ANSWERS: Fronts Off 9

Two weeks have passed by since "Fronts Off 9" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have successfully solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #608: Section Six 12

PUZZLE #608

SECTION SIX 12

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.

This puzzle's grid has six rings and six sections. Each ring contains a series of words placed end to end, reading either clockwise OR counterclockwise; all the words in a given ring will read in the same direction. Ring 1 (the outermost ring) contains six answers that read clockwise; the starting spaces are numbered in the grid. Clues for the answers in the remaining rings are given in order, and each answer’s starting points are marked with a dot [•]. However, which direction they proceed in is for you to figure out. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you figure out the letters in the inner rings: in a given section, each ring segment contains all but one of the letters in the next segment outward. In other words, a section's outermost segment contains six letters; the next segment inward contains five of those six letters in some order; and so on, until only one of the original six letters remains.

Once you're done, unscramble the six spaces with stars in them to get the FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word.

RING 1

1) "YEOW, that hurts!"

2) Welded together

3) Joey formerly of *NSYNC (answer hidden in SOLFA TONES)

4) Drop the ball, if you're a clumsy NFL player

5) CVS _____ (America's largest drugstore chain)

6) Completely dead, as dodos and dinos

RING 2

• Electric current unit whose symbol is the first letter of the alphabet

• Deceptive poker ploy

• The Phil _____ Show (1967-96 daytime talk show)

• Merit badge earner

• Imprecise

RING 3

• Spots or sees

• Amount that fits into a fist

• Word following "balance" or "laser"

• Before the government's share is added to a grocery bill, say

RING 4

• Don't Forget the Lyrics! hostess Niecy (or a bandmate of Crosby and Stills)

• Quoted out of _____

• Went on and on with tangent after tangent and with seemingly no real point to be made

RING 5

• Beach umbrella's offering

• "Un-Break My Heart" singer Toni

RING 6

• Boston baseball team featured in the 2005 film Fever Pitch: 2 wds.

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: Code Crossword 3

Thirteen days have passed since "Code Crossword 3" was posted on this blog, and it proved to be quite a toughie, since only fourteen people managed to solve it:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Chris Kochmanski
• Michael Lebowitz
• Derek Allen
• Sam Levitin
• Darth
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Mom

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

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!