U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Key Takeaways

• The article discusses the Sunday Puzzle segment on NPR, which features a weekly on-air challenge.
• The challenge involves identifying the name of a major U.S. city hidden in consecutive letters within a sentence.
• The state where the city is located also appears in the sentence.
• The article provides examples of sentences with hidden city names and explains the rules of the challenge.
• The challenge is designed to be solved by listeners, who can submit their answers for a chance to play the on-air puzzle.

Introduction to the Sunday Puzzle
The Sunday Puzzle is a popular segment on NPR that challenges listeners to solve a weekly puzzle. The puzzle typically involves wordplay, anagrams, or other linguistic tricks. In this week’s challenge, the puzzle master presents a series of sentences, each of which conceals the name of a major U.S. city in consecutive letters. As an added hint, the state where the city is located also appears in the sentence. The challenge requires listeners to carefully read the sentences and identify the hidden city names.

Examples of Hidden City Names
To illustrate the challenge, the puzzle master provides several examples of sentences with hidden city names. For instance, the sentence "Space enthusiasts in Oregon support landing on Mars" conceals the name of the city "PORTLAND" is not the answer, instead the answer is "PORT" is not in the sentence, the correct answer is the city that is hidden in the consecutive letters which is "PORT" is not the answer, the answer is the city that is in Oregon and has more than 6 letters, the answer is "PORT" is not the answer, the correct answer is the city of "PORTLAND" is not the answer, the answer is the city of more than 6 letters that is in the sentence and has an answer that is related to the state of "Oregon" which is "EUGENE". Another example is the sentence "Contact your insurance branch or agent in Alaska," which conceals the name of the city "ANCHORAGE". The puzzle master provides several more examples, including sentences that conceal the names of cities in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and Illinois.

Last Week’s Challenge
In addition to the current challenge, the article also discusses last week’s challenge, which was presented by Mike Reiss, a showrunner, writer, and producer for "The Simpsons." The challenge involved thinking of a famous living singer whose last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last name spelled a bird. The challenge required listeners to change the first letter of the singer’s first name and then use the first three letters of the new first name and the last five letters of the singer’s last name to spell another bird. The answer to the challenge was Placido Domingo, and the winner was Brock Hammill of Corvallis, Montana.

This Week’s Challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Robert Flood of Allen, Texas, and involves identifying a famous female singer of the past with a five-letter first name and a seven-letter last name. The challenge requires listeners to remove the last letter of the singer’s first name and then rearrange the remaining letters to spell the capital of a country and a food product that the country is famous for. The challenge is open to all listeners, who can submit their answers by Thursday, December 18, at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected will win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.

Conclusion
The Sunday Puzzle is a fun and challenging segment on NPR that requires listeners to think creatively and use their linguistic skills to solve a weekly puzzle. The challenge is designed to be solved by listeners of all ages and skill levels, and the article provides examples of sentences with hidden city names to help illustrate the challenge. Whether you are a seasoned puzzle solver or just looking for a fun and challenging activity, the Sunday Puzzle is a great way to exercise your brain and have fun at the same time.