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Anagrams and Artists

NPR | By Will Shortz
Published August 28, 2005 at 12:00 AM EDT

NPR's Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home.

Challenge from Aug. 21: Take a two-word phrase meaning "a difficult puzzle." Drop the first letter, read the remaining letters backward, and you'll get a word for part of Alaska. What is it?

Answer: Hard Nut/Tundra

Winner: Kate Davis of Bellingham, Wash.

Challenge from Aug. 28: From listener Frank Morgan, a mathematician at Williams College. (He also has a puzzle page at mathchat.org.) Think of a word whose meaning you can make plural by adding an A at the start. Start with a very common singular noun, add the letter A at the beginning, and you'll make the meaning plural. What word is it?

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Will Shortz
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).
See stories by Will Shortz