These C's Come In Threes

On-Air Challenge

Each clue consists of two words starting with the letter "C." The answer is a third word starting with "C" that can follow the first word and precede the second one to complete a compound word or familiar two-word phrase. For example, if the clue is "comedy" and "car," the answer would be "club" as in "comedy club" and "Club Car."

Last Week's Challenge

From listener Ron Aldridge of New Jersey: Take the family name of a famous world leader in history. Drop the last letter, then switch the last two letters that remain. The result will name the country that this leader led. Who is it and what is the country?

ANSWER: Chiang (Kai-shek) of China

WINNER: Barry Alcock of Groveport, Ohio

Next Week's Challenge

It's an extension of the on-air challenge: Some of the chains of "C" words in the puzzle can be extended in either direction. For example, the chain "cold-cash-cow" could be lengthened by adding "common" at the start to make "common cold," and "college" at the end to make "cow college." The five-word circuit would then be "common-cold-cash-cow-college."

The challenge is to find a chain of "C" words to connect "carbon" to "circuit." Will's chain has seven words between "carbon" and "circuit." The answer doesn't have to match Will's, but each word has to start with "C," and each has to combine with the words before and after to make a compound word or familiar two-word phrase.

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.