PUZZLE #51: Section Six 3

PUZZLE #51

SECTION SIX 3

Happy Thanksgiving week! Before we get to this week's puzzle, I'd just like to remind everyone that last week's Contest Puzzle will be open until next Sunday, so make sure you get your entry in before then! The number of solvers for that puzzle has already passed the double-digit mark, so I'll be giving away a second copy of the December 2015 issue of GAMES Magazine in addition to the first one! Now with that update out of the way, let's get to the directions of this week's puzzle!

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: a six-letter word.

RING 1
1) Vehicle that's perfect for flinging Koopa shells from: Hyph.
2) Slime girl from Monster Musume
3) With "The", high-heeled teacher from AAAHH!!! Real Monsters
4) Heavenly Sword protagonist
5) Smash Mouth song featured in Mystery Men and Shrek: 2 wds.
6) _____-squeezed orange juice

RING 2
* Seven of Nine used to be one
* _____ Krab (Spongebob's workplace)
* Ben 10's phantom-like alien form
* Contest loser by a wide margin: Hyph.
* Romanian coin (Hidden in ALEUTIAN)

RING 3
* _____ and Janis (newspaper comic)
* Yamaguchi and Lipinski, e.g.
* Dannon products filled with bacteria
* The _____ Identity (my mom's all-time favorite book)

RING 4
* What Bluto from Popeye is sometimes called
* Places for pearls
* Asian country that was split up after World War II

RING 5
* PewDiePie has the most subscribers on this website
* Formerly fat weatherman Al

RING 6
* Ben Franklin famously preferred this bird over the bald eagle

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 get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) or send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already figured it out (don't forget that it's a Contest Puzzle!). If you have a printer and want to solve this puzzle on paper, just head below the break for a version you can print out!