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NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz Returns To Weekend Edition, After Month-Long Absence Following A Stroke
Will Shortz at home in Pleasantville, N.Y.
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Tsering Bista
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NPR
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Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has returned to NPR's Sunday show, Weekend Edition, a little more than a month after he disclosed on the air that he had suffered a stroke.
"It is so good to be back. So good to hear your voice," Shortz told Weekend Edition host Ayesha Rascoe in today's puzzle segment.
"I had so many letters and emails from friends and strangers alike who wrote me at home and wrote me through NPR. It was just very heartwarming," Shortz continued.
"I had a stroke on February 4, which left my left side incapacitated, and I'm home again, which is so good, but I'm continuing therapy seven days a week. I'm just working really hard to get my body back physically," he said.
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In early March, Shortz announced in a recorded message on the public radio program that he was recovering from a stroke, after being absent from the popular segment for several weeks.
The 71-year-old has been the puzzlemaster on Weekend Edition on Sundays for more than 35 years, transforming the show into appointment listening with his engaging segments of brain twisters, wordplays, and puzzles. He became the puzzle editor at the New York Times in 1993.
During Shortz's absence, guest puzzlemasater Greg Pliska had been filling in.
Shortz, true to his trade, thanked Pliska by building a puzzle on today's segment around him.
"You know, a few weeks ago, Greg Pliska did a tribute puzzle to me in which every answer was a familiar two word phrase or name with initials W.S. So I wanted to return the favor. Every answer today is a familiar two word phrase or name with the initials G.P.," Shortz said to contestant Scott Manas.
"Here you go. What you step on to make a car go faster," Shortz asked.
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"Gas pedal," Manas answered.
Here's to the speediest recovery to America's favorite puzzlemaster.
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