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Sunday Puzzle: Don't PASS this up!

Sunday Puzzle
NPR
Sunday Puzzle

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

Ex. Spots on a playing card --> PIPS

1. Rival of Coke

2. Mexican coins

3. Wife or husband

4. To go against

5. To assume without proof

6. Flowers that produce opium

7. Young dogs

8. A group that accompanies a sheriff in a western

9. To have

10. To placate by acceding to someone's demands

11. Small bouquets

12. To forgo, as an opportunity (2 wds.)

13. Appears suddenly (2 wds.)

14. Thick fog is said to resemble it (2 wds.)

Last week's challenge: Last week's challenge came from listener Mark Oshin, of Portland, Ore. Name a country. The first syllable spells something that people do. The rest of the name is an anagram of where some people do that. What country is it?

Challenge answer: Singapore -> Sing + opera

Winner: Michael LaBorde of Oro Valley, Arizona

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listen Jim Bricker of Wayland, Mass., and it's a little different from the usual. The time 6:29 on a digital clock, ignoring the colon, also reads 6:29 upside down. How many times in a day can a digital clock, ignoring the colon, read the same right side up as upside down? We are not accepting military time.

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, November 2nd at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Copyright 2026 NPR

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).
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