Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
December 25, 2011

On-Air Challenge: Identify a gift for a child spelled by consecutive letters in familiar two-word phrases. For example, if given “tomato paste,” the answer would be “top.”

Last Week’s Challenge: Take the word “at.” Put a man’s first name on each side of it, and say the word out loud. Phonetically, you’ll get a word that describes a growing part of our country.

Answer: Put “Jerry,” “at,” and “Rick” together, and phonetically, you get “geriatric.”

Winner: Ginny Walters from Shelburne, Vt.

Next Week’s Challenge from listener Mike Reiss: Name an occupation in nine letters. It’s an entertainer of sorts — an unusual and uncommon but well-known sort of entertainer. Drop the third letter of the name, and read the result backward. You’ll get two four-letter words that are exact opposites. What are they?

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 2011 National Public Radio]