Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sunday Puzzle on NPR's Weekend Edition

Have you ever arrived at the solution to Will Shortz's weekly challenge puzzle and felt like the fun was over? "What am I going to puzzle over now?" Typically when I get to that point, I keep puzzling over the challenge to try to find alternate solutions, variations on the original puzzle, or completely new puzzles. Sometimes I submit them to NPR. I have never received any replies to these submissions — until last week. I had suggested a puzzle idea based on a previous challenge: Rearrange the letters of "Wayne Manor" to name two well known American corporations." I got an email reply from Will Shortz expressing an interest in using the idea on air and asking for the name of my home town. Sure enough, the following Sunday my puzzle was the challenge puzzle for the week! It is a fairly simple puzzle, but I think Will liked it because it cannot be easily solved with online help or an anagram solver. The only down side of having my puzzle used on air is that I don't get to join in the solving! Oh well, it is still a thrill!