Weekend Edition Sunday

On-air challenge: Every answer is a holiday that goes by "____ Day." I'll give you anagrams of the words that go in the blanks, you name the holidays.

Example: ROAR + B --> ARBOR (Arbor Day)

1. GAL + F
2. HARE + T
3. BOAR + L
4. RESHOT + M
5. STRAFE + H
6. SERVANT + E
7. YAWNERS + E (2 words)
8. IMMORAL + E
9. DISPENSER + T
10. VENETIANS + L
11. INDENTATIONS + U (2 words)

On-air challenge: Every answer today is a word, name, or familiar phrase in which the only consonants are G and L — each of which may be repeated any number of times. Besides G's and L's, all the other letters are vowels — A, E, I, O, or U.

Example: Against the law --> ILLEGAL

1. Ice home in the Arctic

2. Scum on top of a pond

3. Group of geese

4. Popular search engine

5. Russian dramatist Nikolai

6. Bags packed for the airport

7. Winemaker Ernest or Julio

8. Pioneering astronomer from Pisa

With an olive-green body encasing three jaws, each lined with more than 50 teeth, it looks like a cigarette-sized relative of the skin-crawling creature from the Alien films. Actually, it's far less sinister: a new species of a bloodsucking leech.

Anna Phillips, the curator of parasitic worms at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., led the team that recently discovered Macrobdella mimicus in almost their own backyard.

On-air challenge: I've brought a game of categories based on the word MAROC — the French way to say Morocco. For each category, name something in it starting with each of the letters M-A-R-O-C. For example, if the category were "Two-Syllable Girls' Names," you might say Mary, Amy, Rachel, Opal, and Carly. Here are the categories:

1. U.S. PRESIDENTS

2. FOREIGN MAKES OF CARS

3. THINGS FOUND ON A BOAT

Everyone knows what a trumpet looks like: shiny brass. But the Instrument of Hope is mostly black.

Except for the lead pipe — the straight part that extends from the mouthpiece.

It's made of bullets.

"Bullets that were shot and fired out of a gun, cut up and pieced together," says Josh Landress, who made it.

On-air challenge: For each 5-letter word, add two letters at the end to complete a common, uncapitalized 7-letter word that is unrelated in meaning to the first one.

Example: UNCLE --> UNCLEAN or UNCLEAR

1. EXTRA

2. SURGE

3. MARSH

4. PLACE

5. SHELL

6. BLANK

7. INFER

8. INTER

9. COMMA

10. COLON

11. WHIST

12. FINES

13. MAXIM

14. AGAIN

15. VIOLA

16. DISCO

17. PLATE

18. BREAD

On rare occasions, Dad and I would get together for lunch. It was 2014, and I had just started a job at NPR. Dad was retired and lived 60 miles away.

From what I remember, we ate dim sum, which meant driving through the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the massive skyscrapers glistening in the afternoon sun.

It was quiet in the car. I was thinking about how Mom and Dad used to make this commute to LA every day for work. Two hours in the morning, two hours at night.

Dad interrupted my thoughts, pointing to a building on the side of the freeway.

On-air challenge: Every answer is the name of a famous person with only one name — either because they literally had only one name or because they are generally known by one name. I'll give you anagrams. You name the people.

Example: USUAL - U Biblical king --> SAUL

1. VIDEO - E Roman poet

2. CHROME - C Greek poet

3. LEADER - R Singer

4. SHAKEN - N Singer

5. TITANIC - C Italian artist

6. PEARL ASH - S Painter

7. OPTICIAN - I Native American leader