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Sunday Puzzle: Categorically correct

NPR

On-air challenge: I'll give you some categories and two things in each one. You name the only other thing in that category that fits between the given two alphabetically.

Example: A brother and a daughter are both members of a family. If I asked, "What member of a family fits between BROTHER and DAUGHTER alphabetically?," you'd say COUSIN

1. Positions in Baseball — CATCHER, FIRST BASE
2. Birthstones — DIAMOND, GARNET
2. Rooms in the Game 'Clue' — CONSERVATORY, HALL
4. Prime-Time Emmy-Winning Comedies — FRASIER, GET SMART
5. Original Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Flavors — ROCKY ROAD, VANILLA
6. Best Actor Oscar Winners — NEWMAN, NIVEN
7. Best Actress Oscar Winners — SPACEK, STREISAND
8. Vegetables in V8 Juice — PARSLEY, TOMATOES
9. Triple Crown Winners — AFFIRMED, ASSAULT
10. Forms of Precipitation — RAIN, SNOW

Last week's challenge: This challenge came from listener Dan Pitt of Palo Alto, Calif. Take the common abbreviation for a major American city. Insert it inside an airport code for that city. And you'll name a flower. What flower is it?

Challenge answer: Chi (Chicago) + ORD = Orchid

Winner: Sam Hass from Beaverton, Oregon.

This week's challenge: This week's challenge comes from listener Anthony Gray, of Bergen County, N.J. Write down the name of a country and its largest city, one after the other. Hidden in this string, in consecutive letters, is another country's capital (in six letters)? What is it?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here by Thursday, Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.

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

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).