PUZZLE #516: Chain Reaction: Extra Links 12

PUZZLE #516

CHAIN REACTION: EXTRA LINKS 12

For this puzzle, there are seven golden "links" that link together six two-word phrases when reading down. However, it's completely blank, save for some dashes that reveal how long each word is (four dashes translate to a four-letter word, for instance). To help you figure out these words, though, there are some extra silver links with words already in them which, when combined with the golden link to the left or right of it, make another two-word phrase. In the above example, the two-word phrases with silver links in them are "Chain Restaurants", "Gut Reaction", "Time Zone", and "Fruit Flies", so the final "golden chain" is "CHAIN - REACTION - TIME - FLIES".

Once you've completely filled in the chain, scramble the letters in the orange squares to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word.

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: Chess Words 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Chess Words 5" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Michael Lebowitz
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Mom
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Josie Giles
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #515: Word Squares: Projectors 7

PUZZLE #515

WORD SQUARES: PROJECTORS 7

There are a series of clues whose answers will fit into the provided grid, reading across and down. However, all of the answers are one letter too long to fit in properly, so each one must have either its first or last letter sticking out (or "projecting" out) of the grid. Once you're done, start at the top left and read the "Projectors" either clockwise or counterclockwise to get another word or phrase. In the example above, the Projectors spell out SAMPLE.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the eight-letter name of a 1970s horror movie.

CLUES

• Anklebones (anagram of STAIR)

• Comic book artist with black pens

• Contraction similar to "won't", as spoken by someone from the 1800s

• Department store that Chicago's Willis Tower used to be named after

• Mr. Kokoshka from Hey Arnold!, or Mr. Schindler from Schindler's List

• Songwriters' org. (answer hidden in SEASCAPE)

• "There's _____ in the Bottom of the Sea" (children's song): 2 wds.

• Tummy trouble supposedly caused by stress (it's not, for the record)

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: Sunburst 6

It's been about two weeks since "Sunburst 6" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have successfully solved it since then, as you an see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Josie Giles
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Patrick Jordan
• Wendy Walker
• Stasi Gustafson
• Lynn Sweeney
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #514: Chess Words 5

PUZZLE #514

CHESS WORDS 5

This puzzle type was suggested by Patron Grant Fikes. Normally, you can suggest a puzzle type of your own choice over on my Patreon page, but both slots are full at the moment, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

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: T _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                a1 
Queen's Knight: F _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                b1 
Queen's Bishop: O _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                c1 
         Queen: J _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                d1 
          King: L _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                e1 
 King's Bishop: E _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                f1 
 King's Knight: H _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                g1 
   King's Rook: C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                h1

CLUES
• Brazilian martial art that one may grapple with?

• Commit fraud

• Element with a single-digit atomic number

• Group of three achievements

• Joey who ate 83 hot dogs in ten minutes in a 2024 Netflix special

• Like tepid tap water

• Sticky snare for some insects

• Way too lengthy, as a speech

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: Lucky Sevens 14

It's been nearly two weeks since "Lucky Sevens 14" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Josie Giles
• Patrick Jordan
• Chris Kochmanski
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #513: Sunburst 6

PUZZLE #513

SUNBURST 6

One of the clues in this puzzle contains a word or phrase 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!

First, solve each 4-letter word listed in the first set of clues, then rearrange them and attach an extra letter to its end (which will be up to you to determine) to form a 5-letter word that matches one of the answers listed in the second clue set. For example, if an answer is ATOP, scramble those letters, add another letter to the end, and form the 5-letter word TOPAZ. Next, place each resulting 5-letter word into the Sunburst at their corresponding numbers, starting at the outermost tile and reading inwards. Since all the 5-letter words have the exact same final letter, make sure that each 5-letter word ends in the center of the grid.

Once the grid has been filled in, the outermost ring of the Sunburst, when read clockwise from 1 to 18, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a Minor League Baseball team

4-LETTER WORDS

1) Raising the Flag on Iwo _____ (famous photograph from World War II)

2) Flightless birds with three-toed feet

3) Clever remark from Groucho Marx

4) They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh

5) Resident of Leicester or London

6) Either end of a horseshoe magnet

7) Square diagram that makes up a crossword, e.g.

8) State where Arches National Park is located

9) Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning role in Black Swan

10) Disinfectant target

11) Japanese wrestling practiced by Hinako from The King of Fighters 2000

12) Two, in Toulon, France

13) Taylor Swift: The Eras _____ (2023 concert film)

14) Near at hand, poetically speaking

15) Surname of Dorothy from the book Ozma of Oz

16) Hide a card in one's hand like a magician (or a hand's part)

17) Prompted an offstage actor

18) Extra-large or extra-small, say

5-LETTER WORDS

• Bill Withers hit once covered by Hootie & the Blowfish: 2 wds.

• Bus driver's path

• Clicking thing used to play point-and-click adventure games

• _____ couture

• Crow, Cree, or Cherokee

• Dating app that's "designed to be deleted" (supposedly)

• Feature of a Ruffles chip

• 40-40 tie in tennis (or a song from Kiss' debut album)

• In Living Color comedian and Beat Shazam host Foxx

• Irritated state

• Marahute from The Rescuers Down Under, for one (HINT: She's a bird of prey)

• Mirror _____ (reversed reflection)

• Musical based on a comic strip about a redheaded orphan

• Ooze, such as charm

• Take someone's property by force

• Turn two companies into one

• Wed without anyone else knowing

• With plenty to spare

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: Zigzagnut 8

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Zigzagnut 8" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• KeoFam
• Wendy Walker
• Chris Kochmanski
• Patrick Jordan
• Pavel Curtis
• Stasi Gustafson
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Tamara Brenner
• Josie Giles
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #512: Lucky Sevens 14

PUZZLE #512

LUCKY SEVENS 14

Stacked together below are seven Sevens made up of 7 squares each. The answers to each Seven start in their respectively numbered squares and continue along its path surrounded by a bold outline, going right and then down. Meanwhile, the answers to the Rows go straight across the grid, including those with only one or two letters in them.

Once you've filled in the grid, the letters in the colored squares (in the order of the Sevens that they appear in, starting with the Seven marked with a 1) will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: A seven-letter word associated with video games

ROWS

i) First word in Iowa's most populated city

ii) Mai _____ (alcoholic drinks)

iii) "Golden Age of Hollywood" icon Clark

iv) Someone who joined Sam's Club, say

v) Assign to a job

vi) Snow-White's sister in a fairy tale that has just one dwarf (not seven): Hyph.

vii) More massive

viii) Cereal with flavored pieces such as Raspberry Red and Orangey Orange

ix) Pimple

x) Decisive victory in the boxing video game Punch-Out!!: Abbr.

xi) Letter on the cover of Sue Grafton's final alphabet-themed mystery novel

SEVENS

1) Wayne who was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame the same year he retired

2) Actress Dawson who voiced Batgirl in The Lego Batman Movie

3) Bon _____ (French phrase meaning "Enjoy your meal")

4) Former cassette tape manufacturer that went bankrupt in 1996

5) More talkative

6) Rearmost part: 2 wds.

7) Baked Alaska or Mississippi mud pie, e.g.

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: Pathfinder 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Pathfinder 5" was published on this website, and eighteen people have successfully solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• M. Sean Molley
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Stasi Gustafson
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!