Sunday Puzzle: Plus one
On-air challenge
I’m going to give you some nine-letter words. For each one, insert a letter somewhere inside it to make a familiar 10-letter word.
Ex. MEDIATION –> C to make MEDICATION or T to make MEDITATION
- IMPERIOUS
- HEADWATER
- PACEMAKER
- REHEARING
- SIMULATED
- GEOLOGIST
- ETERNALLY
- MINESTONE
- IMPLEMENT
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Bobby Jacobs, of Glen Allen, Va. Take the first and last names of a famous athlete. Change the first letter of the last name to L, and rearrange the result to get the first and last names of another famous athlete. In each case the first name has six letters and the last name has five. These are athletes everyone knows. Who are they?
Challenge answer
Simone Biles –> Lionel Messi
Winner
Sam McDowell of Boulder, Colorado
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge came from Mike Reiss, who’s a showrunner, writer, and producer for “The Simpsons.” Name a famous English author. Change the first letter of the last name to an S. Then move the first, second, and final letters of that last name in front of the first name. The resulting string of letters reading from left to right will name a major American city. What city is it?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, September 4th at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
How George Wallace and Bull Connor set the stage for Alabama’s sky-high electric rates
After his notorious stand in the schoolhouse door, Wallace needed a new target. He found it in Alabama Power.
FIFA president defends World Cup ticket prices, saying demand is hitting records
The FIFA President addressed outrage over ticket prices for the World Cup by pointing to record demand and reiterating that most of the proceeds will help support soccer around the world.
From chess to a medical mystery: Great global reads from 2025 you may have missed
We published hundreds of stories on global health and development each year. Some are ... alas ... a bit underappreciated by readers. We've asked our staff for their favorite overlooked posts of 2025.
The U.S. offers Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee for now, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday the United States is offering his country security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan.
Genre fiction and female authors top U.S. libraries’ most-borrowed lists in 2025
All of the top 10 books borrowed through the public library app Libby were written by women. And Kristin Hannah's The Women was the top checkout in many library systems around the country.
The Best Tiny Desk Concerts of 2025
Which Tiny Desk made an audio engineer question everything? Which one made a producer want to cry? Touch grass? Look back on the year in Tiny Desk, with the people who make them.

