PUZZLE #578: Sudokurostic 6

PUZZLE #578

SUDOKUROSTIC 6

This puzzle (suggested by Patron Grant Fikes) 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!

Below is supposed to be a sudoku/wordoku puzzle, but unfortunately, the whole grid is completely blank. To fill it in, solve the clues so that the answers fill out the dashes (one letter per dash), then transfer each letter to the grid according to the coordinates below each dash, like an anacrostic puzzle. For example, if the coordinates were "e6", then its corresponding letter should go in the square in row "e" and column "6". Not all of the grid's squares will ultimately be filled in, so it's up to you to complete the rest of the wordoku puzzle, making sure that each row, column, and 3x3 box contains the same nine unique letters without any repeats.

Once the grid has been completely filled, look through it like a word search to find the FINAL ANSWER: a noun that's at least six letters long

• Big Trouble in Little China actor Russell

   __ __ __ __

   d6 i1 f4 h7

• Disturb a speech by abruptly talking over it

   __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

   g1 h6 d3 e4 a7 e9 b3 f7 i4

• Member of an NBA team in Denver, Colorado

   __ __ __ __ __ __

   f1 d8 a4 c9 i3 e6

• Shortening shrubs with shears, say

   __ __ __ __ __ __ __

   e1 b2 f6 d4 a9 b7 i6

• Trapper _____ (school students' binder brand)

   __ __ __ __ __ __

   b4 d9 f2 h8 a6 h3

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 links to two .PDF versions which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Central Scramble 8

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Central Scramble 8" was posted on this blog, which means it's time for me to provide the list of everyone who has solved this tough puzzle since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Chris Kochmanski
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Derek Allen
• Sam Levitin
• KeoFam
• Kevin Orfield
• Eli Zarconi
• Wendy Walker
• Stasi Gustafson
• Mom
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #577: Moving Staircases 16

PUZZLE #577

MOVING STAIRCASES 16

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, combine the two unclued answers (one Short and one Long) in the correct order to get the FINAL ANSWER: a well-known location

SHORTS

• HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

• Eye membrane containing rods and cones

• Phonomotor and phonograph inventor Thomas

• Planned beforehand, like most pro wrestling matches

• "_____ Nothing Holdin' Me Back" (hit song by Shawn Mendes)

• Towards the back of a boat

• Video game age rating above "Teen"

LONGS

• THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

• Got even, like Iron Man's team in a 2012 Marvel movie

• May who preceded Boris Johnson as the UK's Prime Minister

• Royal entourage

• _____ Standard Time (winter time zone for both Virginia and West Virginia)

• Upright height

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: More Christmas Presents

It's been almost two weeks since "More Christmas Presents" was posted on this blog, so now it's time to take a look at the list of all twenty people who have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• KeoFam
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• Michael Lebowitz
• Derek Allen
• Wendy Walker
• Patrick Jordan
• Nicholas Weaver
• Eli Zarconi
• Mom
• Stasi Gustafson
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #576: Central Scramble 8

PUZZLE #576

CENTRAL SCRAMBLE 8

Below are four octagons with letters inside. Place a different letter in the center of each octagon so that four 5-letter words can be unscrambled out of its four diagonal sections. Also, each added letter has to be in the exact center of each resulting 5-letter word.

Once you're done, take the four letters added to each octagon and place a fifth letter into the exact center of those letters (no scrambling required) to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a publicly traded company

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 6

It's been almost two weeks since "Pathfinder 6" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Derek Allen
• Stasi Gustafson
• Okieboy2008
• KeoFam
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• Eli Zarconi
• Mom
• Michael Lebowitz
• Steve Gunter
• Nicholas Weaver
• Lynn Sweeney

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

PUZZLE #575: More Christmas Presents

PUZZLE #575

MORE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

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: the name of a classic toy

PRESENT #1

• Green sauce made with pine nuts

• Letter between Juliet and Lima

• Member of an NHL team in San Jose, California

• Supermarket _____ (game show with its own channel on PlutoTV)

PRESENT #2

• Copernicus on the Moon, for one (HINT: It was formed by a meteorite impact)

• Office notice

• Summers who was the original host of Nickelodeon's Double Dare

• Tool needed to row, row, row your boat

PRESENT #3

• Breed of cat with no tail

• Jet-black gem

• Letters from _____ Jima (WWII film from 2006)

• Tabloid twosome

PRESENT #4

• Arriving well after the school bell

• Deli meat, or an over-the-top actor

• Emulate Elmer Fudd looking for wabbits, say

• Kaling who voiced Disgust in Pixar's Inside Out (but not its sequel)

PRESENT #5

• Islamic God

• Place of the final team to finish leg one of The Amazing Race

• Redheaded TV reporter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or a spring month)

• "Stop right there, soldier!"

PRESENT #6

• _____ and flow

• Rebounded sound off of a canyon wall

• Scepters' spheres

• Tough end-of-level enemy in video games like Wario World

PRESENT #7

• Grass in a sports stadium that may be artificial

• Sheets, pillowcases, and so on

• Synonym for "bog" with a similarly short name

• The Oregon _____ (classic educational computer game)

PRESENT #8

• Ability to rap along to a beat, as if moving like a river

• Deny someone from entering a place that's totally off-limits, perhaps

• Just after sunset

• Result of four balls in baseball

PRESENT #9

• Covered a cake or cupcake

• Not exactly stimulating to the mind

• Parent with a supposed affinity for bad jokes and worse puns

• Veni _____ Vicious (The Hives album mostly named after a Caesar quote)

PRESENT #10

• Baby borzois and beagles

• Hair treatment that lasts a long while (but not forever, despite its name)

• _____ Morphin Power Rangers ('90s Fox Kids show)

• Olivia Newton-John's role in Grease

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: Back-Oops 4

Two weeks have passed by since "Back-Oops 4" was posted on this blog, so now's the time to look at everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Okieboy2008
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Stasi Gustafson
• Chris Kochmanski
• Patrick Jordan
• Wendy Walker
• Steve Gunter
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Eli Zarconi

Now head below the break for the answers (as well as a solver's comment)!

PUZZLE #574: Pathfinder 6

PUZZLE #574

PATHFINDER 6

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.

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in the indicated direction, and makes at least one right-angled turn as it winds through the grid. When you're finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Once the grid is filled out, there should be another entry inside it that doesn't have a corresponding clue, nor does it start in a numbered space. This unlisted word is this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of a Pokémon

1E) Children's book family consisting of Mama, Papa, Brother, and Sister (Watch out for how it's spelled!) [3 10 5]

2E) Tiny part of a larger picture [6]

3S) Asphyxiates [10]

4S) "Would you let me? Pretty please?" [3 1]

5N) "Back in the _____" (song that opens the Beatles' White Album) [4]

6N) Woe with a tooth or tummy [4]

7S) Makes certain [7]

8N) The fat of penguins, polar bears, and whales [7]

9S) Swimming using a basic breathing tube [10]

10N) Marching to a different drummer [7]

11S) Those bottom sections of cable news shows with scrolling text [7]

12W) Vivid scene of people arranged as if they're in a painting [7]

13S) Mentalist who may say "You're getting verrrry sleeeeepyyyy...." [9]

14S) Sports channel that airs Pardon the Interruption [4]

15N) Struck back [10]

16S) Film _____ (genre of black & white crime dramas) [4]

17N) Smoked sausage from Poland [8]

18S) Top ten hit by the Cranberries whose name is a synonym for "remain" [6]

19N) "Fly the Friendly _____" (onetime United Airlines slogan) [5]

20E) Pixel's shape [6]

21E) Arabian country that hosted the World Cup back in 2022 [5]

22N) Star _____: Strange New Worlds (sci-fi series on Paramount+) [4]

23S) A backslide to a worse state than before [10]

24S) List of editorial screw-ups that need correcting [6]

25W) Once out of style, but now back in style [5]

26W) Understands completely [4 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!

ANSWERS: Slot Machine 6

Two weeks have passed by since "Slot Machine 6" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• Okieboy2008
• Wendy Walker
• Chris Kochmanski
• Nicholas Weaver
• Patrick Jordan
• Lynn Sweeney
• Michael Lebowitz
• KeoFam
• Eli Zarconi
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!