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As A Matter Of Course

On-Air Challenge: You are given a sentence with two blanks. The word that goes in the first blank has an O as its second letter. To complete the sentence, drop the O to get another word that goes in the second blank. For example, given "If I were to hit my thumb with a hammer, of ___ I would ___," the answer would be "course" and "curse."

Last Week's Challenge: From listener Aida Doss Havel: Think of two common girls' names that are seven letters long and that start with the same four letters in the same order. Drop these four letters in each name, and mix the last three letters in each name to come up with another common girls' name in six letters. What names are these?

Answer: Natalie, Natasha, Sheila

Winner: Jim Brawner of Savannah, Ga.

Next Week's Challenge:Create a 4-by-4 crossword square with four four-letter words reading across and four different four-letter words reading down. Use the word "nags" at 1 across and the word "newt" at 1 down. All eight words must be common, uncapitalized words, and all 16 letters must be different.

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).