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Relieve The Duties Of A Letter: Make Believe, And Make It Better

NPR

On-air challenge: Today's puzzle has a bit of wordplay. Change one letter in each word provided to make two new words. The letter you change must be in the same position in each word of the pair. And the letter you change each of them to will be the same letter of the alphabet.

For example, "relief" and "mallet" become "belief" and "ballet."

Last week's challenge: Name an occupation starting with the letter B. Remove the second, third and fourth letters. The remaining letters in order will name something you might experience in the presence of someone who has this occupation. What is it?

Answer: Bartender, bender.

Winner: Daniel Pope of Portland, Ore.

Next week's challenge: The challenge comes from puzzle-maker Rodolfo Kurchan. Write down the following six numbers: 19, 28, 38, 81, 83, 85. What are the next three numbers in the series?

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 2021 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).