PUZZLE #526: Line 'Em Up 14

PUZZLE #526

LINE 'EM UP 14

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!

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 a two-word phrase associated with business meetings

1) With "The", "You Really Got Me" rock band [5]

2) Marshmallow bird seen around Easter [4]

3) Tree that sounds like a second-person pronoun [3]

4) _____ Duck: Goin' Quackers (2000 Disney video game) [6]

5) Tiny castle that can only move vertically or horizontally [4]

6) TNT and CNN founder Turner [3]

7) South American country where Raiders of the Lost Ark's boulder chase occurs [4]

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: New Year's Presents

It's been almost two weeks since "New Year's Presents" got posted on the last Monday of 2024, and a whopping twenty-one people have solved it since then! Take a look:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #525: Compound Crosswords 11

PUZZLE #525

COMPOUND CROSSWORDS 11

Fit the words hinted at by the clues into the nine grids below so that the two words in each grid combine to create a two-word phrase or compound word. There may be multiple possibilities for these phrases, but there's only one way that all the words will fit in all of the grids.

Once each grid is filled out, the pink letters in each grid will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a compound word

CLUES

• 2010 indie film about a living car tire on a killing spree (or what a car tire's made of)

• Bean-shaped organ that filters blood

• Breathes like a tired terrier

• Chicago _____ Sox

• Emma who won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Poor Things

• Fast, like the brown fox that jumps over the lazy dog

• Installed on the wall, as a painting

• Judge, _____, and executioner

• NBA player from Milwaukee

• Part of CBS or GPS

• Restaurant chain that once offered $5 footlongs

• Rock _____ 2 (2008 video game where you can play guitar, drums, or vocals)

• Royal residency that you try to hit in the pinball game Medieval Madness

• Sir Hiss from Disney's Robin Hood, for one

• Stephen who wrote The Running Man under the pseudonym Richard Bachman

• _____-Sun (pouched juice brand)

• Tsuyu from My Hero Academia has all the powers of this hopping amphibian

• "U Got the Look" singer

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: Puzzle in the Round 8

It's been about two weeks since "Puzzle in the Round 8" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have successfully solved it since then, as you can see in the list below:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #524: New Year's Presents

PUZZLE #524

NEW YEAR'S PRESENTS

It's the final puzzle of 2024, so to ring out this year, I've decided to take last year's "Christmas Presents" puzzle and change the involved holiday so that it'd be more fitting for the season (even though I have no idea if "giving presents at New Year's" is even a thing). In case you need a reminder on how to solve this puzzle type, the directions are right here:

For each of these colorful presents, you’re given clues for four words reading across and down the sides of each gift, using all of the letters in the sections of ribbon that each word crosses, like with WRAP and MINER reading across as well as WHAM and PER reading down in the provided example. After you’ve filled in these words, complete the wrapping by adding a letter that acts as a bow where the strands of ribbon cross, so that two more words are formed reading along the ribbons, as with HAVE and RAVINE in the example.

Once all of the presents have been filled out, read all of the bow letters in order to get the FINAL ANSWER: something seen at a New Year's Day celebration

PRESENT #1

• Math symbol seen in streaming services from Disney, Paramount, AMC, etc.

• Royal rank higher than viscount, but lower than marquess

• Toaster _____ (Pillsbury's version of Pop-Tarts)

• Word following "pecan", "pork", and "pizza"

PRESENT #2

• Chide and chastise

• Power of 10 and The Price is Right host Carey

• Resort with mud baths and masseurs

• Spiro who was the most recent vice president to resign

PRESENT #3

• _____-jerk reaction

• Keep tabs on

• Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles network

• Top or bottom bed

PRESENT #4

• Not quite closed, as a door

• Sleep study abbr.

• _____ vera

• White rapper whose latest album is called The Death of Slim Shady

PRESENT #5

• Antlered animal on Michigan's state flag

• Greek letter that looks like an "H" (despite not being spelled with an "H")

• Its two biggest cities are Nairobi and Mombasa

• Meeting schedule

PRESENT #6

• Corn core

• Freshwater fish that becomes a synonym for "fat" if you add "by" at the end

• Got underway

• "There's a sucker _____ every minute" (quote supposedly from P. T. Barnum)

PRESENT #7

• Cars such as the Bronco and Mustang

• Group of sheep to shepherd over

• "Some _____ of Wonderful" (Grand Funk Railroad song)

• What Rosebud was in Citizen Kane

PRESENT #8

• Bill _____ the Science Guy ('90s PBS series)

• Faint trace of color

• Pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

• Uncompromising, like a short time limit

PRESENT #9

• Avant-garde rocker Frank with children named Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Ahmet

• Like a pretentious painting, perhaps

• "Mighty" Mudville batter who struck out

• Second-to-last chemical element alphabetically, just before zirconium

PRESENT #10

• Clumsy dummy

• Latte foam that some baristas make art out of

• Rarity's pet cat in My Little Pony, for short (or October's birthstone)

• Rottweiler's restraint

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: Back-Oops 3

It's been nearly two weeks since "Back-Oops 3" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #523: Puzzle in the Round 8

PUZZLE #523

PUZZLE IN THE ROUND 8

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 still full, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

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 a comic book series from the mid-20th century

1) "_____ Burr, Sir" (song from Hamilton)

     _ _ _ _ _

2) Heaviest (and most radioactive) noble gas

     _ _ _ _ _

3) Mist or steam, say

     _ _ _ _ _

4) Pagliacci or The Pirates of Penzance, e.g.

     _ _ _ _ _

5) Condor's claw

     _ _ _ _ _

6) _____ Recall (1990 film where Arnold Schwarzenegger gets his butt to Mars)

     _ _ _ _ _

7) For everyone to hear

     _ _ _ _ _

8) Dahl who wrote The Witches (1983)

     _ _ _ _ _

9) Anyone strutting her stuff at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

     _ _ _ _ _

10) Forms for making die-cast toys

     _ _ _ _ _

11) Hatred, like the kind that Garfield feels about the dog he lives with?

     _ _ _ _ _

12) Baseball pitcher's place

     _ _ _ _ _

13) X-Men member who can control the weather

     _ _ _ _ _

14) Kitchen, library, and seven others in Clue

     _ _ _ _ _

15) _____-Goldwyn-Mayer (movie studio that turned 100 in 2024)

     _ _ _ _ _

16) The Simpsons dad who once asked a phone operator for "the number for 911"

     _ _ _ _ _

17) Centers of apples and pineapples

     _ _ _ _ _

18) Use steel wool on

     _ _ _ _ _

19) Future oak tree, assuming it's buried properly

     _ _ _ _ _

20) Die like a frog?

     _ _ _ _ _

21) Remote-controlled aircraft with its own racing league

     _ _ _ _ _

22) _____ Drive (short-lived game show named after a street in Beverly Hills)

     _ _ _ _ _

23) Not nearly as good

     _ _ _ _ _

24) Mister, in Mexico

     _ _ _ _ _

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: Anagram Chambers 12

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Anagram Chambers 12" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #522: Back-Oops 3

PUZZLE #522

BACK-OOPS 3

Some words become different words when flipped around, such as PART and TRAP. The answers to this puzzle almost fit that description, but are a little off. To figure out what they are, fill in each space in the direction of the blue arrow with the answer to each corresponding numbered clue. Where a box is divided by a horizontal line, fill in a different letter below so that a new word is formed when read backwards through the pink arrow which matches one of the clues in the "Backward Words" section (listed in no particular order).

Once everything's filled out, the changed letters on the pink arrow, when read backwards, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a term used in video games

FORWARD WORDS (blue arrow)

1) Large amount of soup or stew

2) Cut-and-_____ (simple and straightforward)

3) Winter sport for Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn

4) With "The", classic rock band that did "We Gotta Get Out of This Place"

5) Completely immerse

6) Lighthearted parody

7) Famous vampire Count whom Batman fought in a non-canonical comic book

BACKWARD WORDS (pink arrow)

• April _____ Day ('80s slasher film where, as a prank on the audience, nobody dies)

• Compact computer also known as a "notebook"

• Endurance that runs out when Lara Croft sprints for too long in Tomb Raider III

• Handicapped permit hung off of a car's front view mirror, for one

• Metamorphic rock that sounds pleasant?

• Quirky and quite odd

• Well-versed in a language

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: Loopy Links 2

It's been almost two weeks since "Loopy Links 2" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!