Sunday, January 31, 2016

ANSWERS: Mixed Doubles 2

Before I reveal the answers to my second "Mixed Doubles" puzzle, I just wanted to give you guys a little news update: last Thursday, I received my first check from GAMES Magazine! Yep, it took a while, but I finally got paid for my "Squeezed in the Middle" "Word Sandwiches" puzzles from the December 2015 issue! Now that that's out of the way, here's all the people who solved my puzzle from two weeks ago:
  • YYW ****
  • Yossi Fendel ****
  • Eric Maddy ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Grant Fikes ***
  • Lynn Sweeney ***
  • Mom ****
  • Debbie Underwood ****
  • Adam Weaver ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • John Davis ****
Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments!

Monday, January 25, 2016

DUMP MONTH! PUZZLE #60: Anacrostic

dump month
PUZZLE #60
ANACROSTIC

It's the final puzzle of Dump Month, and in keeping with the theme of posting puzzle types that GAMES won't accept from newcomers, I present to you an Anacrostic (though they call it a "Double Cross")! I wasn't sure how to make one of these at first, so I finally cracked open my copy of Puzzlecraft for something other than scanning in a grid, and I gotta say that it helped a lot! Read on for the fruits of my labor!

Answer the clues on the numbered dashes below, one number per dash. Then transfer the letters on the dashes to the correspondingly numbered squares in the puzzle to reveal a quote reading from left to right. The black spaces separate words, and some words may go from one row to the next. Solve this puzzle by going back and forth between the answers and the grid, but be careful though, since this particular quote contains two contractions that aren't marked in the grid with apostrophes.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the quote's source: a commercially successful movie that premiered in January (one of the traditional "dump months"). In case you don't want to look it up, you can also get the FINAL ANSWER by reading the first letter of each answer in order.

Click on the picture for a much larger grid

A) Sixties model whose real name is Lesley Lawson
   __ __ __ __ ___ __                                               
   19 71 32 85 104 51
B) Swamp or savanna
   ___ __ ___ __ __ __ __
   119 49 107 61 97 40 14
C) The FINAL ANSWER has a "Surprise" one of these, according to IMDB
   __ __ __ __ __ __
   53 90 33 18 11 72
D) Explosive Super Mario Bros. enemy: Hyph.
   __ __ __ __ __ ___
   83 37 74 66 25 110
E) Tool's debut album
   __ _ __ __ __ ___ __ __
   57 4 12 82 47 113 73 36
F) Banjo-_____ (Nintendo 64 sequel)
   ___ __ __ _ __
   106 92 70 1 48
G) 2014 Melissa McCarthy movie
   __ __ __ __ _
   35 63 20 44 5
H) What this clue is written in, for example
   ___ __ __ __ ___ __ __
   112 41 91 28 101 13 81
I) Creator of many stop-motion holiday specials: Hyph.
   ___ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ __
   121 94 64 39 16 87 56 29 100 24
J) From Helsinki
   _ __ __ __ __ ___ __
   9 59 30 23 99 115 15
K) Shower sponge
   __ ___ __ __ __ __
   46 114 79 60 54 98
L) Baseball team that adopted their current uniform in 1915
   __ _ __ __ ___ ___ __
   26 3 88 77 118 108 17
M) Rolled-up Mexican dish
   __ _ __ __ ___ __ __ __ __
   21 7 62 69 103 96 75 52 45
N) Tamagotchi or Tickle Me Elmo, e.g.
   _ ___ __
   2 116 50
O) Emulated Nero, supposedly
   __ __ __ __ ___ __ __
   93 10 31 55 111 68 42
P) Its capital is Tallinn
   ___ __ __ _ __ __ ___
   120 65 78 6 34 89 109
Q) J. Fred Muggs, for one
   __ ___ __ __ __
   76 105 86 67 27
R) Sci-fi trope that may cause paradoxes (and is the subject of the FINAL ANSWER): 2 wds.
   __ __ ___ _ __ __ __ ___ __ __
   80 43 102 8 58 38 22 117 84 95

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 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 that one out. 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!


Sunday, January 24, 2016

ANSWERS: Drop Tower

It's been thirteen days since I've posted my "Drop Tower" puzzle, so now it's time for me to reveal that puzzle's answers! Before I do so, however, here's a list of people who have solved it:
  • Eric Maddy ****
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • YYW ****
  • Yossi Fendel ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Janis Ferry ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
  • Dan Simonds *
  • Debbie Underwood ***
  • Adam Weaver ****
  • Brad Eldredge ****
Congratulations everyone! Now just head below the break for the answers! You'll also find a few solver comments there!

Monday, January 18, 2016

DUMP MONTH! PUZZLE #59: Mixed Doubles 2

dump month
PUZZLE #59
MIXED DOUBLES 2

A while ago, I posted a "Mixed Doubles" puzzle, saying that it was one of the puzzle types that GAMES Magazine doesn't accept from newcomers. So what better way to continue Dump Month than with another one of these puzzles?

Each answer word in this crossword variation has two clues leading to it, using different meanings of the word. The clues are separated into Across and Down, but are otherwise ordered randomly. When you find two Across clues or two Down clues that seem to have the same answer, add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid where the answer should be entered. For example, if the clue for 1-Across and the clue for 17-Across both have the same answer, the answer would go in the box labeled 18 (1+17). To make things harder, tags such as "Hyph." and "2 wds." have been omitted.

There is an extra clue in both lists of Across and Down clues. This week's FINAL ANSWER is the answer to both of the extra clues, which you can get by rearranging the letters in the grid's pink squares.


ACROSS
1) Maxwell's sister from the Scribblenauts series
2) The world's best-selling chocolate bar
3) Drum 'n' Bass band that did "Propane Nightmares" and "Watercolour"
4) Type of swan that almost became extinct
5) Post-credits scenes
6) 1991 horror film starring Kim Delaney
7) Kool or Camel
8) "Pow!"
9) Pop duo with George Michael and some other guy
10) Henry Fielding novel
11) Early Playstation 1 game where you could play as a jester
12) Dizzy Gillespie, notably
13) Today, to tomorrow
14) Type of boat also known as a "go-fast boat"
15) Swinging thing in Poe's Pit
16) Beatles song with the working title of "Scrambled Eggs"
17) With "The", James Spader TV series
18) Laughs like Muttley
19) Wasps' weapons
20) Complete and utter havoc
21) Easter flower
22) Head, shoulders, knees and toes
23) "She's a Lady" singer

DOWN
1) Realm ruled by King Dedede
2) Big empty space
3) Prime-time soap featuring Lucious and Cookie
4) Bouncing a basketball
5) Louis Sachar novel featuring Stanley Yelnats
6) Narrow river
7) Ronald Reagan's favorite candy
8) Drooling
9) Zoo resident
10) Nu-metal band whose only Top 40 hit was "Did My Time"
11) Dictatorship led by Palpatine
12) Bulk's best buddy in the Power Rangers franchise
13) Atone for
14) Tile art
15) Lieutenant colonel from Catch-22
16) Bronco tamer
17) Use Spotify or Pandora
18) Place to visit when you're asleep
19) Ostracize
20) Wang Chung album featuring "Everybody Have Fun Tonight"
21) Babs Bunny's boyfriend
22) Plot problems
23) Jughead's baby sister
24) Null's companion
25) Cash in coupons
26) Wild drummer for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem
27) Symbol on a Jolly Roger

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. 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!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

ANSWERS: Family Reunions

Well, it's been almost two weeks since I've posted my first puzzle for "Dump Month" (which you can still solve here, by the way), so now it's time for me to reveal the answers! Before I do so, however, here's a list of all the people who have solved it:
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • Eric Maddy ****
  • Yossi Fendel ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Adam Weaver ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
  • Dan Simonds **
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • YYW ****
  • Brad Eldredge ****
Now just click on "Read more" below for the answers, along with some solver comments!

Monday, January 11, 2016

DUMP MONTH! PUZZLE #58: Drop Tower

dump month
PUZZLE #58
DROP TOWER

I first saw this puzzle type on the October 2015 issue of GAMES Magazine, where it was called "Drop It!". Since I've had experience in making other word-pyramid-type puzzles like "Build-A-Pyramid", I've decided to make my own and send them to GAMES. Unfortunately, it turns out to be one of those puzzles that their in-house staff does, so I'm dumping one of them here!

Starting with the 8-letter word on top of the "tower", drop one letter and rearrange the rest to form a 7-letter word. Continue this process until only the given 2-letter word remains. Use only common words--no capitalized words, names foreign terms or abbreviations allowed. Also, dropping a final S or D without rearranging the other letters is against the rules. Since there are normally multiple solutions to each puzzle, there's an extra wrinkle added to this one: each of the five entries, once filled in, should match up to one of the five clues below, listed in no particular order.

Once the grid is completely filled in, look inside it for this week's FINAL ANSWER: a five-letter word that can be read going down and in a straight diagonal line.



CLUES
  * Magazine with an annual "20 Dumbest" issue
  * Regard favorably
  * See "saw" as "sew", say
  * Title for Edna Everage
  * Word following "mass", "multi" or "mixed"

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 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 that one out. 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!

Sunday, January 10, 2016

ANSWERS: Connection Wall 2

It's been thirteen days since I've posted my last puzzle of 2015 (which you can still solve here), so it's time for me to reveal the answers! But first, here are all the people who have solved that puzzle within that time frame:
  • YYW ****
  • Yossi Fendel ****
  • Adam Weaver ****
  • Eric Maddy ****
  • Brad Eldredge ****
  • Grant Fikes 1/10 of a star (Let's just say he really regretted using Google for one of the categories...)
  • Dan Simonds ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Mom ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments!

Monday, January 4, 2016

DUMP MONTH! PUZZLE #57: Family Reunions

dump month
PUZZLE #57
FAMILY REUNIONS

Well, it's January, the time of year when the big movie studios dump terrible films they have no confidence in into cinemas. So in the spirit of that, I'm going to make another theme month in the form of DUMP MONTH! You see, I'm a fairly new contributor to GAMES Magazine, and they have a policy that certain types of puzzles are only done by other puzzle makers or their in-house staff. So all of the puzzles this month will be ones that were rejected (i.e. "dumped") by GAMES Magazine and/or aren't open to new contributors like me. So now that the intro's out of the way, let's start with a type of puzzle that manages to fit both of the criteria I've already listed!

For this puzzle, just change the group of 10 words below into a "family" of different words (that is, words or proper names that all have something in common) by dropping one letter from each word and then rearranging the remaining letters. For example, if three of the initial entries are SMEAR, HATRED, and TURBANS, you could drop the E from SMEAR to get MARS, drop the D from HATRED to get EARTH, and drop the B from TURBANS to get SATURN, all in the category "Planets". In case you stink at scrambling, you can always try sites like the Internet Anagram Server to help you out, though I should warn you that that site doesn't recognize all of the words used in this puzzle.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the category that all ten unscrambled words belong to.



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. 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!

Sunday, January 3, 2016

ANSWERS: Zigzagnut 2

It's been thirteen days since I've posted my second "Zigzagnut" puzzle, so now it's time for me to reveal the answers, along with a list of people who have solved it within that timeframe:
  • Eric Maddy ****
  • Adam Weaver ****
  • Tyler Hinman ****
  • Sam Levitin ****
  • Lynn Sweeney ****
  • Grant Fikes ****
  • YYW ****
  • Dan Simonds ****
  • Yossi Fendel ****
  • Mom ****
  • Brad Eldredge ****
Now just click on "Read more" below for the answers, along with some solver comments and even a playable version of this puzzle's FINAL ANSWER!