PUZZLE #607: Fronts Off 9

PUZZLE #607

FRONTS OFF 9

First, find the answers to each clue so that there are two words in each rectangular box. Then change the first letter of each word to the new same letter for both words of a pair to form two new words, and write the new letter in the square box to the left of the rectangle.

Once you're done, read down the boxes to get the FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word

1) Numeric unit scored in any pinball game

    Askew (anagram of CODEC KEY)

2) A rolling one gathers no moss (as proved by the Mythbusters)

    Purple plants that are the state wildflowers of Louisiana and Michigan

3) Hand covering for Mario or Wario

    All covered with age lines

4) Actress Blair who played Regan in The Exorcist and Exorcist II

    Tiny bite

5) Castle dungeon’s light source

    Dragon from Walt Disney World's Journey into Imagination (or a "fraction" of imagination)

6) _____ Jack (British flag)

    Shutting up the pundits on TV, in a way

7) Under-the-table payment

    Clara Cluck, Miss Prissy, and Foghorn Leghorn, for three

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: Lucky Sevens 16

About two weeks have gone by since "Lucky Sevens 16" was posted on this blog, and an astounding twenty-one people have solved it since then! Take a look:

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

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

PUZZLE #606: Code Crossword 3

PUZZLE #606

CODE CROSSWORD 3

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.

In this crossword puzzle, the numbers in the grid's squares (from 1 to 26) stand for letters of the alphabet. You must crack the code to reveal the words. For each letter that matches a certain number, place that letter in each square containing the number as well as the answer key next to the grid, with all 26 letters appearing at least once in the completed grid. As a little help, one of the letters has already been decoded and placed in the grid.

Once you're done, look through the answer key using a certain pattern to get the FINAL ANSWER: A 13-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: Pieces of Nine 14

It's been almost two weeks since "Pieces of Nine 14" was posted on this blog, so now's the time to list all eighteen people who have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

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!