It's Lonely At The TOP

On-Air Challenge: You are given three words, starting with the letters T, O and P, and must come up with a fourth word that can follow the words and complete a familiar two-word phrase. For example, given the words "taste," "oral" and "paternity," the answer would be "test," as in "taste test," "oral test" and "paternity test."

Last Week's Challenge: From Mike Reiss, a former writer and producer for The Simpsons: Take the two-word title of a TV series. The first word contains a famous actor's first name in consecutive letters. The second word is a homophone for this actor's last name. Name the series and the actor.

Answer: American Idol and Eric Idle

Winner: Scott Bretzke of Barnhart, Mo.

Next Week's Challenge: This Hat Rack Puzzle by Sam Loyd was published 100 years ago in Woman's Home Companion: A hat room contains a wall with 49 pegs, arranged in a 7-by-7 square. The hat clerk has 20 hats that are to be hung on 20 different pegs. How many lines, containing four hats in a straight line, is it possible to produce? A line can go in any direction: horizontally, vertically or obliquely. To explain your answer, number the pegs in order, from 1 in the upper left corner to 49 in the lower right corner; list which pegs you put the 20 hats on, and give the total number of lines containing four hats in a row.

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.