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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Let me get the phones going right away. If you want to take part in a Westchester puzzle with Will Shortz, call in right now and we'll put you on the air. We're going to put you on the air in groups of three because that's how Will Shortz rolls. Call in if you want to play and if a group gets two in a row right, you're going to win a Brian Lehrer Show New York City skyline mug. If you want to play, 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

Oh, I see line one is lit with a caller from Bronxville. You don't have to be from Westchester to enter. Take your shot. Take your best shot, whether or not you're from the county north of the borough of the Bronx. 646-435-7280. 646-435-7280.

For those of you who don't know, during this membership drive, we've been breaking up the serious stuff with some fun each day in the form of a New York-New Jersey geography quiz. We've been going region by region with guest quiz leaders every day. Tomorrow, by the way, Staten Island. Somebody just tweeted, "Are you going to forget Staten Island?" No, we're not going to forget Staten Island.

As if we haven't had enough fun already with Cory Booker on New Jersey, Jacqueline Woodson on Brooklyn last week, and more, with us now is none other than NPR puzzle master and New York Times crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz, who lives in Westchester. Rather than a straight geo quiz, he's come with a Will Shortz Weekend Edition Sunday-style puzzle related to that county just north of the Bronx. Will, I didn't know you actually exist on the weekdays, but I guess you do. Thanks for coming on.

Will Shortz: Yes. I'll do puzzles anytime, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to tell people how this is going to work?

Will Shortz: Well, I've brought some questions that involve wordplay on city and town names in Westchester. I'll throw out a little teaser like a challenge puzzle I do on Sunday morning, and see who comes up with the answer first.

Brian Lehrer: All right. It's WNYC Brian Lehrer Show, Will Shortz Westchester geography puzzle. We're going to put three callers on at the same time. Control room, Juliana, let's go in order. We'll take lines one, two, and three right now. That will be Janet in Bronxville, Jeremy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and D in Yonkers. Hello, Janet. Hello, Jeremy. Hello, D.

Can you hear me?

Janet: Yes.

D: Hi, good morning. Yes.

Jeremy: I can. [unintelligible 00:02:59] buddy.

Brian Lehrer: Will, I am in your hands.

Will Shortz: All right guys, well, here you go. Here's your first question. Which Westchester city's name is an anagram of New York if you change the W in New York to an S?

Brian Lehrer: They can work together on this, right?

Will Shortz: Yes. Whoever get [unintelligible 00:03:19] of it first.

D: I believe it's mine.

Will Shortz: Which is?

D: I believe it's mine. Yonkers.

Will Shortz: Yonkers is it. Changed the W in New York to an S and rearrange, you get Yonkers. How crazy is that?

Brian Lehrer: All right. That's one. If anybody else in the group or D if you get another one, gets this next question because they've got to be two in a row. Then all three of you will win a Brian Lehrer Show in New York City skyline mug. Will, go.

Will Shortz: All right. Your second one. Which town is an anagram of dryales? D-R-Y-A-L-E-S. Dryales anagram to make a town.

Janet: Scarsdale.

Will Shortz: Ardsley. Oh no, I'm sorry. You said Scarsdale. That's not it. I said the answer. We're just going to have to- [crosstalk]

Janet: Do we get another chance?

Will Shortz: Will we get another chance? Yes.

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead, Will.

Will Shortz: The answer was Ardsley. Sorry. I heard the dale.

Janet: It's Ardsley.

Will Shortz: It's Ardsley. Okay. Here's the next one.

Brian Lehrer: I think Jeremy was going to sneak in there with the right answer, but I can't prove it.

Jeremy: Brian, you're good at what you do, but anyway.

Will Shortz: Here's the next one.

Brian Lehrer: Will, one more. They get a freebie.

Jeremy: One more. Thank you.

Will Shortz: Which town consists of a word meaning to look furtively plus a word meaning talent?

Brian Lehrer: To look furtively plus the word meaning talent.

Jeremy: A word meaning. It's a two-word town.

Will Shortz: No. It's a one-word town but you put those two parts together.

Brian Lehrer: To look furtively. What would that word be? Any of you guys have a guess on that part--

Will Shortz: You got Christmas packages under the tree, and you look under the--

Brian Lehrer: Oh, something [unintelligible 00:05:19]

Will Shortz: There is a four-letter word for that. You look under the paper, you take a--

Janet: Peekskill. It's Peekskill.

Will Shortz: Peekskill.

Brian Lehrer: It is Peekskill.

Jeremy: Final answer.

Janet: Yay.

Brian Lehrer: That's right because the word for talent would be skill. All right. Janet in Bronxville, Jeremy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, D in Yonkers. Hang on. We're going to take all your addresses and send you a WNYC Brian Lehrer Show skyline mug. Hang on. We're going to go on to our next set of players. Juliana, this is going to be lines four, five, and six. Dominique in Harrison, Merlyn in Port Chester, and Elizabeth from somewhere in Westchester that I don't have specifically identified on my board. Elizabeth, where are you?

Elizabeth: I'm in Hastings-on-Hudson.

Brian Lehrer: Beautiful. Hasting-on-Hudson.

Elizabeth: I'm Elizabeth.

Brian Lehrer: We've got Hastings, Port Chester, and Harrison represented in this group.

Elizabeth: That's a stop.

Brian Lehrer: Hastings-on-Hudson is a stop on the Hudson line, right?

Elizabeth: That's right.

Brian Lehrer: Right around Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown. I know. Will, what do you got for this group?

Will Shortz: All right. Here we go. Here's your question. First one. Which town has the letters of move on? That's M-O-V-E O-N. Which town has the letters of move on in left to right order, although not consecutively?

Brian Lehrer: Say it again, Will.

Will Shortz: Which town has the letters of move on? M-O-V-E O-N in left to right order, although not consecutively? I I'll give you a hint.

Brian Lehrer: The silence is deafening.

Will Shortz: It's a two-word name. I might have to tell you the answer and we'll try another one.

Dominique: This is a tough one.

Brian Lehrer: The move on is within the name in the order of those letters, but that might be within the name, right?

Will Shortz: That's within the name. It's a two-word name. Those six letters appear in left to right order. I think I stumped everybody.

Dominique: You did. You stumped me.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, give us a clue. [crosstalk] You have one more clue?

Will Shortz: One more clue. It's a two-word name. The first name. The first word has five letters and the second has six.

Brian Lehrer: All right.

Will Shortz: It's just a little north. It's not too far north of the Bronx.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Elizabeth: Mount Vernon.

Merlyn: Mount Vernon.

Will Shortz: Mount Vernon. You got it.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, very good. Two of you got it at the same time. Wow. Mount Vernon. Oh, I see. Those letters are in it but they're not consecutive.

Will Shortz: Not consecutive.

Brian Lehrer: All right. One more. This [unintelligible 00:08:18] just for getting that really hard one right. Let's see if they can get the one more.

Will Shortz: If you drop three letters from sombreros, that's S-O-M-B-R-E-R-O-S. If you drop three letters from sombreros and read the six that remained from left to right, what town do you get? The word is Sombreros, drop three letters and the remaining six letters reading from left to right, name a town in Westchester.

Brian Lehrer: All right. We have to figure out which three letters to drop from sombrero.

Will Shortz: With an S on the end.

Brian Lehrer: Sombreros. Okay. We have to drop three letters, and we'll make a town. I could kill time while the contestants are thinking about it by saying sombrero was why Curtis Sliwa, the mayoral candidate for the Republican Party got suspended from NY1. It was because when he was talking about immigrants from Latin America. He would come on wearing a sombrero and that was considered racist. He got suspended for mocking them that way. What three letters are we going to drop from sombrero now that we know too much information about Curtis Sliwa?

Will Shortz: It is a town in northern Westchester starting with S.

Brian Lehrer: I got it.

Meryln: Somers.

Will Shortz: Yes, Somers is it.

Brian Lehrer: Guess what? That is two really hard ones in a row. Somers, up near Katona around there. In Sombrero, you kept the S-O-M at the beginning, you drop the B-R, you kept the E-R, dropped the O at the end of Sombrero, but kept the S that pluralized it. Somers. All right. Dominic in Harrison, Merlyn in Port Chester, Elizabeth in Hastings, hang on we're going to take all your addresses and send you Brian Lehrer Show, New York City Skyline, Mugs.

Elizabeth: Thank you.

Dominique: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: You're very welcome. I said that you don't need to be from Westchester to play. In our next set of three, we're just taking them in the order that calls came in. It's line seven, line eight and line nine. Juliana, we have two of the three here, it looks like not from Westchester, Matt in Jersey City, Bob in Mercer County, also New Jersey and Vivette in Yonkers. Hi, Vivette. Hi, Bob. Hi, Matt.

Vivette: Hi.

Bob: Hello.

Matt: Hey, Brian.

Bob: I'm an old New Rochellian.

Brian Lehrer: Okay. Before you moved to New Jersey. All right. You had Westchester cred. What do you got for them, Will?

Will Shortz: All right guys, try this. Which town in Westchester is the last name of two US presidents? Which town is the last name of two US presidents.

Bob: Something Ford.

Will Shortz: Not Ford. There was only one Ford.

[crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: Say it again.

Will Shortz: I'll turn it around. There are two US presidents with the same name. Like Roosevelt, there is Theodore and Franklin D. You're looking for a-

Bob: [unintelligible 00:11:59] Bush.

Will Shortz: There were two Bushes, but there is no town in Westchester named Bush or Roosevelt.

Matt: Adams.

Bob: Adams.

Will Shortz: There were two Adams but there is no town in Westchester named Adams. I think you have every president with two names except for the one that's correct.

Brian Lehrer: Huh. Let's see.

Will Shortz: There's one other presidential name.

Matt: Garfield?

Will Shortz: There was only one Garfield.

Brian Lehrer: Monroe is in Orange County.

Bob: Johnson.

Will Shortz: Oh, you're right, there were two Johnsons but there's no town in Westchester named Johnson.

Brian Lehrer: There's one more. Was it a recent president? Like somebody before Bush, in between?

Will Shortz: Way before Bush. They're both 19th century presidents. One of them was the grandfather of the other.

Bob: Harrison.

Will Shortz: There you go.

Matt: We got Harrison.

Will Shortz: That's it. Harrison.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. We had a call from Harrison earlier in the quiz. Okay, Harrison. Can you name the two Harrisons, Will?

Will Shortz: William Henry and Benjamin.

Brian Lehrer: There you go. All right. One more question for this group. This is going to be our last group so we hope that we can give them all Brian Lehrer Show New York City Skyline Mugs. What's the last question, Will?

Will Shortz: Which town's name would consist of two opposites, one after the other, if you dropped an L from near the end. You think of the town name, drop an L from near the end and you're left with two words that mean opposite of each other.

Brian Lehrer: You can work with each other if you want.

Bob: Okay. Let me see.

Will Shortz: I save this for last because it's my hometown. It's where I live. I've been a Westchester resident for 28 years now.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, and I know where you live so now I've got it, but I can't figure out how it fits in the clue. Give the clue again?

Will Shortz: Take the town's name, drop an L from near the end of the name and you'll get two words that are opposites.

Vivette: Pleasantville.

Will Shortz: Pleasantville and the opposites are pleasant and vile.

Brian Lehrer: Is right.

Will Shortz: Nice job.

Brian Lehrer: Pleasant and vile, the ping pong capital of the world at least where Will Shortz is concerned. Matt in Jersey City, Bob in Mercer County, Vivette in Yonkers, you all win a WNYC Brian Lehrer Show, New York City Skyline Mugs so hang on, and we'll take all your addresses. Be patient because it could be that our screeners are still getting through the last group where everybody want a mug.

Will Shortz, this has been so much fun, and I don't know how you do it coming up with these brain teasers. You took our request to do a Westchester geography quiz and you turned it into this little piece of magical fun and you did it. I guess we'll hear you Sunday morning, right?

Will Shortz: That's right. Thanks a lot, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Will Shortz, NPR puzzle master and New York Times crossword puzzle editor. Our next guest is going to be Sean Ono Lennon talking about the 50th anniversary of the song, Imagine. Stay with us.

 

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