrase. So turkey breast becomes turkey baster, ski slope becomes ski poles, and cash reward becomes cash drawer.
MARTIN: OK, so we got around 1,150 correct answers. So a lot of you out there figured this one out. And it may not have been a challenging puzzle, but it may have been challenging for you to submit your answer because we had a little technical glitch this week. And if you tried to enter just under the wire on Thursday, you may have run into this problem. We're happy to report we've got a workaround in place, but we are sorry about the glitch. Nevertheless, our randomly-selected winner is Richard Harris of Centennial, Colo. outside of Denver. He joins us on the line now. Rich, congratulations.
RICHARD HARRIS: Thank you.
MARTIN: Do you have a question for Will?
HARRIS: Yeah. Well, every Sunday in The New York Times, there's the extra variety puzzle. There's the cross stick or the diagram list or the spiral thing or the cryptic thing or the puns. You know, which of those is your favorite?
SHORTZ: I think my favorite is the cryptic crossword, which I do every eight weeks. It's the British-style crossword, just nice wordplay. And I bet you're good at cryptics, too.
HARRIS: Well, I can tell you that one of the things that bugs me is the little timer that's there because the timer just sort of screams at you, you know, you're not very smart.
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MARTIN: We do not have a timer, but we do have a fun puzzle for you. Are you ready to do this?
HARRIS: I guess so. Yeah, sure.
MARTIN: Yeah, sure, what the heck? All right, Will, take it away.
SHORTZ: All right, Rich and Rachel. I'm going to give you some six-letter words. For each one, insert two letters in the exact center to complete a familiar eight-letter word. For example, if I said accent, A-C-C-E-N-T, you would say accident, inserting an I-D in the middle.
MARTIN: OK.
SHORTZ: OK, number one is evince, E-V-I-N-C-E.
HARRIS: Evidence.
SHORTZ: Evidence is it. Number two is callus, C-A-L-L-U-S.
HARRIS: And you have to put words - the letters in the middle - calculus.
MARTIN: There you go.
SHORTZ: Calculus is it. Candle, C-A-N-D-L-E.
HARRIS: I've got to write them down.
MARTIN: Yeah, no, me too.
HARRIS: Canoodle.
MARTIN: Canoodle.
SHORTZ: Isn't that a great word? I love that word. Harare, H-A-R-A-R-E, as in the capital of Zimbabwe.
HARRIS: Hardware.
SHORTZ: That's it. Cellar, C-E-L-L-A-R.
HARRIS: Cellular.
SHORTZ: That's it. Sanity, S-A-N-I-T-Y.
HARRIS: Sanctity.
MARTIN: Great.
SHORTZ: Docent, D-O-C-E-N-T.
HARRIS: Document.
SHORTZ: That - document. Banter, B-A-N-T-E-R.
HARRIS: Banter, B-A-N-T-E-R.
SHORTZ: That's right.
HARRIS: Oh, geez. Banister.
MARTIN: There you go.
SHORTZ: Banister is it.
MARTIN: Yes, that's it.
SHORTZ: That's it.
HARRIS: OK.
SHORTZ: And Roger Bannister, the runner, had two Ns, but the banister along your stairs has just one. Metric, M-E-T-R-I-C.
HARRIS: Meteoric.
SHORTZ: That's it. And your last one is cookin', as in what's cookin'? C-O-O-K-I-N.
HARRIS: Coonskin.
SHORTZ: Coonskin.
MARTIN: Wow.
SHORTZ: Man, man, man, boom, boom, boom.
MARTIN: That was very well done, Rich.
HARRIS: I didn't embarrass myself.
MARTIN: No, you did not at all. You kind of knocked it out of the park. And for playing the puzzle today, you get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin and all kinds of puzzle books and games. You can check them out at npr.org/puzzle. And before we let you go, where do you hear us? What's your public radio station?
HARRIS: My wife, Ann, and I are members of KCFR, 90.1, in Denver.
MARTIN: Richard Harris of Centennial, Colo. Thanks so much, Richard.
HARRIS: Thank you.
MARTIN: OK, Will, what's up for next week?
SHORTZ: Yes. The challenge comes from listener Michael Shteyman of Odenton, Maryland. Take the name of a country and a well-known city in the Mideast, 12 letters in all. Rearrange these letters to name another country and another well-known city in the Mideast. What places are these? So again, the name of a country and well-known city in the Mideast, 12 letters. Rearrange them and you'll name another country and another well-known city in the Mideast. What places are these?
MARTIN: When you've figured it out, go to npr.org/puzzle, click on the submit your answer link. Just one entry per person please. You know that. Our deadline for entries is Thursday, February 4, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Don't forget to include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. And if you're the winner, we give you a call and then you get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times. And he is WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle master, Will Shortz. Thanks so much, Will.
SHORTZ: Thank you, Rachel.