NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 12, 2018): The Missing Link (Part 2):
Q: Continuing on from Part 1, here's Part 2 of the challenge.
These four words have a very interesting and unusual property in common — something about the letters in them (all the letters). What is it?
SCARECROW
SCREENSAVER
CAMERAWOMAN
CURVACEOUSNESS
When you know it, think of a common 7-letter word that shares the unusual properties of both last week's and this week's words.
If you are thinking anagrams, you are heading down the wrong path. Personally I don't feel the second property is that uncommon. However some of you may still be wishing the deadline was extended
another week.
Edit: The hints were "down" and "extended" trying to hint at the missing descenders and ascenders when written in lowercase. And the word "uncommon" was an example of such a word.
A: In lowercase, the words have no ascenders and descendersscarecrow
screensaver
camerawoman
curvaceousness
The common words that I found that could both contain a planet and only use these letters were:
aVENUeS -> VENUS
MAnneRS --> MARS
MAnuReS --> MARS
MARacaS --> MARS
MARoonS --> MARS
MARrowS --> MARS
MoAneRS --> MARS
I submitted AVENUES because VENUS wasn't included in last week's planet list.