PUZZLE #12: Pent Words #2

PUZZLE #12
PENT WORDS #2

For this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (they’re kinda like Tetris pieces, except they’re areas made up of five squares each) and put a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, reading left to right beginning with the top row, will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example above, the rows spell out CHINS, PARTY, and ANKLE, and the pentominoes spell out the words CHINA, STYLE, and PRANK.) Use the across answers to figure out where the pentominoes go.

ACROSS (two answers per row)

1) Japanese name of an Oscar-winning movie with the FINAL ANSWER as a character / "Penny _____" (Retired Price Is Right game)

2) Sitting Bull, for one / "_____ the Sheriff"

3) Housework that kids hate doing / Bird that sounds like Stimpy's friend

4) Nightmare _____ (1997 Disney computer game) / Indian turnovers

5) _____mite (One of two NES games that used R.O.B.) / Last word of Soundgarden's fifth album

6) Untouchable Eliot? / Haphazard urban growth

7) WarioWare's witch-in-training / Sunrise spot

8) A captain or a clownfish / Maximum volume of Nigel's amp in Spinal Tap

9) Falling object that often lands on a toon's head / Vaccum that sucked up a bowling ball in commercials

10) Super Mario ghosts / Moves in Super Smash Bros. used solely to annoy the opposition

PENTOMINOES

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* Willy Wonka candy shaped like fruits

* Willy Wonka candy available in rolls
* Long-punning-- er, running book series by Piers Anthony
* Home of the Gungans (unfortunately)
* Their song "Oh Yeah" played in the credits of Ferris Bueller's Day Off
* Cookies that celebrated their 100th birthday in 2012
* Operating system that introduced Windows Aero
* "Spooky _____" (Level in Spyro: Year of the Dragon)
* Simple (and aptly-named) programming language
* Head cheese pickled with vinegar
* A Sicilian volcano and a Disgaea character
* A woman's red carpet clothing
* T-shirt type
* "Smile! _____ on Candid Camera!"
* Grind one's teeth
* Absolutely perfect
* Spore developers
* Trash

Once you've figured out what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com and I'll put you on a list of solvers about two weeks from now. You can also use those email addresses to give me feedback on my puzzle or send me the FINAL ANSWER to last week's puzzle (which you can solve here with an easier version here). If you want a version of this puzzle you can print out, click on "read more" for just that!

EASY VERSION: Spirals & Arrows

Well, it's been almost a week since I've published my "Spirals & Arrows" puzzle, and just like I thought it would, not nearly as many people solved this one compared to my second meta-crossword: only 6 solvers so far. In case you found my latest offering a bit difficult, an easier version can be found below the break.

ANSWERS: Meta-Crossword #2 (Guys Like You)

WOW. That's pretty much all I can say regarding the amount of people who've solved my second meta-crossword (a hint for that one is here). Just take a look at this list!

• Mom **
• Grant Fikes **
• Adam Weaver **
• Tyler Hinman **
• Paolo Pasco **
• Sam Levitin **
• Eric Maddy **
• Yossi Fendel **
• Bennett Engel **
• Matthew Breen **
• Rachel Parsons **
• Phoebe McBee **
• Craig Harman **
• Mike Wilhelm **
• David Stein **
• Justin Weinbaum **
• The Cassidy Family (Tom, Regina, Mike, John, Jim & Gladys) [They all sent me separate e-mails with the correct answer, but I decided to lump them in a single group for convenience and the fact that they all sent their e-mails shortly after each other] *
• Peter Abide *
• Andy Keller *
• Kathleen Miller *
• Ronald Roberts *
• Amy Paepke ** [she said she "solved [it] without the clue", so that's why I'm giving her two stars instead of one]

Now for the hard part: getting them to stay! That might be a challenge, since unlike other puzzle blogs, I don't do crosswords exclusively and prefer to do variety puzzles. That, and my clues tend to be pretty challenging. Until I figure out how to get more people to solve my non-meta-crossword puzzles, however, you can check the answers for this meta-crossword below the break!

PUZZLE #11: Spirals 'n Arrows

PUZZLE #11

SPIRALS & ARROWS

This one's inspired by a puzzle I saw in the February 2015 issue of GAMES Magazine (which was itself inspired by a puzzle created by Mike Selinker): in it, there are a total of twenty-five 3x3 boxes that each contain a nine-letter word or phrase. Each word starts out in the center and "spirals out" to fill out the surrounding eight squares, following the thick light-grey line as it does so (In the above sample, the two spirals spell out "BE RELAXED" and "TEMPLATES"). There are also words that go across in straight lines, as pointed out by the arrowheads. For those, each word comes immediately after the last one, and once you reach the end of a line, just continue to the next arrowhead-marked row, or else it may seems to occasionally stop in the middle of a word. (Going back to the above sample, the word "EXAMPLE" spills over to the next arrowhead-marked row, and it's followed by the word "RESET")

Once you've completely filled in the grid, the dark-grey squares (the starting letter of each spiral) will spell out a clue that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER.

SPIRALS
1) What spiral eyes represent in cartoons and anime
2) Type of graphics used in Q*Bert and Diablo
3) Confetti cousins
4) It may result from altitudes that are too high up
5) 1997 Samuel L. Jackson film set in Louisiana
6) British sitcom featuring Vyvyan the punk, with "The"
7) Small Sergio Aragonés cartoons found in the gutters of MAD Magazine
8) The killer in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
9) Spine sections
10) Entering computer data
11) Trade blockades
12) "_____ Boulevard" (Tiny Toons episode that spoofed Sunset Boulevard)
13) The only Speaker of the House to serve for five complete Congresses in a row
14) Residents of Greece's capital
15) Multiple copies of the Beatles' 7th album?
16) Netlike
17) New York's hockey team
18) "Ultimate Princess" Sonia Nevermind's kingdom from Danganronpa 2
19) Mario's first party member in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
20) Type of locally-owned store that Walmart seems to hate
21) Act as a referee, like in Spiral #22
22) John Cena's sport (and I use the term "sport" loosely...)
23) 1995 movie whose sequel, Be Cool, was released ten years later
24) Nestor the _____ Christmas Donkey
25) Old-timey nickname for a locomotive

LINES
* Actor Tom from Saving Private Ryan (no, the other Tom)
* Nothing, according to William Shakespeare

* Disneyland memento
* "Robot" and "Tact" suffix
* Spool of film
* Funny female bunny from Tiny Toon Adventures
* Preschoolers' channel that changed its name to Nick Jr. in 2009
* Big _____ (comic strip whose books are often read by kids)
* Part of BYOB
* What a Canadian penny is called in Quebec
* The lion who battles a witch in a wardrobe
* Bid welcome to
* Go from KitKat to Lollipop, for example
* Jafar or Judge Frollo
* One result when picking petals?
* Daffynition, for one
* Call of Duty: Black _____
* The "ugliest man who came to Troy" in the Iliad
* Old name of Thailand's Lopburi province
* Hairbrush alternative
* It precedes "Science" and "Mechanics" in magazines
* '50s Ford flop
* Eat a Peach brothers
* Elaborate festivals
* Every rose has one, according to Bret Michaels
* Scent from Fifi La Fume (could you tell I like Tiny Toons yet?)
* [Their mistake, not mine]
* Light up a flame
* 88 days, on Mercury
* Neither's partner

Once you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com and I'll put you on a list of solvers roughly two weeks from now. You can also use those email addresses to give me feedback on my puzzle or send me the FINAL ANSWER to last week's puzzle (which you can solve here with a hint here). If you want a version of this puzzle you can print out, click on "read more" for just that!

HINT: Meta-Crossword #2 (Guys Like You)

Matt Gaffney strikes again! His latest post on his website featured my second meta-crossword, and that certainly boosted the number of people who solved it, as 16 people so far have correctly identified the answer to my meta's BONUS PUZZLE. In case you're still stuck on it, below the break is a hint that should hopefully help you out.

ANSWERS: Section 6

Well, it's been almost two weeks, so it's time for me to reveal the answers to my "Section 6" puzzle (which you can still solve here, with the easy version here)! Before I do that, however, here are a list of people who have solved it:

• Grant Fikes **
• Lawrence Denes **
• Eric Maddy **
• Yossi Fendel **
• Adam Weaver **
• Sam Levitin **
• Craig Harman *

Now head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments and pictures with funny captions!

PUZZLE #10: Meta-Crossword #2 (Guys Like You)

PUZZLE #10
GUYS LIKE YOU

I'll admit that my first attempt at a meta-crossword's metapuzzle was less of a "puzzle" and more of a "list of episodes". However, for my milestone tenth puzzle, I've made another one of these puzzles that has by far gotten me the most hits (Matt Gaffney linking to my blog certainly helped with that), and while it's smaller than the standard 15x15, I think the metapuzzle for this one is much better than the last one. In case you've never solved one of these, it's like a regular crossword, except that there's a BONUS PUZZLE for you to solve once you fill it out.

The answer to this week's BONUS PUZZLE is a song from a one-hit wonder.



Once you've figured out the answer to the BONUS PUZZLE, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com and I'll give you credit for solving it about two weeks from now. You can also use those email addresses to give me feedback on my puzzle or send me the FINAL ANSWER to last week's puzzle (which you can solve either here or here). If you don't have Java and want a version of this puzzle you can print out, click on "read more" for just that!

EASY VERSION: Section 6

It's been almost a week since I've published my "Section 6" puzzle, and so far, 6 (how appropriate) people have solved it. If you want an easier version of that puzzle, just go below the break to do so!

ANSWERS: Infinigrid

Well, it's been almost two weeks, so it's time for me to reveal the answers to my Infinigrid puzzle (which you can still solve here, with the easy version here)! Before I do that, however, here are a list of people who have solved it:

• Mom **
• Adam Weaver **
• Grant Fikes **
• Eric Maddy **
• Yossi Fendel **
• Tyler Hinman **
• Sam Levitin **
• Lynn Sweeney *
• Sara Forgie *

Now just click on "read more" for the answers and some comments from my solvers!

PUZZLE #9: Section 6

PUZZLE #9

SECTION 6

You see, it fits because "6" is "9" upside-down... oh, forget it. I'll just get to the (rather lengthy) directions...

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, but their starting points and direction are for you to figure out. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you place 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.

Special thanks to Grant Fikes for making this grid

RING 1
1) Someone who's not a leader
2) Pianist Eddy and his son Peter
3) Ben Kingsley won an Oscar playing him
4) Go past the date on a milk carton
5) "That's What's Happening" in an episode of Schoolhouse Rock
6) Hindu beggar

RING 2
* Foxy lady?
* Concealing
* Turin has a famous one
* Lupine
* Animal House college

RING 3
* ______ Mouf (Ludacris album)
* Representation of health in many fighting games
* Free codec software that's an anagram of its biggest competitor
* "______-a-go-go, baby!" (Viewtiful Joe's catchphrase)

RING 4
* '90s sex symbol Lanzoni
* Common facial expressions of Squidward
* "If 6 Was 9" musician

RING 5
* Someone trying to impress others with their abilities
* Pickle juice

RING 6
* The King of the Koopas

Once you think you've figured out the FINAL ANSWER, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com and I'll give you credit for solving it roughly two weeks from now. You can also use those email addresses to give me feedback on my puzzle or send me the FINAL ANSWER to last week's puzzle (which you can solve either here or here). If you want a version of this puzzle you can print out, click on "read more" for just that!

EASY VERSION: Infinigrid

It's been about a week since I published my 8-shaped 8th puzzle, and so far, I've had 7 people solve it, almost all of whom managed to solve it on the first day of publication! If you want a version of the puzzle with easier clues and clues #9-15 actually marked on the grid, just go below the break!

ANSWERS: Flower Power

I'll freely admit that making my first Flower Power puzzle was pretty difficult and time consuming, and unless you did the easier version from last week, it turned out that solving it also wasn't easy. Despite that, however, I've still managed to get a decent amount of solvers for it, which you can see below in the order that they've completed it:

• Grant Fikes **
• Eric Maddy **
• Adam Weaver **
• Yossi Fendel **
• Mom *
• Sam & Jonathan *

Now just click "read more" for the answers! You'll also find some comments from Grant Fikes, the man whose "Cleverly-Titled Puzzle Blog" inspired me to make this blog!