GREATEST HITS MONTH! Puzzle #82: Picross Words 2 (CONTEST PUZZLE!)

GREATEST HITS MONTH!

AND A CONTEST!

PUZZLE #82

PICROSS WORDS 2

It's the last week of Greatest Hits Month, and even though my birthday was a couple of days ago, I'm still in the mood to celebrate, so I'm creating another Contest Puzzle! Since this week's puzzle is a slight Picross variant, the prize for winning this contest is a Picross book or video game of the victor's choosing! There will only be one randomly-selected winner for this contest, though I might reward a second winner if the number of solvers for this puzzle is high enough! If you don't want to enter this contest, you can still solve this puzzle and opt out of the contest. Now with all the rules out of the way, let's get to the directions!

The numbers outside each row and column reveal how many groups of black squares there are in that line, all in order, and how many black squares there are in each group (So for example, "5 1" means there are five consecutive black squares followed by a single black square). If there's more than one number in that line, that means they're separate from each other and there's at least one empty square between them (Empty spaces could also be found at the start or end of a line). In case you're stuck or don't know what to do, you can always get some tips, tricks and techniques through this link.

As an added twist, the grid has been filled out by letters; once the Picross has been solved, the letters that have been colored in will spell out a hint that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is a title

Click on the picture for a larger grid

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!

ANSWERS: Meta-Crossword 5: Animal Collective

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted my fifth meta-crossword, and since then, eleven of you (well, twelve if you count Joseph DeVincentis, who test-solved this puzzle for me) have managed to successfully figure out the BONUS PUZZLE. That number's a little lower than my previous metas, but what can you do? Anyway, here's the complete list of solvers:

• Adam Weaver ****
• Mom ***
• Grant Fikes ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Dan Simonds ***
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Lynn Sweeney *
• Paolo Pasco ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments and some pictures of a few of the answers!

GREATEST HITS MONTH! PUZZLE #81: Squeezed in the Middle 6

GREATEST HITS MONTH

PUZZLE #81

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 6

For this week's entry in Greatest Hits Month, it's another installment of my signature puzzle, Squeezed in the Middle! It's also my largest one of these kinds of puzzles yet, with eight Centers and eight Wholes for you to solve! If you want a refresher on how to solve one of these, just keep reading!

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 movie title

CENTERS

1) Lambs' moms

2) Murder _____ Wrote

3) Lively frolic or lopsided win

4) Fictional nation where The Hunger Games takes place

5) The voice of this iPhone assistant appeared on To Tell the Truth in 2016

6) @@@

7) Start of Caesar's boast

8) Top floor for storage

WHOLES

* _____-l'œil

* Crisscross pattern

* "Future", in French (Anagram of RAVINE)

* Husband and brother of Isis (ew!)
* "I Love College" rapper Roth
* Like something that just came out
* Main protagonist of the manga/anime Fairy Tail (Anagram of TUNAS)
* "The Girl from _____" (common elevator song)

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!

ANSWERS: 4X Game 4: XX/XY 2

It's been about two weeks since I've started Greatest Hits Month with "4X Game 4: XX/XY 2", and now it's time for me to reveal the answers to that puzzle, as well as the ten people that solved it:

• Punjit Sharma ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Mom ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• YYW ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with a couple solver comments!

GREATEST HITS MONTH: PUZZLE #80: Meta-Crossword 5: Animal Collective

GREATEST HITS MONTH

PUZZLE #80

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

My second installment for Greatest Hits Month is a type of puzzle that I didn't create, but has proven quite popular for this blog, with the number of solvers for these puzzle ranging from thirteen to over twenty: a Meta-Crossword! As a reminder, Meta-Crosswords are like normal crosswords, except they have a BONUS PUZZLE for you to solve once you fill out the grid.

The answer to this week's BONUS PUZZLE is a four-letter animal that's missing from the grid and would complete this puzzle's theme.



Once you believe you've figured out the answer to the BONUS PUZZLE, 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 before next Sunday.  If you don't have Java (which is pretty likely) and want a version of this puzzle you can print out, click on "read more" for just that!

ANSWERS: Drop Tower 2

It's been thirteen days since I've posted my second "Drop Tower" puzzle, and as usual, it's time for me to reveal the answers, but not before I list the twelve people who have solved it:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Punjit Sharma ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Brad Eldredge ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Dan Simonds ***
• YYW ****
• Adam Weaver ****
• Mom **
• Debbie Benton ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with a couple solver comments!

GREATEST HITS MONTH: PUZZLE #79: 4X Game 4: XX/XY 2

GREATEST HITS MONTH

PUZZLE #79

4X GAME 4: XX/XY 2

Well, it's June, the month I was born in, so to celebrate, I've decided to create another theme month in the form of Greatest Hits Month! All this month, I'll be posting puzzles that are either original creations or preexisting puzzle types that have proven successful for this blog, and starting things off will be an original creation of mine called 4X Game! In case you need a refresher on how to solve it, here are the (rather lengthy) directions!

Below, there are 3 "X"'s and one "Y"; the "X"'s each contain four 5-letter answers, and the "Y" has three. Each answer is entered at an angle (save for one of the words in the "Y"), following one of the arrows as it does so, and the last three letters of one answer will be the first three letters of another, albeit in reverse order. In the example above (I know all the answers are three letters instead of five, but hopefully you'll still get the idea), the words in the "X" are MAP, PAT, TAR, and RAM, and the words in the "Y" are ROT, TON and NOR. However, to make things even harder, none of the clues are numbered or in order, so you'll have to figure out which word goes in which angle, but don't worry, as each "tip" of each "X" or "Y" (the outermost letters) will contain the same letters as the "tips" of its neighboring "X" or "Y". Going back to the example above, the rightmost "tips" in the "X" contain the letters "R" and "T", so the leftmost "tips" in the "Y" has the same exact letters, in the same exact placement.

Once you're done, unscramble the letters in the "tips" that have no neighbors (the yellow squares) to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: A three-letter word

X #1
* _____ ½ (gender-bending anime)
* "Are too!" rebuttal
* Controversial Norwegian author Mykle (answer hidden in RAGNAROK)
* Polynesian kingdom with over 170 islands

X #2
* Beetle Bailey's boss
* Kind of tapestry featured in a scene from Hamlet
* Teen Titans character who can control the earth
* White heron

X #3
* Captain America: Civil War actor Chris
* Chocolate-filled Kellogg's cereal
* Ginger-flavored cookies
* Project _____ (recently-cancelled Xbox One game)

Y #4
* Baby carrier?
* Granny and Gordian, for two
* Yzma's sidekick from The Emperor's New Groove

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!

ANSWERS: Lucky Sevens

Before we get to the answers to my first "Lucky Sevens" puzzle, I just wanted to let you know that I haven't done a theme month in a while, so I've decided to start a new one tomorrow! Be sure to look forward to that! Anyways, here are the eleven people who solved my puzzle from thirteen days ago:

• Adam Weaver ****
• Punjit Sharma ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Mom ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• YYW ****
• Cayden Curtis ****
• Brad Eldredge ****

Now just click on "Read more" below for the answers, as well as some comments from my solvers!