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LYNN NEARY, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Lynn Neary, in Washington. Neal Conan is away. It's an American story as old as Horatio Alger: Hard work, determination and presto, you can change your station in life. But increasingly many Americans find themselves stuck where they are on the economic ladder, that American dream just out of reach.

If your shoes say a lot about you, as we learned last year, what does it say if the ones you're wearing don't match?

-- That it's not a good idea to get dressed in the dark?

-- That perhaps this blogger needs to pay more attention to what he's doing in the morning?

-- Or that he buys boringly similar shoes?

Imagine my surprise when I looked down at my feet after getting to work this morning.

Now, please make me feel better:

The student victims of the Connecticut school shooting rampage that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead in December have been granted an unprecedented one-time waiver on taking standardized tests.

The AP reports:

China's citizens do not report as much as $2.34 trillion of what they make every year, hiding "gray income" that would represent nearly 20 percent of the country's GDP, Chinese economics scholar Wang Xiaolu says, in a report from the news site Global Voices.

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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

And we have our next two contestants. Let's welcome Rachel Wilson and Suzanne Wallace.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Rachel, you have many talents. I hear one of them is you can sing the alphabet backwards.

RACHEL WILSON: That may be true.

EISENBERG: That may be true?

WILSON: Mh-mm.

EISENBERG: All right. Can you take us back from M?

(LAUGHTER)

WILSON: (Singing) M, O, N, M, L, K, J, I, H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A.

EISENBERG: Yeah! Nice.

(APPLAUSE)

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(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

This is ASK ME ANOTHER. I'm your host, Ophira Eisenberg, the first female game show host ever to be paid entirely in NPR tote bags.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Next to me on the stage this week are our ASK ME ANOTHER puzzle guys, Art Chung...

ART CHUNG: Hey, Ophira.

EISENBERG: Hello, Art Chung.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: And Greg Pliska...

GREG PLISKA: Glad to be here.

EISENBERG: Welcome.

(APPLAUSE)

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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

All right, let's welcome our next two contestants. We have Jon Katz.

JON KATZ: Hello.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Hello. And Amit Kooner.

AMIT KOONER: Hi.

EISENBERG: Hello.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: All right, Jon. Here's my question for you. How do you meet people?

KATZ: In non-scandalous ways through Craigslist.

EISENBERG: In non-scandalous ways through Craigslist?

KATZ: Yes.

EISENBERG: All right. That sounds like a sentence I'd like to hear more about.

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OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

All right. Art Chung is back with us as well.

ART CHUNG: Hey Ophira.

EISENBERG: And it is time...

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: ...everyone, for what we've all been waiting for. It's our Ask Me One More final round. This final elimination round will determine this week's ASK ME ANOTHER champion. So we're going to bring back the winners from all of our previous rounds. From Two Tickets to Parodies, we have Matt Carman.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: From Sublime Rhymes, James Bronzan.

(APPLAUSE)

Transcript

(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

You're listening to ASK ME ANOTHER, connecting people to puzzles since 2012. I'm your host, Ophira Eisenberg, and joining me right now is puzzle extraordinaire, Greg Pliska.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: And let's welcome our contestants. We have Marty Ambos and James Bronzan.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Hi guys, welcome to ASK ME ANOTHER.

MARTY AMBOS: Hi.

EISENBERG: Hi.

JAMES BRONZAN: Thank you.