PUZZLE #619: Wonder Twins 2

PUZZLE #619

WONDER TWINS 2

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!

There are two identical crossword grids and two sets of clues to go with them, so that you can solve them both at the same time. However, each clue number has two different clues for two different answers (sorted randomly), so you have to figure out which answer goes in which grid. To help you get started, both answers for one pair of clues have been filled in.

Once everything has been filled in, you should notice that some corresponding squares in the solved grids will have the exact same letters. Read them in order to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a horror novel that features twins

ACROSS

1) Ant princess from A Bug's Life

    Basic beds in barracks

5) High-top or high heel

    "This water slide is so much fuuuuun!!!"

9) Chris who voiced Emmet in The Lego Movie

     Aids and _____ (helps out illegally)

11) Throw forcefully (or throw up)

      Real fake news item published on April Fools' Day, usually

12) Eyelash

      Peeves, or provokes curiosity

14) Spanish river whose name is an anagram of ROBE

      Memo intro: 2 wds., abbr.

15) Joints that strict parents don't want on the dinner table

      Straighten out, literally

17) Make manuscript modifications, maybe

      Baseball "hit" that might not even reach the pitcher's mound

19) Hash out another draft via keyboard

      iPhone's pre-installed web browser

23) Texter's alternative to 😆

      Select, with "for"

24) Cranky Kong or Donkey Kong, for instance

      "_____ it or lose it"

25) Days of _____ Lives (soap opera with over 15,000 episodes)

      128 fl. oz.

26) Where four and twenty blackbirds got baked: 3 wds.

      Allay one's fears

28) _____ Fu Chaos (Xbox fighting game inspired by martial arts films)

      Fail to float

29) Like the "p" in "receipt"

      Little Women and Little Men author Louisa May

31) Bridge Deluxe II with _____ Sharif (1996 computer card game)

      Pikmin 3 engineer (HINT: His name is four-fifths of a Greek letter)

34) Benoit Blanc or Encyclopedia Brown, e.g.

      Whip or wallop

37) One joule per second

      _____-Brite (toy with colorful pegs)

38) Tow truck who lives in Radiator Springs

      Male model appearing on many, many romance book covers of the 1990s

39) Any contestant on To Tell the Truth who doesn't tell the truth

      Impose a parking fee

40) Benches in Baptist churches

      District attorney Harvey from The Dark Knight (2008)

DOWN

1) Hat thrown by Mario in Super Mario Odyssey

    Military vehicle that anagrams to the previous answer: Abbr.

2) Prefix for "athlete" or "angle"

    It closes up a kimono

3) Natural knacks

    #1 hit by the Champs whose only lyric is right there in the title

4) Physical challenge on Beat the Clock

    Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa

5) Trick-y card game?

    Storage space for books one may never read

6) "Schnookie-wookums"

    Stub_____ (ticket selling website)

7) "Wing" for Dumbo

    Bobby who won the NHL's Norris Trophy eight times in a row

8) File extension for many PC games

    "Sweet Talkin' Woman" and "Evil Woman" grp.

10) Collegiate athletic conference with LSU and Texas A&M

      Container for a butcher, baker, and candlestick maker

13) Scrumptious pieces of food

      Possible perpetrator in the UK game show Armchair Detectives

16) Issa from Insecure on HBO Max

      Small, to a Scotsman

17) Let the Right One In vampire (answer hidden in DELIVER)

      _____ constrictor

18) "Big Brown" delivery co.

      Cartoonist Martin dubbed "MAD's Maddest Artist"

20) The world's second-most visited website (after Google)

      Perturb

21) Didn't exactly hold in the wash

      "The bike fell over because it was two-tired", e.g.

22) Classification

      Rowing machine, briefly (or the grunt that you make when exercising on it?)

24) Magician Geller who once sued Nintendo over the Pokémon Kadabra

      Feel feverish

27) "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" and "Love in This Club" singer

      Bachelor _____ (mid-'80s Tom Hanks comedy)

28) Over-the-shoulder backpack holder

      One way to make dough

30) Pointy-eared humanoid such as Marcille from Delicious in Dungeon

      Unit represented by an omega

31) Twilight Sparkle's hooting pet bird, for one

      Nothing's opposite

32) Roman numeral associated with the Philadelphia Eagles' first Super Bowl win

      African-American astronaut Jemison

33) Off-roader such as the Yamaha Grizzly 700

      "Harper Valley _____" (hit country song from 1968)

35) Attach a patch, perhaps

      Element #50 on the periodic table

36) Faucet handle option

      There's 168 of these in a wk.

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: Dial Tunes 7

Two weeks have passed by since "Dial Tunes 7" was posted on this blog, so now's the time to list the names of all fifteen people who have successfully solved it since then:

• Marie desJardins
• Grant Fikes
• Pavel Curtis
• Okieboy2008
• Sam Levitin
• Kevin Orfield
• Derek Allen
• Michael Lebowitz
• Wendy Walker
• Chris Kochmanski
• Morgan Glasberg
• Nicholas Weaver
• Mom
• KeoFam
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #618: Coined Phrases 8

PUZZLE #618

COINED PHRASES 8

There is a set of five coins, all of which have one letter on each of their two faces. Each letter appears only once throughout the set, and no two coins share the same letter. Random flips of all the coins have produced six 5-letters words hinted at by the numbered clues. Once all six answers have been solved, use logic and deductive reasoning to figure out the letters that are printed on each coin. Finally, rearrange the coins so that both sides spell out two more 5-letter words that combine to make a two-word phrase.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is a term relating to motor transportation

1) Michael Caine's Oscar-nominated title role of 1966

2) Gloomy, like a certain house that Charles Dickens once wrote about

3) Construct with Lego bricks, for instance

4) Renaissance _____ (medieval-themed festival)

5) Great bit of success via sheer dumb luck (or a fin on a whale's tail)

6) Foaming at the mouth, literally or figuratively

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: Squeezed in the Middle 23

Thirteen days have passed since "Squeezed in the Middle 23" was posted on this blog, and a total of eighteen people have solved it since then!

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #617: Dial Tunes 7

PUZZLE #617

DIAL TUNES 7

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.

First, answer as many of the numbered clues as you can and enter them into the first grid. Each clue ends with an arrow indicating the direction its answer should be entered: from top to bottom [↓], from bottom to top [↑], or even either way [↕]. For example, if the answers were JIB [↓], IRE [↓], SAD [↑], EVE [↕], AT [↑], and O [↕], you would enter them like this:

Next, try to decode the message (in the form of song lyrics) by replacing every circled letter with another letter that shares the same number on a telephone keypad, which we've provided on top of these directions (for example, B can be replaced by A or C). The decoded message should be entered into the second grid, as shown here (note that the bold vertical lines indicate divisions between words):

(From "Row, Row, Row Your Boat")

The FINAL ANSWER is the name of the song containing the decoded lyrics.

Place the answers to the following clues here

1) 14th Greek letter (or 11th Roman numeral) [↓]

2) Trade show such as Gamescom or Comic-Con [↑]

3) Painful woe in a big toe [↑]

4) Disc slapped around by Ducks and Penguins [↑]

5) "What You Need" and "Need You Tonight" rock band [↓]

6) Hair removal product whose name used to be a homophone for a word meaning "tidy" [↓]

7) Shortened sorority counterpart [↑]

8) Huge piloted robot in sci-fi, such as a Gundam [↑]

9) Munches on mutton, maybe [↓]

10) Tiny tick relative [↑]

11) Truffula _____ (colorful plant that the Lorax speaks for) [↓]

12) 180° from NW [↓]

13) Original Star Search host McMahon [↓]

Place the decoded lyrics here

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: Sunburst 8

About two weeks have gone by since "Sunburst 8" was posted on this blog, and sixteen people have solved it since then:

• Cindy Heisler
• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Steve Gunter
• Chris Kochmanski
• Bart Gold
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Morgan Glasberg
• Nicholas Weaver

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #616: Squeezed in the Middle 23

PUZZLE #616

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 23

For this puzzle, you're going to sandwich together words (entered in the white rectangles) by surrounding it with a letter on each side, one at the beginning and one at the end, making a new word in the process. Once you're done, the extra letters you've added in the "crust" (the brown squares) will spell out a two-word phrase. In the example above, the words URN, RAT, and OVER become BURNT, IRATE, and GOVERN, and the letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out BIG TEN. However, to make things trickier, the "Wholes" will be in no particular order, so it's up to you to figure out which one of the "Centers" it matches up with!

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: a term used in computing

CENTERS

1) Midsommar director Aster

2) Blueprint detail, briefly

3) Nimble and flexible

4) Groundbreaking Atari arcade game originally released in 1972

5) Voice just below soprano

6) _____, Lose or Draw (game show similar to Pictionary, but not directly inspired by it)

7) Acts (or rather, overacts) on stage

8) Wallach, Whitney, and Manning, for three

WHOLES

• French city that Rocko visits in an episode of Rocko's Modern Life

• In debt

• Last name of John-Boy from a 1970s show set in Virginia

• Most isolated, as an isle

• Move like a mamba or milk snake

• Rachael Ray catchphrase (meaning "Yum!") that rhymes with her pet food brand "Nutrish"

• _____ ratio (TV size such as 16:9)

• Scrubber such as Scrub Daddy

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: Word Squares: Projectors 9

It's been almost two weeks since "Word Squares: Projectors 9" was posted on this blog, and just like last week, fourteen people managed to solve this hard puzzle:

• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Chris Kochmanski
• Derek Allen
• Sam Levitin
• Steve Gunter
• Michael Lebowitz
• Lynn Sweeney
• Mom
• Morgan Glasberg

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #615: Sunburst 8

PUZZLE #615

SUNBURST 8

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!

First, solve each 4-letter word listed in the first set of clues, then rearrange them and attach an extra letter to its end (which will be up to you to determine) to form a 5-letter word that matches one of the answers listed in the second clue set. For example, if an answer is ATOP, scramble those letters, add another letter to the end, and form the 5-letter word TOPAZ. Next, place each resulting 5-letter word into the Sunburst at their corresponding numbers, starting at the outermost tile and reading inwards. Since all the 5-letter words have the exact same final letter, make sure that each 5-letter word ends in the center of the grid.

Once the grid has been filled in, the outermost ring of the Sunburst, when read clockwise from 1 to 18, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: The name of simulation video game

4-LETTER WORDS

1) "Oh, for Pete's _____!"

2) Nevada city that's home to the National Bowling Stadium

3) Countess's husband

4) Alien bounty hunter from 2026's Supergirl (or a Spanish wolf)

5) Carvey who played the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live

6) Part in a play for an actor to play

7) Pixar film series with Mater and Lightning McQueen

8) Tears, as fabric

9) "I'm so hungry, I could _____ horse!": 2 wds.

10) Shape of a St. Louis tourist attraction

11) Sit still (or not) for a photograph

12) Open-handed hit

13) Banjo-Kazooie developers (or a synonym for "uncommon")

14) _____-Cola

15) Lacoste's crocodile or the Florida Gators' gator head, for example

16) Usual roll-call response

17) Tomb raider Croft from Tomb Raider

18) Geodesic _____

5-LETTER WORDS

• British town that can precede "Downs" or "salts"

• "Buzz off, kid!"

• Clock feature that's briefly delayed by the snooze button

• Doom and _____

• Equip with more guns

• Huge, to a poet (HINT: all they did was remove "-ous" from the word's usual form)

• _____ Ipsum (Latin-sounding gibberish seen in placeholder texts)

• Light-refracting crystal

• One of 150 in an Old Testament book

• Open up, as a buttercup

• Philosopher with a razor paraphrased as "the simplest explanation is usually the correct one"

• Radio DJ Casey who was the original voice of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo

• Royal ruler's region

• Sew up a skirt again

• Texan university with the Aggies as its mascot: 3 wds.

• Third time's the _____

• Web-linking device that used to be dial-up in the 1990s

• With "The", '80s TV show with Mr. T as B. A. Baracus: Hyph.

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: Chess Words 7

It's been roughly two weeks since "Chess Words 7" was posted on this blog, and it proved to be quite a toughie, since only fourteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!