PUZZLE #27: Mixed Doubles

PUZZLE #26

MIXED DOUBLES

Last month, I asked GAMES Magazine what kind of puzzles aren't allowed from new contributors, and among those are "Mixed Doubles" puzzles. This would certainly explain why they didn't reply to the Mixed Doubles puzzle I sent them late last year. Oh, well, at least I can always post it to my blog (with an alteration or two, of course)! Anyway, here are the directions:

Each answer word in this crossword variation has two clues leading to it, using different meanings of the word. The clues are separated into Across and Down, but are otherwise ordered randomly. When you find two Across clues or two Down clues that seem to have the same answer, add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid where the answer should be entered. For example, if the clue for 1-Across and the clue for 17-across both have the same answer, the answer would go in the box labeled 18 (1+17). To make things harder, tags such as "Hyph." and "2 wds." have been omitted.

Once all the answers have been filled in, you should notice that there are two clues that haven't been used; one Across clue, and one Down clue. You should also notice that there are some pink squares in the grid itself. Unscramble the letters in the pink boxes, and you'll get the answer to the two leftover clues, which is also this week's FINAL ANSWER!

ACROSS
1) Frozen food brand
2) Play place
3) Porcine character from Animal Farm
4) Italian turnover
5) Hurt a fly
6) Unresolved plot point
7) Shrunken picture on the computer
8) Alaskan native
9) Foreign-language film feature
10) Each
11) A rope in need of tying up
12) Dole out
13) Part of a certain hand digit
14) Elite law enforcement team
15) Former boxer Mike
16) Type of techno
17) Greek vowel
18) Pinocchio bad guy
19) Boiling liquid
20) "What _____ of work is a man!"
21) Deep trouble
22) Layered French pastry
23) Type of dessert "pies"
24) An edition of GAMES: World of Puzzles
25) Cinema
26) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 villain
27) Very small amount
28) The Curse of the Black Pearl or The Empire Strikes Back
29) Sentinels

DOWN
1) Light browns
2) Kia compact car
3) 1981 Rush single
4) Inconsequential
5) Flo Rida song that hit #1 in 2012
6) Thing
7) Stitching awl
8) _____ Pursuit
9) Dessert made by Granny Smith?
10) Referee's necessity
11) Strict
12) Bodyguard
13) Weekly celebrity gossip magazine
14) Gives an 8 out of 10, say
15) Green _____ (comic book superhero)
16) Most ideal results
17) High heel
18) Type of collared shirt
19) Fixed costs
20) Sport played on horseback
21) Symbol of traditional American values
22) Take exception with in court
23) Connected with someone
24) Back of the boat
25) Sunbathing results
26) Mark Twain character
27) Acclaimed graphic novel that became a movie in 2009
28) Light source in a cave
29) Pocket accessory that prevents ink stains

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net (the main email for my home computer) or itsredhead64@gmail.com (the main email for my tablet and whenever I'm not at home) and I'll put your name on a solvers list once I post the answers in roughly two weeks. You can also use those email addresses to give me some comments and feedback (or get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already solved it (but make sure you do so before this Sunday!). If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!