PUZZLE #384: Vanishing Act 2

PUZZLE #384

VANISHING ACT 2

Below are a set of what are supposed to be valid words, but instances of one duplicated letter in each word have all disappeared! Your job is to reinsert the missing duplicate letters into each numbered string of letters so that the resulting words all match up to the provided clues (listed in no particular order). The number in square brackets next to each group shows how many of the same letter need to be inserted into it. For instance, if one of the groups is "XAMPL [2]", then you'll need to insert a letter two times ("E" in this case) to get "EXAMPLE".

Once you've completed everything, the letters that have been added back in, in order, will form another incomplete string of letters. Insert three more of the same letter to get the FINAL ANSWER: an 11-letter noun associated with the military

CLUES

• App whose avian logo is named "Larry"

• _____ Bottom (home of SpongeBob SquarePants)

• Casual video game that involves swapping and matching gems

• Color of a beret in a hit song by Prince

• High-tech computer from the ‘80s cartoon Jem (or a business buzzword meaning "cooperation")

• Maybelline product for eyelashes

• Vampire's bed

• Woolly creatures voiced by Ray Romano and Queen Latifah in the Ice Age 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 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: Squeezed in the Middle 18

It's been thirteen days since "Squeezed in the Middle 18" was posted on this blog, and sixteen people since then have correctly figured out its Final Answer:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Steven McKinney
• Sam Levitin
• CromsFury
• Tamara Brenner
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Michael Lebowitz
• "Dot"
• Lynn Sweeney
• Thomas Burnakis
• Peter Abide

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #383: Puzzle in the Round 5

PUZZLE #383

PUZZLE IN THE ROUND 5

To solve this tough puzzle, fill in as many of the 5-letter answers next to their clues as you can. Next, look for shared letters, and then enter each letter into its correct place in the diagram (though you'll most likely need to scramble the order of the letters to make them fit). The letter in the grid's center will be shared by all of the answer words. As a little hint, look for unshared letters to help you determine the letters that will go in the outer ring to form the FINAL ANSWER, reading from 1 to 24.

The FINAL ANSWER is the name of an anime series from the 2010s

1) Glasses-wearing member of Alvin and the Chipmunks

     _ _ _ _ _

2) Deafening

     _ _ _ _ _

3) Drizzles or downpours

     _ _ _ _ _

4) Mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments

     _ _ _ _ _

5) Fashion designer Mizrahi

     _ _ _ _ _

6) They turn litmus papers red

     _ _ _ _ _

7) "Major" or "Minor" dog constellation

     _ _ _ _ _

8) First name of the first Latina member of the Supreme Court

     _ _ _ _ _

9) _____ May Cry (video game series featuring the demon hunter Dante)

     _ _ _ _ _

10) Letter in "VHS" or "VCR"

     _ _ _ _ _

11) Wept

     _ _ _ _ _

12) Cuts cucumbers into cubes, say

     _ _ _ _ _

13) Tiny square segment of a Super Nintendo game's graphics

     _ _ _ _ _

14) DNA strand's curve

     _ _ _ _ _

15) Showing fleet flexibility

     _ _ _ _ _

16) Big-nosed father from The Wild Thornberrys

     _ _ _ _ _

17) Freckles or red hair, for instance

     _ _ _ _ _

18) 4:1, 7:2, or 16:9, e.g.

     _ _ _ _ _

19) Descriptor for any Boy Scout badge

     _ _ _ _ _

20) "I _____ Sins Not Tragedies" (top ten hit by Panic! at the Disco)

     _ _ _ _ _

21) Like wet towelettes

     _ _ _ _ _

22) Quick clips at the barbershop

     _ _ _ _ _

23) Spinning subway entrance

     _ _ _ _ _

24) Weight-loss plans that never seem to work for Garfield

     _ _ _ _ _

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: Masquerade Party

It's been close to two weeks since a new format called "Masquerade Party" debuted on this blog, and sixteen people since then have successfully solved it, all of whom are listed below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Kevin Orfield
• Sam Levitin
• CromsFury
• Tyler Hinman
• Mom
• Steven McKinney
• Tamara Brenner
• "Dot"
• Wendy Walker
• Peter Abide
• Lynn Sweeney
• Michael Lebowitz
• Elliott Frankfother

Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comment!

PUZZLE #382: Squeezed in the Middle 18

PUZZLE #382

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 18

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 a well-known reality TV series

CENTERS

1) Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon character who's a lunar exploration vehicle

2) Overplay feelings on stage, maybe

3) To _____ the Truth (long-running game show)

4) Frolic in the field

5) Short Morse code sound

6) Brick-carrying box

7) Competition at Talladega Superspeedway, say

8) Drei + fünf (okay, it's "three + five" in German)

WHOLES

• America's Cup crafts

• Biblical words of wisdom

• More desolate and far away

• Overwatch heroine with goggles and a British accent (or a bullet with a trail)

• Providence, _____ Island

• Right on time

• Verdi opera with roles named Iago and Desdemona

• Wharton who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize

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: Chain Reaction: Branching Out 4

About two weeks ago, I posted my fourth "Chain Reaction: Branching Out" puzzle, which I pointed out at the time as being possibly my hardest "Chain Reaction" variant. Despite that warning, thirteen of you still managed to successfully solve it:

• Grant Fikes
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Al Sisti
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Sam Levitin
• Lynn Sweeney
• Peter Abide
• Steven McKinney
• Meg Duvall
• Michael Lebowitz
• Tamara Brenner

Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comment!

PUZZLE #381: Masquerade Party

PUZZLE #381

MASQUERADE PARTY

This puzzle contains a word 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!

Below are rows of blanks that each need to be filled in with a 6- or 7-letter word; these words are clued in no particular order. However, one letter in each word is "in disguise" as another word. The locations of the disguised letters are indicated by symbols and the disguises themselves are clued next to those symbols below. Replace each symbol/disguised letter with its corresponding word to form a longer word.

Once everything has been correctly filled out, the letters that have been replaced by symbols will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: Something that can be changed

WORDS

• Back-up vocalists, for example

• Future husband

• Moving like magma

• Old, but valuable vase, say

• Peace pact

• Send out RSVPs

• Served up gelato

• The _____ Woman (spinoff of The Six Million Dollar Man)

• What Forrest Gump uses to hit ping-pong balls

DISGUISES

⧓) Anchovy's appendage

֎) Spool for a silent movie, say

⮝) Biblical boat featured in a Schoolhouse Rock episode about multiplying by two

℧) Five-letter prefix for "world", "weight", "water", and "wear"

𝄇) A heptagon has seven of these

♥) "_____ Out of Love" (Air Supply song)

⩄) Location for Batman's secret lair

◕) Statistical chart with X and Y axes

★) Singer who famously tells Nicolas Cage to "Snap out of it!" in Moonstruck

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 11

Thirteen days have gone by since "Lucky Sevens 11" was posted on this blog, and an astounding twenty-two people have successfully solved it since then! Take a look:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• "CromsFury"
• Wendy Walker
• Sam Levitin
• Meg Duvall
• Mom
• Charles Flaster
• Patrick Jordan
• Steven McKinney
• Michael Lebowitz
• Anna Tommasi
• Lynn Sweeney
• Tamara Brenner
• Brittany Trofimovich
• Brad Eldredge
• Peter Abide
• Elliott Frankfother

Great job, everyone! Now head below the break for the answers!