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Losing Letters One Blank At A Time

On-Air Challenge: You are given a series of sentences, each of which is missing three words. The word in the first blank is five letters long. Drop the last letter to get a four-letter word for the second blank. Drop the last letter to get a three-letter answer for the third blank. For example, given the sentence, "While I was filming at the Egyptian pyramids, a ____ with a rider on it ____ into view of my ____," the words would be "camel," "came" and "cam."

Last Week's Challenge:Take the word "ballerina," drop one letter and rearrange the remaining eight letters to name a well-known fictional character. Who is it?

Answer: L'il Abner

Winner: Shirley Carle of Claremore, Okla.

Next Week's Challenge:From listener Dale Shuger of New York City: Think of a common four-letter adjective. Then take its opposite in French. (It's a French word that everyone knows.) Say the two words out loud, one after the other, and you'll name a famous film director. Who is it?

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 Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has appeared on Weekend Edition Sunday since the program's start in 1987. He's also the crossword editor of The New York Times, the former editor of Games magazine, and the founder and director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (since 1978).