MATCH GAME
Credit: GAMES Magazine - Apr. 2004
Gary Disch

The words in the two columns below each lack two consecutive letters. Each word in List I has a mate in List II. Can you match up the words so that they share the same two-letter omission and belong to the same category? For example, if GELS were in List I and YKEES in List II, you'd have to figure out that each word can take on the sequence AN to become ANGELS and YANKEES, both of which are professional baseball teams. The letter pair may come before, after, or inside the word.

LIST I                       LIST II
BET                         ATNA
FRNO                      SOMBRO
GRA                        TGH
RMES                      RAV
JEAM                      CLION
LIN                          MODTO
PEN                         FLOAM
PLMS                      DIM
SN                            IIAH
WAEN                     SHEW
WR                          GUA

HINT:
The categories are:
Hats
Nuts
Birds
Fabrics
Leg parts
Ocean debris
US Presidents
Prison workers
Central CA cities
Greek mythological gods
Books of the Old Testament

Answers:

BERET - SOMBRERO
FRESNO - MODESTO
GRANT - CLINTON
HERMES - ATHENA
JETSAM - FLOTSAM
LINEN - DENIM
PECAN - CASHEW
PSALMS - ISAIAH
SHIN - THIGH
WARDEN - GUARD
WREN - RAVEN