On-air challenge: For years I’ve been playing a “License Plate Game” when I’ve been with someone in a car. To play, you need to be in a state where most of the license plates have three letters —which many do. One of you calls out a set of letters from a nearby car. The object is to think of the shortest common, uncapitalized word that contains those letters in left-to-right order — not necessarily consecutively. Let’s say the letters on a plate are NFT. Someone might call out BENEFIT, in seven letters.  But that can be beaten by INFANT, in six letters. That in turn can be beaten by NIFTY, in five. In today’s puzzle, I’ll give you some sets of three letters. For each one, add two letters anywhere to complete a common, uncapitalized five-letter word.

1. VCR
2. GTO
3. CNN
4. CIA
5. NSA
6. PGA
7. HMO
8. RBI

Last week’s challenge: Last week’s challenge came from listener Ethan Kane, of Albuquerque. Name a common tree of North America in two words (3,5). Rearrange its letters to name a well-known plant of Central America, also in two words (4,4). What tree and plant are these?

Challenge answer: Red Maple –> Reed Palm

Winner: Suzanne Hendrich of Missoula, Montana

This week’s challenge: This week’s challenge comes from Joseph Young, who’s a frequent contributor here — and it’s a little tricky. Change one letter of a place on earth to get a familiar phrase much heard around this time of year. What is it? The answer consists of three words (5,2,5).

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, December 19th, 2024 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.