Monday, March 18, 2024

PUZZLE #483: Moving Staircases 14

PUZZLE #483
MOVING STAIRCASES 14


The two staircase-shaped halves of a "Moving Staircases" puzzle are designed to be pushed together in two different ways, horizontally and vertically. A horizontal push creates shorter words ("Shorts"), while a vertical push creates longer words ("Longs"). The example above shows a completed grid and the grids that result from pushing it both ways. The lists of clues given for the Shorts and Longs are not in order; it's up to you to determine where the answers go by working back and forth between the two lists.

Once you've completely filled out the grid, the FINAL ANSWER (a two-word phrase or the name of a film from the early 2010s) will be hidden inside it; one of the words is hidden horizontally (is it a Short or a Long? that's up to you to find out!), while the other is hidden vertically.


SHORTS
_____ and the Red Baron (Atari 2600 game based on the Peanuts comic)
• Car add-on such as heated seats
• Little lollipop
• "Minute Waltz" composer Frédéric
• Remove dried-on paint, perhaps
• Reprimand
Xanadu actress Newton-John

LONGS
• 17th century platform shoe (anagram of ONE CHIP)
• British billiards game with fifteen red balls
• Do surgery, say
• Full of fighting spirit, like the nephew of Scooby-Doo
• One of just two landlocked countries in South America (Paraguay is the other one)
• Vacuum cleaner's force

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, March 17, 2024

ANSWERS: Sudokurostic 4

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Sudokurostic 4" was posted on this blog, and quite a few people have solved it since then:

  • Grant Fikes
  • Cindy Heisler
  • Pavel Curtis
  • Kevin Orfield
  • Mike Armstrong
  • Tamara Brenner
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Sam Levitin
  • Steve Gunter
  • Patrick Jordan
  • Mom
  • Josie Giles
  • Wendy Walker
  • Lynn Sweeney
  • Tower
  • Chris Kochmanski
Now head below the break for the answers and a solver's comment!

Monday, March 11, 2024

PUZZLE #482: Compound Crosswords 10

PUZZLE #482
COMPOUND CROSSWORDS 10

One of the clues in this puzzle contains a word or phrase suggested by Patron M. Sean Molley. Support me on Patreon at $15 or more per month to suggest one word or phrase for me to put into a puzzle every month!

Fit the words hinted at by the clues into the nine grids below so that the two words in each grid combine to create a two-word phrase or compound word. There may be multiple possibilities for these phrases, but there's only one way that all the words will fit in all of the grids.

Once each grid is filled out, the pink letters in each grid will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a compound word


CLUES
• Bank's big safe
• Butter-cutting utensil
_____ Dare (Nickelodeon game show)
• Funny folks who are real stand-up guys?
• Greek letter between beta and delta
• "Hand in My _____" (Alanis Morissette song)
• Horse gait faster than a walk, but slower than a canter
• Husband of Edith Bunker in All in the Family
• Legal matter that may be open-and-shut
• _____-link fence
• MLB team based in Tampa Bay
• Opposite of "outer", as in "outer planets"
• Shape with no corners
• Spinning cylinder in front of a barbershop
• _____ Stone Creamery (ice cream parlor founded in Arizona)
• Three strikes in a row, in bowling
• Tomboyish princess playable in Super Mario Bros. Wonder (or an oxeye, say)
• Whole structure of a human being

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, March 10, 2024

ANSWERS: Family Reunions 7

It's been almost two weeks since "Family Reunions 7" was posted on this blog, and an impressive nineteen people have solved it since then, as you can see in the following list:

  • Cindy Heisler
  • Grant Fikes
  • Joe Bernard
  • Pavel Curtis
  • Kevin Orfield
  • Mike Armstrong
  • Wendy Walker
  • Sam Levitin
  • Mom
  • Tamara Brenner
  • Chris Kochmanski
  • Patrick Jordan
  • Bart Gold
  • KeoFam
  • Josie Giles
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Tower
  • Steve Gunter
  • Lynn Sweeney
Now head below the break for the answers!

Monday, March 4, 2024

PUZZLE #481: Sudokurostic 4

PUZZLE #481
SUDOKUROSTIC 4

Below is supposed to be a sudoku/wordoku puzzle, but unfortunately, the whole grid is completely blank. To fill it in, solve the clues so that the answers fill out the dashes (one letter per dash), then transfer each letter to the grid according to the coordinates below each dash, like an anacrostic puzzle. For example, if the coordinates were "e6", then its corresponding letter should go in the square in row "e" and column "6". Not all of the grid's squares will ultimately be filled in, so it's up to you to complete the rest of the wordoku puzzle, making sure that each row, column, and 3x3 box contains the same nine unique letters without any repeats.

Once the grid has been completely filled, look through it like a word search to find the FINAL ANSWER: an adjective that's at least six letters long


• Collarbone
   __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   d3 f2 a8 b5 a1 h7 h3 f8
• Frida Kahlo, Paul Klee, and Jeff Koons, e.g.
   __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   f7 h1 a6 i9 a3 i4 d8
• Opening for a game of volleyball
   __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   g1 c9 g8 c2 f3 a5 h5
• Superlative adjective for the Burj Khalifa skyscraper
   __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   b3 g9 d7 b9 e1 i5 d5
• Surname of a Clue suspect in a red dress
   __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   b7 i2 d2 f5 c1 i7 e9

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, March 3, 2024

ANSWERS: Loopy Links

It's been almost two weeks since I debuted a brand-new-to-this-blog puzzle format in the form of "Loopy Links", and seventeen people have solved it since then:

  • Grant Fikes
  • Cindy Heisler
  • Pavel Curtis
  • Joe Bernard
  • Kevin Orfield
  • Mike Armstrong
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Sam Levitin
  • Chris Kochmanski
  • Tamara Brenner
  • KeoFam
  • Mom
  • Tower
  • Josie Giles
  • Steve Gunter
  • Wendy Walker
  • Lynn Sweeney
Now head below the break for the answers and a solver's comment!

Monday, February 26, 2024

PUZZLE #480: Family Reunions 7

PUZZLE #480
FAMILY REUNIONS 7

Before I get to this week's puzzle, I have some major news to announce: My Patreon page now has a shop! My first offering for sale is five pages' worth of different types of Cryptogram puzzles, such as "Crypto-Lists", an encrypted 4-panel comic strip, and a new creation I call "Crypto-Quiz"! More details are on that product's store page, and it only costs $3 (but only because Patreon wouldn't let me sell it at a lower price). However, you need to have a Patreon account to gain access to it (though you don't have to necessarily subscribe to my Patreon page), so I'm also offering an alternate workaround: if you're not on Patreon, you can still send me $3 through my PayPal account, and I can send you the .PDF file via email! I haven't sold any copies of this puzzle pack yet, so I hope this bit of shameless self-promotion works! So now with all that out of the way, let's get back to our regularly-scheduled puzzle!

For this puzzle, just change the group of 10 words below into a "family" of different words (that is, words or proper names that all have something in common) by dropping one letter from each word and then rearranging the remaining letters. For example, if three of the initial entries are HATRED, UNSTRAP, and AUBURNS, you could drop the D from HATRED to get EARTH, drop the P from UNSTRAP to get SATURN, and drop the B from AUBURNS to get URANUS, all in the category "Planets". As an additional help, the category for the new words will also be listed on top.

Once you're done, the letters that have been deleted from each word will unscramble to spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: a ten-letter word that also fits the category


Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, February 25, 2024

ANSWERS: Chess Words 4

It's been about two weeks since "Chess Words 4" was posted on this blog. I personally view it as one of the more difficult puzzle types that I do for this blog, but this particular one got a record-high of seventeen people!

  • Grant Fikes
  • Cindy Heisler
  • Pavel Curtis
  • Joe Bernard
  • Kevin Orfield
  • Mike Armstrong
  • Josie Giles
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Sam Levitin
  • Tamara Brenner
  • KeoFam
  • Tower
  • Wendy Walker
  • Mom
  • Chris Kochmanski
  • Steve Gunter
  • Lynn Sweeney
Now head below the break for the answers!

Monday, February 19, 2024

PUZZLE #479: Loopy Links

PUZZLE #479
LOOPY LINKS

All of the answers in this puzzle weave through the grid in a single long chain via a series of straight lines and right-angled turns. Each square is used once except where the answers link together in squares with circles in them, each serving as the last letter of one answer and the first letter of the next. The letters in these circled squares are blank and for you to fill in. The chain begins and ends in squares that have letters already filled in.

Once you've solved this puzzle, the circled letters (when read left to right starting at the topmost row) will spell out a clue that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER: a proper name


1) Long-haired princess voiced by Mandy Moore in Disney's Tangled
2) Lower back pain
3) _____ Magic (Shaq's original NBA team)
4) It measures how far your car goes
5) Rock paper scissors
6) Three sixteenths plus five sixteenths: 2 wds.
7) Total debacle
8) Desdemona's husband in a Shakespeare play
9) Geographically-oriented Wheel of Fortune category: 3 wds.
10) E _____ unum (Latin phrase meaning "Out of many, one")
11) Scoopable dessert that comes in a "rainbow" flavor
12) Parody
13) "I'm Like a Bird" singer Nelly
14) Animal voiced by William Shatner in Over the Hedge who overacts while playing dead
15) Barrel of _____ (toy originally made in the 1960s)
16) WetJet manufacturer
17) Soak up again
18) According to Jim star Jim
19) Like this type of text
20) _____ rolls (pastries also known as croissants)
21) Type of questions to answer in video games like Buzz!: Quiz World
22) Tick or scorpion, say
23) Google Drive alternative

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com (though I'm more likely to check the second one) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in about two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out. If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, February 18, 2024

ANSWERS: Vanishing Act 4

It's been nearly two weeks since "Vanishing Act 4" was posted on this blog, and a whopping nineteen people have solved it since then:

  • Grant Fikes
  • Cindy Heisler
  • Pavel Curtis
  • Joe Bernard
  • Kevin Orfield
  • Mike Armstrong
  • Josie Giles
  • Sam Levitin
  • Michael Lebowitz
  • Patrick Jordan
  • Tamara Brenner
  • Wendy Walker
  • Steve Gunter
  • KeoFam
  • Chris Kochmanski
  • Tower
  • Mom
  • Lynn Sweeney
  • Bart Gold
Now head below the break for the answers!