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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.

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