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\nI’m going to give you two five-letter words. Add the same two letters at the end of the first one and the start of the second one, in each case to complete a familiar seven-letter word.<\/p>\n
\nEx. Later Ready –> LATERAL\/ALREADY<\/p>\n
\n1. Habit Tempt<\/p>\n
\n2. Laten Press<\/p>\n
\n3. Blank Ching<\/p>\n
\n4. Since Venue<\/p>\n
\n5. Shack Groom<\/p>\n
\n6. Surge Stage<\/p>\n
\nLast week’s challenge came from Rawson Sheinberg. of Plymouth, Mich. Think of a U.S. city with a two-word name. Add a letter to the first word, without rearranging letters, to name a country. Then, without adding a letter, rearrange the letters of the second word to name another country. What places are these?<\/p>\n
\nAnswer: Los Angeles –> Laos, Senegal<\/p>\n
\nElaine Neel of Derby, Kansas.<\/p>\n
\nNext weekend will be the 186th convention of the National Puzzler League, in Bloomington, Ind., which I’ll be attending as always. Two other people who will be there are Henri Picciotto and Joshua Kosman, who created this week’s challenge. Name two words that are opposites. They share a single letter. Remove that shared letter from each word, put a hyphen between the two starting words, and you’ll get a term you sometimes see in food ads. What are the two words?<\/p>\n
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, July 9 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.\n<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 NPR<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n