© 2024 Blue Ridge Public Radio
Blue Ridge Mountains banner background
Your source for information and inspiration in Western North Carolina.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
BPR is hiring an Account Executive in our Business Sponsorship Department. Learn more and apply.

Unwrapping Eight-Letter Presents

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home.

Challenge for Dec. 18:

Take the word non-perception. Rearrange its 13 letters to name three things that are in the same category. What are they?

Answer: Copper, Tin, Neon. All are elements.

Winner: Jesse Levy of Burbank, Calif.

Challenge for Dec. 25:

Name something in nine letters commonly seen around Christmas. Change the first letter to the previous letter of the alphabet. Change the third letter to the following letter of the alphabet. And the result will name part of the human body. What body part is this?

Copyright 2022 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).