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'R' You Ready?

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

Challenge from Jan. 29: This week, we'll make a spoonerism (to do that, interchange the initial consonant sounds of words in one phrase to get a new phrase). For example: wild cherry, spoonerised, is child weary. Now, name a popular tourist spot in Europe with four letters in the first word and six letters in the last. Spoonerise it, and you'll get a new phrase meaning "got drunk." What phrases are these?

Challenge from Jan. 22: From listener Andrew Chaikin of San Francisco: Take the nine letters from "G" go "O". Change one of them to the following letter of the alphabet. And re-arrange the result to name a famous person. Two hints: The answer is this person's full name. And its a person that been in the news lately.

Answer: Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader.

Winner: Portia Cornell of Highland, Ca.

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).