PUZZLE #605: Lucky Sevens 16

PUZZLE #605

LUCKY SEVENS 15

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!

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 grammar

ROWS

i) Literal pen name that's also a brand of lighters

ii) "Roger that"

iii) Playful prank

iv) The titular Abbott Elementary, for one

v) Stock character defined by her innocence & naïveté

vi) Talking white cat from Sailor Moon (or the Greek goddess of the hunt)

vii) Stringed instrument whose name is an anagram of INSEAMS

viii) Abbr. preceding a date on a cornerstone

ix) _____ Boot (1980s German film about a submarine)

x) Article that may go before the word "article"

xi) Letter in American Sign Language formed by sticking out the pinkie and thumb

SEVENS

1) Type of delivery for when it absolutely, positively has to be here right now: Hyph.

2) Skilled breadmaker, for one

3) Wolfs down

4) Connived and conspired

5) Former Supreme Court justice Scalia

6) Ludicrously abundant

7) "_____ Race" (Queen song about how much the singer wants to ride his two-wheeler)

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: Quadruple Cross 7

I hope this doesn't become a pattern, because this is the second time in three weeks that I forgot to schedule the answers post in its usual time. Ah, well, at least "Quadruple Cross 7" got the most solvers I've had in a long while, with an astounding twenty in total:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #604: Pieces of Nine 14

PUZZLE #604

PIECES OF NINE 14

Arrange the trigrams (blocks with three squares/letters in them) to make nine 9-letter words. After that, sort the new words so that the first one alphabetically is in row 1, the second one alphabetically is in row 2, and so on.

Once you're done, read down two of the columns for the FINAL ANSWER: a two-word phrase

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: Drop Tower 14

Two weeks have passed by since "Drop Tower 14" was posted on this blog, and sixteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Bart Gold
• Derek Allen
• Patrick Jordan
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #603: Quadruple Cross 7

PUZZLE #603

QUADRUPLE CROSS 7

To begin solving this puzzle, view each numbered square in the grid as being in the center of a plus-shaped cross where two five-letter clue answers intersect. There are two clues corresponding to each number, and each numbered pair of crossing answers has the same middle letter. Here's the tricky part: which one of each pair's two answers goes across and which one goes down is for you to figure out, so make sure all of the answers overlap each other properly!

Once the grid has been filled in, read the sixteen outermost letters in a clockwise fashion to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a video game for the original PlayStation

CLUES

1) Charlie Chaplin losing a Charlie Chaplin-lookalike contest, for example

    Magnifier attached to a sniper rifle

2) "Kick it up a _____" (catchphrase of Emeril Lagasse)

    Plucked piece of a peony

3) Car rental company surprisingly not based in Texas, despite its name

    Irritate, like a too-tight spandex suit

4) Big, Big Hero 6, or Big Trouble in Little China, e.g.

    Crow cousin

5) Bespectacled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character and others with the same name (anagram of RAMIS)

    Naiad or dryad, for one

6) _____ con carne

    Stage actor's line spoken directly to the audience

7) Barrier that may be topped with barbed wire

    Dame Judy who played M in eight James Bond films

8) Group of at least three musical notes

    Really tall mushroom with a really tiny cap

9) _____ Food (Ben & Jerry's flavor named after a jam band)

    Gooey gunk that the panelists on Nickelodeon's Figure It Out often get covered with

10) Genius group whose name comes from the Latin word for "table"

      Tablecloth material

11) Westernmost capital city in America's 48 contiguous states (HINT: It's in Oregon)

      Yo-Yo Ma's stringed instrument

12) Small stall in a mall

      ✅, 🚫, or 🤷

13) Act as a sheep's barber, so to speak

      Like the best possible possibility

14) Excuse such as "I was at the arcade at the time"

      Huge computer built in the mid-1940s

15) _____ certificate (paper for a new baby)

      Singer of "Yellow Flicker Beat", "Green Light", and "Royals"

16) Head held by Hamlet (or what's left of that head, at least)

      Hitchhiker's digit

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: All Four One 2

Whoops! I forgot to schedule this one 'til now! Sorry for the extra wait! Anyhoo, here's the list of all sixteen people who have solved "All Four One 2" from two weeks ago:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Steve Gunter
• KeoFam
• Wendy Walker
• Chris Kochmanski
• Bart Gold
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #602: Drop Tower 14

PUZZLE #602

DROP TOWER 14

Starting with an 8-letter word on top of the "tower", drop one letter and rearrange the rest to form a 7-letter word. Continue this process until only a 2-letter word remains. Since the tower is completely blank, use the randomly-ordered clues to figure out the words that go in each row.

Once the grid is completely filled in, look inside it for this week's FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word that can be read going down and in a straight diagonal line.

CLUES

• Deiced one's windshield, in a way

• Hang down loosely

• One jumping jack, e.g.

• Prickly _____ cactus (state plant of Texas)

• San Diego MLB team whose mascot is the "Swinging Friar"

• Spin doctor's specialty: Abbr.

• Where to write down who's currently winning at minigolf, say

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: Diagramless Fill-In

About two weeks have gone by since my first "Diagramless Fill-In" puzzle 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
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Chris Kochmanski
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• Derek Allen

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #601: All Four One 2

PUZZLE #601

ALL FOUR ONE 2

There are four mostly-empty 4x4 crossword grids, as well as four sets of eight clues. Arrange the answers from each set of clues into a grid where they can all properly fit, so that every grid has four words reading down and four words reading across. After that, transfer the completed grids into the four sections of the larger diagram beneath them so that four 8-letter words are formed reading across the top and bottom, and down the left and right sides.

Once everything is correctly filled in, take one of the newly-formed 8-letter words and combine it with one of the 4-letter entries (not necessarily in that order) to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a hit song from the 1980s

SET #1

• Away from the wind, to a ship's captain

• Egyptian Monster High character named after her country's last queen

• Iranian currency that becomes an animal den when spelled backwards

• Norwegian capital with a viking ship museum

• Pumice or Petoskey stone, for example

• Roundish roller coaster segment

• Speck of land on an ocean map

• "You _____ Me Hangin' On" (#1 hit by the Supremes or Kim Wilde)

SET #2

• Birthstone for October

• Dog food brand that anagrams to the previous clue's answer

• Finish Press Your Luck with four Whammies and no dollars, say

• Grunge band fronted by Courtney Love

• Power_____ Simulator (pressurized water cleaning-based video game)

• "Red" and "Yellow" bodies of water (but not "Blue", weirdly enough)

• Sweater fabric that a ewe grew

• Vowel-heavy form of margarine

SET #3

• Brickell who sang "What I Am" with the New Bohemians

• Colored part of a human eyeball

• Grew older, but not necessarily wiser

• Malice (1993) actor and one-time Match Game host Baldwin

• Person wearing a pearl earring in a famous Vermeer painting

• Sneaker brand hiding in the name "OCTAVIAN"

• The "D" in CD-ROM

• Veni, _____, vici

SET #4

• Chess position where a checked king has nowhere to go, for short

• "Coming _____ to a theater near you!"

• Make a buck or two

• Princess from Flash Gordon (or a New Age-y glow)

• Swirl around a swizzle stick, perhaps

• Vehicle from Volvo or Volkswagen

• What kilograms measure (HINT: it's not "weight"; that'd be too long)

• Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from Animaniacs, for one

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: Gryptics 10

It's been almost two weeks since "Gryptics 10" was posted on this blog, so now's the time to look at everyone who has solved it since then:

• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Derek Allen
• Chris Kochmanski
• Patrick Jordan
• Wendy Walker
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• Bart Gold
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers as well as a couple solvers' comments!