PUZZLE #250: Meta-Crossword 6: Hidden Figures (CONTEST PUZZLE!)

CONTEST!

PUZZLE #250

META CROSSWORD 6: HIDDEN FIGURES

It's my 250th puzzle! And to celebrate, I'm going to do something that I haven't in a very long time: I'm gonna make this a Contest Puzzle! This time, the prize for winning this contest is any crossword book of the solver's choosing! (If you can't decide on one, I personally suggest one of Matt Gaffney's three books of meta-crosswords published by Mental Floss) There will only be one winner for this contest, though if at least ten people solve this puzzle, I'll give out a second prize to another winner! If you don't want to enter this contest, you can still solve this puzzle and opt out of the contest.

And not only that, the puzzle that you'll solve is also something I haven't done in a long while: a Meta-Crossword! In case you forgot, Meta-Crosswords are like normal crosswords, except they have a Bonus Puzzle for you to solve once you fill out the grid. I won't tell you how to get the Bonus Puzzle's FINAL ANSWER, as the techniques in getting them vary with each meta-crossword, so you pretty much have to figure it out yourself.

The FINAL ANSWER to the Bonus Puzzle is a unit of measurement.

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 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 two versions you can print out: a .PNG and a link to a .PDF!

ANSWERS: Pieces of Nine 6

My 250th puzzle is tomorrow, and it's gonna be of a type that I haven't done in a long time! Not only that, I'll be giving away a prize to one of the people that manages to solve it, so be sure to tell all of your puzzle-loving friends about it! Until then, however, here's a list of the nine people who have solved "Pieces of Nine 6" from thirteen days ago:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ***
• Debbie Benford ****
• Lynn Sweeney ***
• Patrick Jordan ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #249: Squeezed in the Middle 14

PUZZLE #249

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 14

For this puzzle, you're going to sandwich together words (entered in the white rectangles) by surrounding it with a letter on each side, one at the beginning and one at the end, making a new word in the process. Once you're done, the extra letters you've added in the "crust" (the brown squares) will spell out a two-word phrase. In the example above, the words URN, RAT, and OVER become BURNT, IRATE, and GOVERN, and the letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out BIG TEN. However, to make things trickier, the "Wholes" will be in no particular order, so it's up to you to figure out which one of the "Centers" it matches up with!

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of an actress

CENTERS
1) You, in French
2) Tree creature from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3) Actress Tara who appeared in all six Sharknado films
4) Threepio's pal
5) Pile up fallen leaves, perhaps
6) Tenacious D member Kyle (AKA the one who isn't Jack Black)
7) _____ of Good Feelings (period associated with James Monroe)
8) Hawkeye became a rogue vigilante named this during the events of Avengers: Endgame

WHOLES
* Aired Seinfeld yet again, say
* Company that created tater tots: Hyph.
* Constitutional amendment regarding states' rights
* Giant tentacled sea monster of myth
* Like a poker-faced person
* Monotonously going on and on and on and.....
* Tennis player Andre who married Steffi Graf in 2001
* Tiny Toon Adventures or Animaniacs, for example

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: Cramped Crossword 3

Before we get to the answers to "Cramped Crossword 3" from a couple weeks ago, I've got some news to share with you! Earlier this month, I used some of the money that I've earned through Patreon to get some new puzzle-making software: Crossword Compiler! It's the same tool used by Pete Muller for his "Muller Monthly Music Meta" website, and the main reason I bought it is because you can post the puzzles you make with it directly online! And despite the name, it's not limited to just crosswords, either! I've made a sudoku puzzle using Crossword Compiler to test out its web publishing capabilities, and you can see the result of that below!

So what else do I have planned for this tool that I just got? Well, you'll find that out soon enough..... In the meantime, here are the eight people that have solved my third Cramped Crossword:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Debbie Benford ****

Now head below the break for the answers as well as three solvers' comments!

PUZZLE #248: Pieces of Nine 6

PUZZLE #248

PIECES OF NINE 6

Arrange the trigrams (blocks with three squares/letters in them) to make seven 9-letter words. After that, sort the new words so that the first one alphabetically is in row 1, the second one alphabetically is in row 2, and so on.

Once you're done, read down two of the columns for the FINAL ANSWER: the name of an upcoming television series

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 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 two versions you can print out: a .PNG and a link to a .PDF!

ANSWERS: The Spiral Squared 3

I'm currently out of town visiting my sister when this is scheduled to be posted, so I'll try and make this quick by listing the seven people who solved "The Spiral Squared 3" from thirteen days ago:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Lynn Sweeney ***

Now head below the break for the answers and a couple solver comments!

PUZZLE #247: Cramped Crossword 3

PUZZLE #247

CRAMPED CROSSWORD 3

Solve the mini-crossword, then unscramble the letters that go in the blank spaces to get the FINAL ANSWER: A 9-letter name of a heavy metal band

CLUES
* Businesswoman Lauder
* Lang who directed Metropolis and M
* Organic milk container?
* Part of what Little Miss Muffet ate
* Patiently put up with
* Video game bobcat who says "What could possibly go wrong?" (a lot of things, it turns out...)

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: Lucky Sevens 8

Almost two weeks have gone by since "Lucky Sevens 8" was posted on this blog, and once again, nine people have successfully solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Eric Maddy ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #246: The Spiral Squared 3

PUZZLE #246

THE SPIRAL SQUARED 3

This puzzle turns in two directions. The Spiral's "Inward" clues yield a sequence of words to be entered clockwise in the spaces from 1 to 100. The "Outward" clues yield a different set of words to be entered counterclockwise from 100 to 1. Fill in the answers, one letter per space, according to the numbers beside each clue. Make sure to keep track of which way you're going!

Once you've filled out the grid, read out the highlighted squares diagonally to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a ten-letter word.

INWARD
1-8: The Captain & _____ (musical duo responsible for "Muskrat Love")
9-13: Green, in Spanish or Italian
14-16: Zebra on a basketball court, say
17-22: Petrified plesiosaur, perhaps
23-29: It's tapped during a frat's toga party: 2 wds.
30-33: Rally racing video game series named after soil
34-39: Female Friends character whose original hairstyle became popular in the '90s
40-42: Low-calorie drink brand that offers "Antiwater"
43-48: Feudal farmer
49-51: His evil plan in the first Despicable Me movie was to steal the moon
52-56: Chicago's busiest airport
57-63: Fancy name for a slash (/)
64-68: German artist who included a magic square in his engraving Melencolia I
69-78: Macaroni pie and lasagna, for two
79-86: _____ and the Bad Hat (children's book)
87-90: In abundance
91-96: Gorillaz's cartoon drummer
97-100: Chef Paula who appeared on Celebrity Family Feud in 2016

OUTWARD
100-94: Acupuncture pokers
93-86: Guaranteed to succeed
85-82: Africa's longest river
81-76: _____ in distress
75-72: Loads from lodes
71-67: "_____ bleu!"
66-63: Not at all polite
62-60: Drag along, as something stupidly heavy
59-54: Former talk show host Geraldo
53-45: Timepiece in the logo for Days of Our Lives
44-41: Converse competitor founded in 1979
40-37: "Yuck!"
36-28: What any Nintendo 64 game comes on
27-24: Antagonistic blue aliens from Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel
23-19: What ignorance is (at least, according to ignoramuses)
18-12: Made available
11-7: Eat, drink, and be merry
6-1: Small brown finch

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 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 two versions you can print out: a .PNG and a link to a .PDF!

ANSWERS: 5-Star Stumper 4

Roughly two weeks have passed by since "5-Star Stumper 4" was posted on this blog, and nine people since then have successfully gotten the FINAL ANSWER, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Dan Simonds ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ***
• Eric Maddy ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Debbie Benford **** 
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers! Only one solver comment this week, but check that out, too!