PUZZLE #332: Drop Tower 8

PUZZLE #332

DROP TOWER 8

Starting with an 8-letter word on top of the "tower", drop one letter and rearrange the rest to form a 7-letter word. Continue this process until only a 2-letter word remains. Since the tower is completely blank, use the randomly-ordered clues to figure out the words that go in each row.

Once the grid is completely filled in, look inside it for this week's FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word that can be read going down and in a straight diagonal line.

CLUES

• Blue gemstone in the title of a Pokémon game

• Dwarf planet named after the Greek goddess of discord

• Female human/bird hybrids, like those seen on some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards

• Former America's Got Talent judge Morgan

• Happiness _____ a Warm Puppy (Peanuts book)

• Have high hopes

• Title for Lancelot or Mix-a-Lot

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!

ANSWERS: Fronts Off 4

Thirteen days have gone by since "Fronts Off 4" was posted onto this blog, and fifteen people have solved it since then, and you can see all of them in the following list:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Patrick Jordan
• Karen Spencer
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom
• MamaEllen
• Lynn Sweeney
• Dave C.
• Peter Abide
• Giovanni Pagano

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #331: Nonplussed 3

PUZZLE #331

NONPLUSSED 3

The answers in this puzzle are entered in two ways: the fifteen numbered rows have one or two answers that read left to right (even the two rows that only have one letter in it), and the plusses 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 plusses are split up into two groups: white plusses and gray plusses. 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: a two-word occupation

ROWS
1) English letter with more than one syllable

2) Immunity token on Survivor

3) Spadroon, scimitar, and sabre, say

4) THE FIRST HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

5) Devoured dates, say

    Exceedingly negative reaction to an announcement

6) Orange alternative to ice cream

    Defeat the incumbent

7) Aardvark noses

    Use DuckDuckGo, e.g.

8) Metal stick that holds stair runners in place (Anagram of CROP TRADE): 2 wds.

    "Gimme _____ More" (Busta Rhymes song)

9) Tiny dose of Visine

    Quite impossible to miss

10) Fictional Rhode Island city where Family Guy is set

      Established by edict

11) White Fang novelist Jack

      Full of foliage

12) THE SECOND HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

13) Silver-haired half-elf heroine from Re:Zero

14) Carve with acid

15) Generation _____ (alternate name for millennials)

WHITE PLUSSES

• White as a sheet

• Pointy bit on a soccer shoe

• Like five dimes, when compared to two quarters

• Toffee-flavored candy in some Klondike bars

• In desperate need of calamine lotion

• Shish _____

• Closes in on

• Davis who played "Da Mayor" in Do The Right Thing

• Former Red Sox pitcher Martínez

• Long and slender

• Reek like Limburger

• Straight razor's sharpener

• Black _____ (upcoming film starring Scarlett Johansson)

GRAY PLUSSES

• Whale constellation

• Celestial streaker with a coma

• White Cliffs locale

• Strawberry-flavored drink from the Coca-Cola Company

• Material that Snow White's coffin was made of

• Street Fighter II character who shares his name with a Japanese automaker

• Her debut single "Royals" went Diamond, according to the RIAA

• Poet Nash who claimed that "Parsley is gharsley"

• _____ 66 ('60s TV show about two men in a Chevy Corvette)

• Only black member of the Spice Girls

• Word following "book" or "street"

• Put on a happy face

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!

ANSWERS: Mixed Doubles 8

It's been close to two weeks since "Mixed Doubles 8" was posted on this blog, and an impressive eighteen people have successfully solved it since then, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Giovanni Pagano
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Karen Spencer
• Stephen Potter
• Patrick Jordan
• JHseeman
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom
• Peter Abide
• Tyler Hinman
• Dave C.
• Lynn Sweeney
• Elliott Frankfother
• Dan Simonds

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #330: Fronts Off 4

PUZZLE #330

FRONTS OFF 4

First, find the answers to each clue so that there are two words in each rectangular box. Then change the first letter of each word to the new same letter for both words of a pair to form two new words, and write the new letter in the square box to the left of the rectangle.

Once you're done, read down the boxes to get the FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word

1) Bowhead or beluga

    Grow smaller and smaller, like a group of people in a slasher film

2) Woman on a wedding cake topper

    _____ to Ride (train-themed board game)

3) Sunflower stalks

    Spoke monotonously

4) Part of a 3D jigsaw puzzle

    Perfectly logical and reasoned out

5) Character on the box art for Final Fantasy VII (or nimbostratus, for one)

    Vocally protest a prosecuting attorney's claim

6) Becomes a member of Planet Fitness, say

    Obstacle leapt over during a steeplechase

7) Facial feature of King Triton

    Not on the "nice" list

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!

ANSWERS: Semicircle Sorting 2

It's been almost two weeks since the final puzzle using my old "hint star" system, "Semicircle Sorting 2", was posted onto this blog. It went out with a bang, too, as a stupendous nineteen people have successfully solved it, all of whom are listed below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Cindy Heisler ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Kevin Orfield ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Karen Spencer ****
• Marich ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Stephen Potter ****
• Mom ****
• Charles Flaster ****
• Wendy Walker ****
• Dave C ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Peter Abide ****
• Tamara Brenner ****
• Dan Simonds ****

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

PUZZLE #329: Mixed Doubles 8

PUZZLE #329

MIXED DOUBLES 8

Before I get into the directions, I should let you all know that this puzzle will be the first one under the new, simplified hint system. Basically, you can now ask for as many hints as you want for each puzzle going forward, but if you do, you'll get a "[Hint(s) Used]" tag next to your name on that puzzle's list of solvers. I hope this will work out for all of us, and if you still have any questions regarding this new setup, feel free to ask through email or the comments section. Now let's get to a new installment in a puzzle type that I haven't done in a while!

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 14-Across both have the same answer, the answer would go in the box labeled 15 (1+14). To make things harder, tags such as "Hyph." and "2 wds." have been omitted.

There is one extra clue in both lists of Across and Down clues. This week's FINAL ANSWER is the answer to both of the extra clues, which you can get by rearranging the letters in the grid's pink squares.

ACROSS

1) Brimless hat famously worn by Jacqueline Kennedy

2) Propping up a roof

3) Dale's chipmunk brother

4) Default name of the female protagonist from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl

5) Heavy metal band that performed "Run to the Hills"

6) Indonesian dagger with a wavy blade

7) Blimp's body

8) Pirates of the Caribbean actor Geoffrey

9) Birthplace of seven US Presidents (including Lincoln)

10) Canadian progressive rock group with drummer Neil Peart

11) Instructor of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

12) French fry, in Britain

13) Bird whose tailfeathers have eyes

14) Like Cuba Gooding Jr.'s Oscar-winning role in Jerry Maguire

15) Flatten a beach ball

16) Daybreak

17) Syrup brand promoted by country singer Eddy Arnold in '70s TV ads

18) Streaming service with revivals of Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster

19) Medieval torture device

20) Take the metaphorical wind out of one's sails

21) Small tablet container

22) Pointy fragment that you don't want in your fingernail

23) Mother of Kourtney, Kim and Khloé

DOWN

1) Over and done with

2) What happens when both chess players capture each other's knight, say

3) Highest rainforest layer

4) Film splicer

5) Macintosh adventure game where you play a private eye named Ace Harding

6) Do an impression of

7) Part of a little teapot

8) Element between cobalt and copper on the periodic table

9) Sensation that makes you go "Wait, I've been here before..."

10) Once more

11) Mary from a long-running "soap opera" strip

12) Like risqué jokes

13) Coin with Monticello

14) Homestar Runner's occasional girlfriend

15) Computer program that lets you change text files

16) Applied clear varnish to wooden furniture

17) Dungeons & Dragons monster that disguises itself as a treasure chest

18) Wrapper in a UPS Store

19) Valued at

20) The wrong shade of purple, perhaps

21) Speak pompously

22) Transparent cockpit cover

23) Confection made up of almond paste and egg whites

24) Lenny Kravitz hit with the lyrics "All of my life, where have you been?"

25) Swap phone numbers

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!

ANSWERS: Lucky Sevens 10

Roughly two weeks have passed by since "Lucky Sevens 10" was posted on this blog, and a whopping seventeen people have successfully solved it since then! Not only that, every single one of them used zero hints to do so:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Cindy Heisler ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Kevin Orfield ****
• Karen Spencer ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Mom ****
• Tamara Brenner ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Wendy Walker ****
• Lbray53 ****
• Marich ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Peter Abide ****
• Elliott Frankfother ****
• Debbie Benford ****

Speaking of hints, I'm finally set to implement that new hint system starting tomorrow after teasing it for the past few weeks. So while you wait for that to happen, head below the break for the answers as well as a couple solvers' comments!