ANSWERS: Chess Words 3

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Chess Words 3" was posted on this blog, which means that it's time for me to reveal the list of everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Steve Gunter
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Tamara Brenner
• Perry Groot

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #436: Moving Staircases 13

PUZZLE #436

MOVING STAIRCASES 13

The two staircase-shaped halves of a "Moving Staircases" puzzle are designed to be pushed together in two different ways, horizontally and vertically. A horizontal push creates shorter words ("Shorts"), while a vertical push creates longer words ("Longs"). The example above shows a completed grid and the grids that result from pushing it both ways. The lists of clues given for the Shorts and Longs are not in order; it's up to you to determine where the answers go by working back and forth between the two lists.

Once you've completely filled out the grid, hidden inside it will be this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of a newspaper comic whose name is not hidden horizontally or vertically.

SHORTS

• Cumberbatch’s role in The Imitation Game

• Dolly with a Dollywood theme park

• "Happier than Ever" singer Eilish

• _____ in (exchanged for money)

• New York City's largest borough

• Scuba tank-wearing explorers

• Villainous insect who gets eaten by baby birds at the end of A Bug's Life

LONGS

• Dishes that serve soup or stew

• _____ gifts (consolation prizes for losing game show contestants)

• Having a large variety of ethnicities

• Number whose cube root is 1,000

• Reindeer who's part of the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece (or a slangy term for a helicopter)

• Suppressed, as dissidents

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: The Spiral Squared 7

It's been close to two weeks since "The Spiral Squared 7" was published on this blog, and a whopping twenty people (one of whom solved it as a family) have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Nancy Stueve
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Stephen Potter
• Wendy Walker
• KeoFam
• Tyler Hinman
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Perry Groot

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

PUZZLE #435: Chess Words 3

PUZZLE #435

CHESS WORDS 3

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!

Eight 8-letter words are scrambled on the chessboard, all of which are the answers to the provided clues. Each chess piece starts on the first letter of one of the words, and can be moved across the board via standard chess moves to spell the rest of the word. Every square is used exactly once. The chess pieces move as follows:

King: one space in any of the eight directions
Rook: any number of spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction
Bishop: any number of spaces in a diagonal direction
Queen: any number of spaces in any of the eight directions
Knight: two spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction and then one space in a perpendicular direction

Once all the words have been found, read down the last letter of each filled-in word, in order, to get the FINAL ANSWER: an 8-letter word

  Queen's Rook: D _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                a1 
Queen's Knight: P _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                b1 
Queen's Bishop: S _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                c1 
         Queen: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                d1 
          King: C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                e1 
 King's Bishop: T _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                f1 
 King's Knight: E _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                g1 
   King's Rook: H _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                h1

CLUES
• Certain search engine's parent company

• Football team with exactly one Super Bowl win

• Huger than huge

• Japanese sauce

• Problem in geometry class

• Reading-impaired, like Percy Jackson

• Shadow from a 2005 Sega video game, for one

• Site that serves slices

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: Line 'Em Up 12

It's been almost two weeks since "Line 'Em Up 12" was posted in this blog, which means that it's time for me to reveal the list of everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Tyler Hinman
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Mom
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #434: The Spiral Squared 7

PUZZLE #434

THE SPIRAL SQUARED 7

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: Meal shipment from GrubHub or DoorDash

9-13: Dynamite inventor Alfred

14-20: Observe closely

21-25: Surname on a green-and-yellow tractor

26-31: Weaselly animal commonly kept as a pet (except in Hawaii and California)

32-40: Leftmost foot lever on a piano: 2 wds.

41-44: Word preceding "rock" or "rain"

45-51: The _____ Hall Show ('90s talk show with a "Dog Pound")

52-60: Drink from another water bottle, say

61-64: Stand-up comedian Love who is a judge on Criss Angel's Magic With the Stars

65-71: Answering machine's playback

72-77: "I didn't do it!" or "It wasn't me!"

78-83: University grounds

84-88: "Excelsior!", for New York

89-96: Like the side of toast that (supposedly) always lands on the floor

97-100: _____ Erikson Day (holiday celebrated by Norwegian-Americans and SpongeBob)

OUTWARD

100-94: Center _____ (Willie Mays' position)

93-90: Latin phrase spoken by Caesar after Brutus' betrayal: 2 wds.

89-81: "Down the hatch!": 2 wds.

80-73: Postcards from the Edge actress Shirley

72-68: French artist Edgar who often painted ballerinas

67-60: Florida tribe that owns the Hard Rock Cafe

59-55: Arriving after the school bell

54-47: Black Canary, Black Widow, and Shuri as Black Panther, to name a few

46-40: Square root symbol

39-35: Capable and not clumsy

34-29: _____'s Home for Imaginary Friends (Cartoon Network series)

28-22: Roller derby official in a striped shirt

21-17: Material for Mudd Jeans

16-13: Green-haired driver from Crazy Taxi (or a figure skating jump)

12-8: Ivory's partner in a song by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney

7-1: Much-maligned

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: Insiders 2

It's been about two weeks since "Insiders 2" was posted on this blog, so now's the time for me to list the names of everyone who solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Michael Lebowitz
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Wendy Walker
• Sam Levitin
• Tyler Hinman
• Patrick Jordan
• KeoFam
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #433: Line 'Em Up 12

PUZZLE #433

LINE 'EM UP 12

Place the answers to each numbered clue in the squares to the right of each corresponding number (a number in brackets following each clue will tell you how many letters are in each answer). Once you have the answers, align them properly in the grid so that going down, a two-word phrase will be spelled out by the two red columns in the grid's center.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the original name of a sports team

1) "Anti-comedian" Andy portrayed by Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon [7]

2) Produce an egg [3]

3) "Nose" of Rambi the Rhino from Donkey Kong 64 [4]

4) Birthstone for June that technically isn't a stone [5]

5) _____ RemotePlus (add-on for Nintendo's remote-shaped controllers) [3]

6) Organ that cleans toxins from the blood [6]

7) Country singer Johnny who famously covered Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" [4]

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: The Block List 5

It's been nearly two weeks since "The Block List 5" was posted on this blog, so now's the time for me to reveal the list of all eighteen-plus people who have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Nancy Stueve
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• KeoFam
• Tyler Hinman
• Tamara Brenner
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Zach Moore
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

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