The Stupid Puzzler was No Laughing Matter

RAY: Here's the answer. What all of these words (deft, first, calmness, canopy, laughing, stupid, crab cake, hijack) have in common is they all contain three consecutive letters of the alphabet.

TOM: Oh.

RAY: N-O-P in canopy. G-H-I in laughing. S-T-U in stupid. A-B-C in crab cake. Do we have a winner?

TOM: Yes we do. It's John Leete, from Arlington, Virginia. And for having his answer selected at random from all the correct answers that we got, John is gonna get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at cartalk.com. And with that $25 gift certificate John can get a Best of Car Talk cassette or a CD or some other Car Talk junk.

RAY: Congratulations, John!

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]