PUZZLE #39: Chain Reaction: Extra Links

PUZZLE #39

CHAIN REACTION: EXTRA LINKS

Happy 100th post, everybody! To celebrate, I've got another original creation for you guys! You see, I've been entertaining the thought of combining the idea behind Chain Reaction and a crossword for quite a while now, and I think I've finally figured out how to do it! Read on to see the fruits of my labor!

For this puzzle, there are seven golden "links" that link together six two-word phrases when reading down. However, it's completely blank, save for some dashes that reveal how long each word is (four dashes translate to a four-letter word, for instance). To help you figure out these words, though, there are some extra silver links with words already in them which, when combined with the golden link to the left or right of it, make another two-word phrase. In the above example, the two-word phrases with silver links in them are "Chain Restaurants", "Gut Reaction", "Time Zone", and "Fruit Flies", so the final "golden chain" is "CHAIN - REACTION - TIME - FLIES".

Once you've completely filled in the chain, scramble the letters in the orange squares to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word.

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 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 figured it out. 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!

ANSWERS: Anagram Chambers 2

It's been thirteen days since I posted my second "Anagram Chambers" puzzle, and you guys seemed to like it, since the amount of solvers for this one passed the double-digit mark! Here's a list of those solvers below:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Paolo Pasco ****
• YYW ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney **
• Mom ***
• Debbie Underwood **** (Especially impressive since she solved this one over the phone!)
• Grant Fikes ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• My sister Alex ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with a couple solver comments and a small anecdote regarding me and the subject of the FINAL ANSWER!

PUZZLE #38: Nonplussed

PUZZLE #38

NONPLUSSED

This next puzzle was inspired by Grant Fikes' "Pent Words", except that for this puzzle, only one pentomino is used: the one shaped like a plus sign. I've made a grid using 25 of these, and you can see the final result below. How do you fill it out? Well, just read on for the directions!

The answers in this puzzle are entered in two ways: the fifteen numbered rows have one or two answers that read left to right (yes, even the two rows that only have one letter in it), and the pluses have five-letter answers that read left to right beginning in the top row (exactly like how they're entered in Pent Words). The clues for the pluses are split up into two groups: white pluses and gray pluses. Answers to those clues should be placed in their respectively-colored plus, though you have to use the Rows' answers to find out where each plus answer is located.

There are two unclued rows in this puzzle; combine them to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of an '80s cartoon villain

ROWS
1) Early survival horror video game "starring" Laura, the "virtual actress"
2) Final boss of Super Mario Bros. 2 who hates vegetables
3) "Planet Rock" musician _____ Bambaataa
4) THE FIRST HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
5) Remove cargo / Gathering of Wiccans
6) Smaller version of a collie (I used to have one of these named Sprite!) / Type of Bible often seen in hotel rooms
7) Practice public speaking / Webcomic with characters named Big-Ears, Dies-Horribly, and Complains-of-Names
8) Camaro or Corvette, not for short / Exhale audibly
9) Lego block / In the midst of
10) Michigan's capital / Add yeast to
11) Cedar or cypress / Cheese _____ (Nabisco's Cheez-It competitor)
12) THE SECOND HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
13) Mouth-watering
14) Grizzly cub from Brother Bear
15) Knight, in algebraic chess notation

WHITE PLUSES
* The "A" in NBA: Abbv.
* Mel who voiced almost all of the Looney Tunes
* Sleepy or Sneezy
* Muppet whose song "Rubber Duckie" actually hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100
* Ben _____ Five (Their biggest hit is the first answer in Row #9)
* Root beer with ice cream on top (Great, now I want one...)
* Humanoid creature made of living clay
* Islam's equivalent of Satan
* Bright Vegas lights
* Giant pteranodon from the Godzilla series
* Kristoff's pet reindeer and Ren Höek's idiot cousin
* "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" singer
* Mama's Family comedienne Lawrence

GRAY PLUSES
* Acute or obtuse
* It may say "Kiss the Cook"
* Saber-toothed cat from the Ice Age films
* Physics-based video game engine used in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
* Not now
* "It was a dark and stormy _____..."
* Light brownish-yellow: Var.
* Celebration, like the kind Pinkie Pie would hold
* Wandered about
* Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik's arch-rival
* The only monarchy in the Pacific
* Three-wheeler

Once you believe you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com 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 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 figured it out. 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!

ANSWERS: Flower Power 2

It's been thirteen days since I posted my second "Flower Power" puzzle, so this is the part where I reveal the people who sent me the correct answers, and here they are!

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Mom ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• YYW ****
• Paolo Pasco ****

Now just head below the break for the answers! Just one user comment this time, so there's that, too.

PUZZLE #37: Anagram Chambers 2

PUZZLE #37

ANAGRAM CHAMBERS 2

For this puzzle, there are several dark-green "chambers" with yellow rectangles and light-green squares in them. For each chamber, you take a word in the first yellow rectangle as hinted at by the clue, add a letter from the light-green square, and scramble them to get a word in the second yellow rectangle, then you repeat the process to get the word in the third yellow rectangle. Once you've filled in everything, the light-green squares will spell out something... or they would if the chambers weren't all scrambled up as well!

Once all of the chambers are in the proper order, the light-green squares will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: An '80s arcade game.

In case you can't make out the words in the above picture, here are the clues in text format:

• [U2 song also known as "In the Name of Love"] + __ = [Anansi or Aragog, for example] + __ = [Like pool balls numbered 9-15]
• [Cured animal skin] + __ = [With "New", India's capital] + __ = [Fictional agency once headed by Nick Fury]
• [The titular Little Mermaid] + __ = [Oblong pastry with cream filling] + __ = [Jodie Foster's role in Silence of the Lambs]
• [Observed] + __ = [Past or present, regarding verbs] + __ = [Crunch bar company]
• [It can precede "Estate" or "Ghostbusters"] + __ = [Worm-catching bird, idiomatically] + __ = ["Angel of Death" metal band]
• [Like neon or xenon] + __ = [Eye part with rods and cones] + __ = [Apprentice]
• [Mystery _____ Files (series of hidden object games)] + __ = [Terrify someone] + __ = [Emperor that lent his name to a "Little" pizza chain?]

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com 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 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 figured it out. 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!

ANSWERS: Color Wheels

Before we get to the answers and solvers for my "Color Wheels" puzzle, I want to focus our attention on last week's puzzle, considering that only 6 people have solved that one so far. I believe that number could be a bit higher, so I'd like to remind you that you can ask me for hints through my "Hint Stars" system that I set up a while ago. Right now, however, the only people using them are those that I meet in person, which begs this question: why aren't you using your Hint Stars? Is it pride? Do you just dislike asking for help even more than looking up the answers? Or is it something else entirely? Let me know either in the comments section below or via email, and I'll try to take your feedback into consideration. So with that out of the way, let's reveal who solved the "Color Wheels"!

• Eric Maddy ****
• YYW ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Paolo Pasco ****
• Mom ***
• Lynn Sweeney **
• Debbie Underwood ****

Now head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments!

PUZZLE #36: Flower Power 2

PUZZLE #36

FLOWER POWER 2

Yes, I've made another one of these, because I clearly didn't get the hint regarding how hard the first one was to make, let alone solve! On the plus side, unlike my first attempt at one of these puzzles, I had nutrimatic.org to assist me in creating it, so it only took several hours this time around (as opposed to a few days). Also, you might recall that in my initial effort, I didn't reveal which clue went in which direction. Well, since this puzzle will probably be hard enough as it is, I've changed my mind regarding that point, so hopefully you won't struggle as hard!

The answers to this petaled puzzle will go in a curve from the number on the outside to the center of the flower. Each number in the flower will have two 5-letter answers, one going in a clockwise direction, and the other going in a counterclockwise direction.

Once you're done, the numbered tips of each petal, reading clockwise, will spell out a clue that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER.

CLOCKWISE

1) Use a bench, for instance: 2 wds.

2) _____ Boogie (The Nightmare Before Christmas villain)

3) Galaga creators

4) Ancient Greek colony

5) Given as a source

6) Slugger Sammy and his family

7) Japanese name of Jigglypuff

8) Resident of Cedar Rapids

9) Leonard who lived long and prospered

10) Harold went to White Castle with him

11) Secondhand Lions actor _____ Joel Osment

12) Pokemon with eight different evolutions, including Vaporeon

13) Soils, silts and such

14) Pasted

15) _____ Alive (Discovery Channel special that didn't live up to its name)

16) Villainous "Lord" from Wander Over Yonder

17) Rowed

18) Mentor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

COUNTERCLOCKWISE

1) Adagio Dazzle or Sonata Dusk

2) Wayne Gretzky, from 1979 to 1988

3) Jotted down

4) An Othello villain and an Aladdin parrot

5) "You've Got Another Thing _____" (Judas Priest song)

6) What "syne" (as in "Auld Lang Syne") means

7) Latin word that "potion" originated from (Free Hint: Just get rid of one of the letters in "potion"!)

8) "_____ word that don't mean nothin', like 'looptid'" ("The Humpty Dance" lyrics): 3 wds.

9) They track Santa Claus every year at Christmas

10) Fuzzy green fruits

11) Deux Ex: _____ Revolution

12) Singer/swearer of "**** It (I Don't Want You Back)"

13) Postpone

14) With "The", Young Adult Dystopian novel by Lois Lowry

15) Latino TV network launched by Robert Rodriguez: 2 wds.

16) Lead-in for "cuisine" or "couture"

17) Hall's partner in pop

18) Like some private communities

Once you think you know what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com 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 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 figured it out. 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!

ANSWERS: Squeezed in the Middle 2

Before I reveal the people who solved "Squeezed in the Middle 2", I should let you know that I'm typing this on a new computer! Yep, I finally upgraded my old computer for a new one that has Windows 10 on it last weekend, and so far, it's working out pretty well! (How old was the old one? It still had Vista on it!)  Anyways, here's that list of solvers I mentioned earlier:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Mom ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• My sister Alex ****
• Eric Milton ****
• YYW ****
• Paolo Pasco ****
• Debbie Underwood ****

Now just click on "Read more" for the answers, along with a few solver comments sent to me via email!

PUZZLE #35: Color Wheels

PUZZLE #35

COLOR WHEELS

This next puzzle is based off a grid I found in one of my old issues of GAMES magazine (yes, I saved them; after all, why would you want to throw away something with beautiful Paint By Numbers and/or Link-A-Pix puzzles that you worked so hard on?). Speaking of which, I should probably renew my subscription now that I'm going to get published! Read on for the directions while I do that...

The five- and six-letter answers in this puzzle go in three directions: straight across, uphill (up diagonally), and downhill (down diagonally), all from left to right, with one letter per triangle. Each entry is marked with a colored pointer: red for across, green for uphill, and blue for downhill. This is important, because all the answers are grouped according to the direction that they're entered into the grid. To make things a tad easier, six letters have already been entered into the grid.

Once you've completely filled in the grid, the two unclued red entries will combine to make the FINAL ANSWER: the name of an actor.

ACROSS (marked with red arrows)
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* P-body's companion in Portal 2's co-op mode
* Two-part season 4 premiere of The Office (the second half of this answer is the same as the second half of one of the uphill answers. Whoops!): 2 wds.
* On Deadly _____ (stinky Steven Seagal movie)
* Betted on two horses, say
* Actor Gary who played Commissioner Gordon
* Subtitle of the first Guitar Hero game for Nintendo DS: 2 wds.
* Aired an old TV show again
* Cardcaptor _____ ("magical girl" anime)

UPHILL (marked with green arrows)
* Name that precedes "The Giant" or "3000"
* Cartoon Network character with a secret laboratory
* Hey Arnold! character with a tall afro
* Greek letter used in the Half-Life logo
* _____ Work ("Overkill" band): 2 wds.
* Classic Sega arcade game where you drive a red Ferrari with a blonde girl: 2 wds.
* Moscow money
* Still in the original packaging
* First single off of Foreigner's 4
* Final word of Nirvana's final album

DOWNHILL (marked with blue arrows)
* Fluttershy's pet bunny (who, more often than not, doesn't live up to his name)
* Archie or Edith
* Political refugee
* Grip firmly
* _____ specus (logical fallacy with a name coined by Sir Francis Bacon)
* Pounds potatoes to a pulp
* Crimson covering of a fox: 2 wds.
* Oklahoma's second-largest city
* Tank's top
* Weezer tune also known as "The Sweater Song"

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. 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!

ANSWERS: Pent Words 3

It's been two weeks since I've posted my third Pent Words puzzle, and despite its apparent difficulty, I still managed to get a decent number of solvers from it! You can look at the list of those solvers below:

• YYW ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Joseph DeVincentis ****
• Sam Levitin ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments!