Sunday, August 23, 2020

ANSWERS: Flower Power 4

It's been close to two weeks since my fourth attempt at a "Flower Power" puzzle was posted here, and judging by the fact that eleven people solved it since then, I'd say that this effort was my most successful one of this type so far! Take a look:
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Cindy Heisler ****
  • Joe Bernard ****
  • Kevin Orfield ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Stephen Potter ****
  • Mom ****
  • Giovanni Pagano ****
  • Patrick Jordan ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comment!

Monday, August 17, 2020

PUZZLE #296: Cramped Crossword 4

PUZZLE #296
CRAMPED CROSSWORD 4

Solve the mini-crossword (this time, two of the answers are only three letters long), then unscramble the letters that go in the blank spaces to get the FINAL ANSWER: A 9-letter name of a video game for the original Xbox


* "Allahu _____!" (Islamic exclamation)
* Cowgirl's greeting
* He appeared in the Looney Tunes short "The Case of the Stuttering Pig"
* Louis' older sister in Even Stevens
* Mother from Hairspray and fashion designer from The Incredibles, for two
* Something shot out of Spider-Man's wrist

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 a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, August 16, 2020

ANSWERS: Eat Your Words 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Eat Your Words 5" was posted on this blog, and eleven people since then have successfully solved it, all of whom are listed below:
  • Cindy Heisler ****
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Joe Bernard ****
  • Giovanni Pagano **
  • Kevin Orfield ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Stephen Potter ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Mom ****
  • Debbie Benford ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ***
Now head below the break for the answers!

Monday, August 10, 2020

PUZZLE #295: Flower Power 4

PUZZLE #295
FLOWER POWER 4

The answers to this petaled puzzle will go in a curve from the number on the outside to the center of the flower. Each number in the flower will have two 5-letter answers, one going in a clockwise direction, and the other going in a counterclockwise direction.

Once you're done, look through the adjacent numbered petals to find two more words (going either clockwise or counterclockwise), and combine them both to get the FINAL ANSWER: The name of an anime series.


CLOCKWISE
1) Professor Dumbledore of Hogwarts
2) Chuck Norris' very brief appearance in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, for one
3) Her 2006 single "Bossy" went double platinum
4) Tierra del _____
5) Disorderly demonstrations
6) Grey's Anatomy star Pompeo
7) DC Comics superheroine who can use all animals' abilities (and is named after a female fox)
8) Verbally expressed awe at fireworks
9) Truck, in Great Britain
10) "Body Party" singer
11) Alphabetizes
12) Medieval poets
13) "Life with _____" (recurring KaBlam! segment)
14) Portion out
15) Burn perfume in church
16) Word said twice before "Who's there?", in a series of jokes
17) Sans-serif font designed to be similar to Helvetica
18) Gristmill product

COUNTERCLOCKWISE
1) Literary character who said "Curiouser and curiouser!"
2) _____ and dagger
3) Afghanistan's capital
4) Strongest bone in the human body
5) Instructions on how to play whist, say
6) Old MacDonald's vowels
7) Journals on YouTube
8) "Slide Some _____ Me" (Tin Man's song from The Wiz): 2 wds.
9) Smoked salmon on bagels
10) Watch What Happens Live host Andy
11) Tornado alert
12) Surface for Stratego or Scrabble
13) Bucktoothed cucumber from VeggieTales
14) Large artery
15) Clumps of dirt (or people about as smart as clumps of dirt)
16) Certain seaweeds
17) Really rankle
18) Jack nipping at your nose

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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, August 9, 2020

ANSWERS: Section Six 7

It's been thirteen days since the final puzzle in Circular Month, "Section Six 7", was posted onto this blog, and a seriously impressive twelve people have solved it since then, all of whom can be seen in the list below:
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Cindy Heisler ****
  • Joe Bernard ****
  • Pavel Curtis ****
  • Kevin Orfield ****
  • Stephen Potter ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Mom ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Debbie Benford ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
  • Giovanni Pagano ****
Now head below the break for the answers as well as a few comments from my solvers!

Monday, August 3, 2020

PUZZLE #294: Eat Your Words 5

PUZZLE #294
EAT YOUR WORDS 5

In this puzzle, the words hinted at by the numbered clues (The "Numbered Words") can "eat" a word hinted at by a different set of clues (The "Eaten Words") without rearranging any of the letters. For example, the word BIT can eat the word AND to form BANDIT. All of the new words are entered into the grid in the order of the Numbered Words, and the Eaten Words are in no particular order.

Once all of the new words have been placed, the letters in the highlighted third column will spell out two more words. Insert one of the column's new words into the other to get the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a film from the early 1980s


NUMBERED WORDS
1) One of Mr. Krabs' pincers
2) "No ifs, ands, or _____!"
3) Bald tire's lack
4) With "The", home of the Hobbits
5) Wooden fishing spot
6) 20-sided objects in Dungeons & Dragons
7) Like foods that might make you obese
8) Welcome to Walmart, say
9) Disembodied hand from The Addams Family

EATEN WORDS
* 247 ÷ 247
* Al B. _____! ("Nite and Day" singer)
* Bravos at a bullfight
* Completely conks out
* Hulk co-creator Lee
* It's not me
* Mahershala who won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for both Moonlight and Green Book
* Pinterest, Pandora, or Pokémon Go, for example
* Prove one's literacy

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 a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, August 2, 2020

ANSWERS: Semicircle Sorting

It's been thirteen days since my first "Semicircle Sorting" puzzle was posted on this blog, and eleven people since then have successfully solved it, all of whom are listed below:
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Joe Bernard ****
  • Cindy Heisler ****
  • Kevin Orfield ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Stephen Potter ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Mom ****
  • Giovanni Pagano ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
  • Debbie Benford ****
Now head below the break for the answers!

Monday, July 27, 2020

CIRCULAR M◎NTH! PUZZLE #293: Section Six 7

CIRCULAR M🟢NTH!
PUZZLE #293
SECTION SIX 7

This puzzle's grid has six rings and six sections. Each ring contains a series of words placed end to end, reading either clockwise OR counterclockwise; all the words in a given ring will read in the same direction. Ring 1 (the outermost ring) contains six answers that read clockwise; the starting spaces are numbered in the grid. Clues for the answers in the remaining rings are given in order, but their starting points and direction are for you to figure out. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you place the inner rings: in a given section, each ring segment contains all but one of the letters in the next segment outward. In other words, a section's outermost segment contains six letters; the next segment inward contains five of those six letters in some order; and so on, until only one of the original six letters remains.

Once you're done, unscramble the six spaces with stars in them to get the FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word.

Special thanks to Grant Fikes for making this grid for me

RING 1
1) Perhaps (or perhaps not)
2) Metal thingy at the tip of a hose
3) Umbrella-wielding foe of Batman
4) "That's not what I _____ to say!"
5) The last letter in "UFO"
6) #1 Blondie song that ends with Debbie Harry rapping

RING 2
* Make water fizzy with SodaStream, say
* 12-year-old guitar-playing main character of Pixar's Coco
* "Girl of the 21st Century" from a 1999 Disney Channel movie (whose name sounds like the 54th element)
* Equine on packs of Fruit Stripe gum
* Entice

RING 3
* Mercedes-_____
* Pea or peanut, for one
* Napoleon's surname
* Passover bread

RING 4
* Okra soup
* Sequestered
* Commit check fraud, e.g. (on a side note, please don't ever commit check fraud)

RING 5
* Knotted snack
* Latin dance-based fitness program that inspired a series of Nintendo Wii "exer-games"

RING 6
* Round button pressed by contestants on Press Your Luck and other game shows

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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

Sunday, July 26, 2020

ANSWERS: Puzzle in the Round 3

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Puzzle in the Round 3" was published on this blog, and ten people since then have successfully solved it, as you can see in the list below:
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Giovanni Pagano ****
  • Joe Bernard ****
  • Cindy Heisler ****
  • Kevin Orfield ****
  • Patrick Jordan ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Stephen Potter ****
  • Mom ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ***
Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comments!

Monday, July 20, 2020

CIRCULAR M◎NTH! PUZZLE #292: Semicircle Sorting

CIRCULAR M🟢NTH!
PUZZLE #292
SEMICIRCLE SORTING

Below are 12 semicircles, each containing three or four letters. Your job is to combine them all into six circles so that a common word (either 6, 7, or 8 letters long) can be read either clockwise or counterclockwise in each circle. However, in order to do that, six of the semicircles need to be turned 180° upside down so that they can be correctly matched up with the remaining six semicircles.

Once all of the circles have been solved, select two of the resulting words and combine them to get the FINAL ANSWER: a common two-word phrase that's also the name of a video game 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 a link to a .PDF version which you can print out!