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Sunday Puzzle: BBC, Do You Know What It Stands For?

Sunday Puzzle.
NPR
Sunday Puzzle.

On-air challenge: This puzzle is called "BBC," as in the British media giant. You get two words starting with B. Come up with a word starting with C that can complete each of the first two words to complete a compound word or a familiar two-word phrase.

Ex. Bob Burmese ---> CAT [bobcat, Burmese cat]

1. Baseball Bottle (3-letter answer)
2. Buzz Budget (3-letter answer)
3. Bar Building (4-letter answer)
4. Booster Basic (5-letter answer)
5. Basketball Bankruptcy (5-letter answer)
6. Body Brownie (6-letter answer)
7. Bean Bargain (7-letter answer)

Last week's challenge: This challenge came from listener David Herbst of Inverness, Calif. Name a well-known U.S. city with two words in its name. The second word sounds like the last name of a famous 20th-century writer. The first word is something found in virtually every work of this author. What is the city, and who is the author?

Puzzle answer: Corpus Christi, (Agatha) Christie + corpus

Puzzle winner: Muriel Kranowski of Blacksburg, Va.

Next week's challenge: Consider this sentence: Benjamin, the Greenpeace ombudsman in the panorama, was charmed by the chinchilla fragrance. This sentence contains seven words of seven or more letters. They have something very unusual in common. What is it, and can you think of an eighth word with the same property?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you. The deadline is Thursday, June 15 at 3 p.m. ET.

Copyright 2025 NPR

Will Shortz has been the puzzle master for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987.