A Puzzling Profession

My dad was listening to NPR this morning as I was getting ready to leave the house. I overheard the talk show host introduce a man named Will Shortz, (pictured in a cheeseball photo on the right) who had a degree in Enigmatology. The show continued as people began calling in and asking riddles, all of which he was able to answer.




So, I did a little research tonight to find out more about this puzzling degree in the study of puzzles ... Will went to Indiana University and designed his own major program. He is the only person in the world to have a degree in enigmatology! He sold his first professional puzzle when he was only fourteen years old. He has been the official crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times for more than ten years and he appears on NPR each Sunday. He is also the founder of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (picture of 2005 competion at left). What a life - he makes a living out of creating and solving puzzles!

Here is a riddle for you to solve (you can look under the comments section for a clue). Name a five letter word that contains four vowels. And if you remove those four vowels, the word is still pronounced the same way.