title: Python replace everything in between first and last character
body: <p>Not sure how to do this in a python way. But I want to replace the characters in a string in-between the first and last characters</p>
  <p>For example, &quot;apples&quot; would be &quot;a****s&quot;, and &quot;car&quot; would be &quot;c*r&quot;.</p>