PUZZLE #598: Mini-Marching Bands 9

PUZZLE #598

MINI-MARCHING BANDS 9

The answers in this grid march both across the Rows and around the Bands. Each row contains two answers, clued in order. Their dividing point is for you to determine, except in Row 5, where the two answers are separated by a black square. The answers in each Band will be entered clockwise, starting at a lettered square (A-D) and ending in the space below that square. The dividing points in each band's string of words are also for you to determine. Each square will be used twice; once in a Row's word, and once in a Band's word.

Once you've filled everything in, read the letters on the diagonal dashed line for the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a fictional villain

ROWS
1) Molds and mushrooms, e.g.

    Ran in the wash

2) Email pretending to be from Amazon asking for your password, most likely

    Chinese bear such as Ling Xiaoyu's pet in Tekken 8

3) Protects with metal suits, maybe

    "To _____ is human, to forgive divine"

4) Action word

    Nationality that lends its name to the alphabetically last of the seven "-stan" countries

5) Smallest dollar amounts in Monopoly

    Evil plumber from the "Ghost Story" episode of Salute Your Shorts (answer hidden in MAZE KEEPER)

6) Sister with a habit

    Pete's _____ (1977 live-action/animated Disney flick)

7) Scattered all over

    Prefix for "corn" and "cycle"

8) Redheaded WarioWare character who shares her name with a da Vinci painting

    Apple music players discontinued in 2022

9) Literal pick-me-up?

    Another name for the crazy, nasty honey badger

BANDS

A) The "F" in "NFTs"

     Turn down the brightness

     Puny part of an archipelago

     Movies that are stereotypically incomprehensible to everyone except their directors: 2 wds.

     Stars that suddenly become a lot brighter

B) Go roughing it

     "The Giant" of 1980s pro wrestling

     Organizing consultant Marie who asks "Does it spark joy?"

     Someone who makes baby grands pitch perfect: 2 wds.

C) Samuel with an eponymous telegraph code

     "We've Only Just _____" (hit song by the Carpenters)

     Jewish actor Klemperer who played Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes

D) Vulture relatives such as Beaky from Looney Toons

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: Vanishing Act 6

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Vanishing Act 6" was posted on this blog, and quite a few people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #597: Edges of Glory 5

PUZZLE #597

EDGES OF GLORY 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.

There are several squares divided into four triangles each, plus a grid to fit them all into. First, fill in the squares with the 4-letter answers to each corresponding clue, starting with the numbered triangle, and going clockwise. Then, fit all of the filled-out squares into the grid below (without rotating them) so that wherever two squares touch along one of the heavy lines, the letters on both sides of the line are the same.

Once everything's in its proper place, the outer edges of the grid, when read clockwise, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a platformer video game

1) Titular "Alligator Boy" from an animated Netflix film (anagram of ORAL)

2) Oozing red monster from a 1958 sci-fi movie

3) Abel's brother in DC Comics' House of Mystery (and the Bible)

4) _____ Factor (stunt-based reality/game show once hosted by Ludacris)

5) It's a lot like a lyre, and that's no lie

6) Nasty-sounding partner of median and mode

7) Command to sled dogs

8) Lobster traps

9) Feng _____ (art of rearranging furniture)

10) Tart-tasting

11) The most recent U.S. President to have a moustache

12) Bulky brass instrument that Larry the Cucumber plays in VeggieTales' theme song

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: Question Quest 3

About two weeks have gone by since "Question Quest 3" was posted on this blog, which means that it's time for me to post the list of everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Marie desJardins
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Wendy Walker
• Sam Levitin
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Okieboy2008
• KeoFam
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #596: Vanishing Act 6

PUZZLE #596

VANISHING ACT 6

Below are a set of what are supposed to be valid words, but instances of one duplicated letter in each word have all disappeared! Your job is to reinsert the missing duplicate letters into each numbered string of letters so that the resulting words all match up to the provided clues (listed in no particular order). The number in square brackets next to each group shows how many of the same letter need to be inserted into it. For instance, if one of the groups is "XAMPL [2]", then you'll need to insert a letter two times ("E" in this case) to get "EXAMPLE".

Once you've completed everything, the letters that have been added back in, in order, will form another incomplete string of letters. Insert three more of the same letter to get the FINAL ANSWER: an 11-letter noun

CLUES

• 1996 tornado movie that got a sequel 28 years later

• Broadway play that was brought back, say

• Chocolate candies from Hershey's with paper strips sticking out of them

• Hit song by one-hit wonder Shawn Mullins whose chorus contains the word "rockabye"

• Mass multiplied by velocity

• Silencing someone with a tied-up handkerchief, perhaps

• Small booklet with instructions on how to play an Atari 2600 game

• Triangular flag waved by a baseball fanatic

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: Helter Skelter 10

It's been almost two weeks since "Helter Skelter 10" was posted on this blog, so now's the time to look at the seventeen people who have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #595: Question Quest 3

PUZZLE #595

QUESTION QUEST 3

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!

Below, there's a sentence with multiple blanks, and the words that fill in those blanks have been split apart and scattered throughout the grid. Your job is to locate the correct first letter for each word and then follow the given compass directions throughout the grid for each answer (So for example, "2W" means to move two spaces west). Each letter in the grid will be used exactly once. As a helpful tip, try to look at the directions for the following letters to see how far from the grid's top, bottom, or sides you must look. For instance, if the directions for a word's second letter are 6N, the first letter must be somewhere in the bottom two rows.

Once you've filled in all of the blanks and finished each word, read the finished sentence and solve the resulting clue for the FINAL ANSWER: a two-word title

What __ __ __ __ __ __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __ __

     ?? 5N 5W 6S 2E 5N 2E   ?? 5E 3N 3W 5S 3W 2S

__ __ __ __ __ __ is about a __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

?? 2N 3E 3S 3E 2N            ?? 2S 1E 3S 3E 2N 2W 3N

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ sent to the __ __ __ __ __ __

?? 2W 3N 1W 1N 4W 1S             ?? 4W 4S 1W 2N 4E

after being __ __ __ __ __ into a __ __ __ __ __ __ by a

            ?? 5S 3E 2E 4N        ?? 2S 3W 2S 2E 5N

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __   __ __ __ __ __ __ __?

?? 1W 2N 4W 3N 3E 4S 4W 1S 2E 4N 4E 1S   ?? 1W 2S 4E 5N 4W 2S

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: Deck It Out 11

It's been close to two weeks since "Deck It Out 11" was posted on this blog, and seventeen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Chris Kochmanski
• Okieboy2008
• Patrick Jordan
• Bart Gold
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Qmark

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #594: Helter Skelter 10

PUZZLE #594

HELTER SKELTER 10

Each answer in this crossword variation starts at the indicated number, and then moves towards the direction of the next number (though it may or may not stop there). The direction of the last answer is to be determined by the solver.

Once the grid has been filled out, unscramble the gray squares to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: An 8-letter word

1) Least quiet

2) Wife _____ (2000s reality show ripped off by Trading Spouses)

3) Promising prodigy

4) Tropical fruit in smoothies

5) "Get Him Back!" singer Rodrigo

6) Nonliteral saying

7) Eye-related (anagram of RUCOLA)

8) Quinn who played Benny in Benny & Joon

9) Home planet of Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

10) Caffeinated root beer brand claiming "It's Good Since 1898"

11) Rapper from A Tribe Called Quest named after a stick with cotton swabs

12) Bible quote such as "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another"

13) Lunchmeat with the first name of O-S-C-A-R?

14) Book-loving pig from U.S. Acres

15) Under the effects of Novocain, say

16) Chicago-style deep dish pizza chain, informally

17) The _____ of '76 (patriotically-named pinball machine)

18) Garlic-crushing device

19) Sword holder

20) The horizontal line seen in the answer to clue #11

21) Classical element other than water, fire, or air

22) Card such as the Wheel of Fortune

23) Wrapped-up headwear worn by Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z

24) Cruel boor

25) Progressive rock band with vocalist Geddy Lee

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: Link-Letters 15

Two weeks have passed by since "Link-Letters 15" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!