Monday, August 15, 2022

PUZZLE #400: Insiders

PUZZLE #400
INSIDERS

It's my 400th puzzle, everyone! And to celebrate that milestone, I'm gonna debut a puzzle format that's brand new to this blog! It's strongly based off of the "Rowed Signs" puzzles from the short-lived magazine Will Shortz's Wordplay, so if you've never had a chance to do those puzzles before (either in Wordplay or through reprints in books like Super Wordplay Crosswords), here are the directions on how to solve 'em:

Each row in this puzzle consists of two answers, clued in the order in which they appear. Going across both of these answers is a third word, known as an "Inner Word". For example, if a row's two answers were GRINS and IDEAS, then the Inner Word for that string of letters would be INSIDE (like so: GRINSIDEAS). The Inner Words are listed in no particular order, and shading them or crossing them out in each row is highly recommended.

Once everything's been filled in, all of the letters not used in the Inner Words, when read left to right and row by row, will spell out a clue to the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a fictional character


ROWS
1) "Break On _____ (To the Other Side)" (song by the Doors)
    More common name for "sodium hydroxide"
2) Airplane's airborne trip
    Brockovich who was portrayed by Julia Roberts in a 2000 movie
3) French phrase between "chicken" and "king": 2 wds.
    Park pavilions that are often octagonal
4) Non-lethal phaser setting on Star Trek
    Sucks the energy out of
5) Out-of-nowhere victory
    A hint of color
6) Cliché dog name (besides "Fido" and "Spot")
    _____ 1⁄2 (manga about a boy who changes his biological sex when soaked with water) (anagram of "AN ARM")
7) More dangerous
    Go "Boo-hoo!"
8) Crow or Tom Servo from Mystery Science Theater 3000, e.g.
    Strategic board game that the "eight queens puzzle" is based off of

INNER WORDS
• Approximately
• Flame source held by a concertgoer
• Messes up, as a wrestling move
• Sped past the end of
• Staring with strong focus (HINT: it doesn’t end in “-ING”)
• Toyota truck named after a frigid environment
• _____ up to fail (creating a no-win situation)
• Winter athletes playable in the arcade game Alpine Racer 2

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!

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