PUZZLE #99: Line 'Em Up 3

PUZZLE #99

LINE 'EM UP 3

Happy Halloween, everyone! I promised you at the start of the month that I'd have a Halloween-related puzzle for you guys, so here it is! And since this is also puzzle #99, that means that next week will be my 100th puzzle, so be sure to look forward to that!

Place the answers to each numbered clue in the squares to the right of each corresponding number. (a number in brackets following each clue will tell you how many letters are in each answer). Once you have the answers, align them properly in the grid so that going down, a two-word phrase will be spelled out by the two red columns in the grid's center.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is a two-word phrase that's appropriate for today's date (Halloween)

1) Electrical unit named after a German physicist [3]
2) Dead Space character named after Mr. Asimov [5]
3) Celestial body that can fry a vampire [3]
4) Seven deadly things [4]
5) Corpse Bride director Burton [3]
6) Cookie that gets orange-colored cream every Halloween [4]
7) Knuckles, for one (That's not very Halloween-y... uh, he gets chased by a ghost in Sonic Adventure 2!) [7]

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: Chain Reaction: Extra Links 3

Happy Halloween's Eve, everybody. Thirteen days ago, I posted my third "Chain Reaction: Extra Links" puzzle, and since then, ten of you have solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ***
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• YYW ****

Now just head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #98: Mixed Doubles 3

PUZZLE #98

MIXED DOUBLES 3

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 16-Across both have the same answer, the answer would go in the box labeled 17 (1+16). 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) Insect that you can hear chirping in an empty audience?
2) City with Universal Studios Florida
3) Ms. Hawthorne from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations
4) Allows someone to leave
5) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor Dick
6) Like a spotty past
7) Beard named after a Flemish painter
8) 1998 comedy film starring Dave Chappelle
9) Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor with brownies and cookie dough
10) Tick off royally
11) Mexico's national flower
12) "Turn Up the Radio" glam metal band
13) Sweet-smelling stick
14) Casanova
15) Bat-and-ball sport with a bowler
16) Enjoyed a lollipop
17) Magazine that became available in Braille in 1970
18) Trounced
19) He played Paris in Troy (2004)
20) Celebrity's signature, say
21) "The printer ate my homework", and others

DOWN
1) Scared stiff
2) The first grunge band to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
3) Bird with colorful tail feathers
4) RPG video game series whose mascot is called Vault Boy
5) Signed on the dotted line
6) The only female robot on Mystery Science Theater 3000
7) Nickname for both Pelé and Josephine Baker
8) Precious stone
9) 1959 musical featuring "Everything's Coming up Roses"
10) Last name of a blue Clue character
11) The end of the world as we know it
12) GameCube or Genesis, e.g.
13) Pattern for a racing flag
14) Fracture a femur
15) Leave a military formation
16) "You Were Meant for Me" singer
17) Like forests whose trees have turned to stone
18) Give solace to
19) Pirate ship once captained by Jack Sparrow
20) Buddhist's bliss
21) Opening shot in billiards
22) 1998 PlayStation game starring Bruce Willis
23) Traced over a comic book artist's pencil lines, perhaps

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 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: Moving Staircases 5

It's been about two weeks since I've posted my fifth "Moving Staircases" puzzle, and since then, ten of you have successfully solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Yossi Fendel ****
• YYW ****
• Mom ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Debbie Benford ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, as well as some comments from my solvers!

PUZZLE #97: Chain Reaction: Extra Links 3

PUZZLE #97

CHAIN REACTION: EXTRA LINKS 3

For this puzzle, there are seven golden "links" that link together six two-word phrases when reading down. However, it's completely blank, save for some dashes that reveal how long each word is (four dashes translate to a four-letter word, for instance). To help you figure out these words, though, there are some extra silver links with words already in them which, when combined with the golden link to the left or right of it, make another two-word phrase. In the above example, the two-word phrases with silver links in them are "Chain Restaurants", "Gut Reaction", "Time Zone", and "Fruit Flies", so the final "golden chain" is "CHAIN - REACTION - TIME - FLIES".

Once you've completely filled in the chain, scramble the letters in the orange squares to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word.

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: Eat Your Words

It's been roughly two weeks since I've posted my first "Eat Your Words" puzzle, and since then, nine of you have managed to successfully solve it since then, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Mom ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• YYW ****

Now just head below the break for the answers, along with some comments from my solvers!

PUZZLE #96: Moving Staircases 5

PUZZLE #96

MOVING STAIRCASES 5

The two staircase-shaped halves of a "Moving Staircases" puzzle are designed to be pushed together in two different ways, horizontally and vertically. A horizontal push creates shorter words ("Shorts"), while a vertical push creates longer words ("Longs"). The example above shows a completed grid and the grids that result from pushing it both ways. The lists of clues given for the Shorts and Longs are not in order; it's up to you to determine where the answers go by working back and forth between the two lists.

Once you've completely filled out the grid, the FINAL ANSWER (the name of a two-word hit song from the 1980s) will be hidden inside it; one of the words is hidden horizontally (is it a Short or a Long? that's up to you to find out!), while the other is hidden vertically.

SHORTS

* 2016 video game from the creators of Limbo

* Buffoons, archaically (HINT: It's the answer to "Dryly humorous" with an "S" at the end)

* Dan who created Community and Rick and Morty

* Fictional author Snicket

* Seven and the _____ Tiger (Duran Duran album)

* The Rainmaker (1997) actor Jon

* The Twilight Zone often had one with a twist

LONGS

* Fifth _____ ("Work from Home" group)

* French newspaper whose name translates to "The World": 2 wds.

* Honda hybrid that preceded the Prius in the US by seven months

* Invalidating or nulling

* Pulled along the ground

* Signs up for a college class

I know a lot of these clues seem tough, but remember that you can always look up the answers if you so wish. Anyways, 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 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: Dilly Dally

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted my first "Dilly Dally" puzzle, and since then, ten of you have solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Mom ***
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• M. Sean Molley ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• YYW ****

Now head below the break for the answers, as well as a couple comments from my solvers!

PUZZLE #95: Eat Your Words

PUZZLE # 95

EAT YOUR WORDS

You may recall that last year around this time, I had a "Halloween Month" theme for my puzzles. Unfortunately, there's not going to be a similar theme this year, but I will at least have a horror-themed FINAL ANSWER for the puzzle set to be published on Halloween. That one also happens to be my 99th puzzle, meaning that my 100th puzzle is also coming up very soon! While we wait for that, let's have a look at the directions for this week's puzzle:

In this puzzle, the words hinted at by the numbered clues (The "Numbered Words") can "eat" a word hinted at by a different set of clues (The "Eaten Words") without rearranging any of the letters. For example, the word BIT can eat the word AND to form BANDIT. All of the new words are entered into the grid in the order of the Numbered Words, and the Eaten Words are in no particular order.

Once all of the new words have been placed, the letters in the highlighted third column will spell out two more words (okay, a word and a proper name). Have one of these words eat the other to get the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a video game.

​
NUMBERED WORDS
1) The Who sang about a magic one
2) SpongeBob's pet snail
3) "_____ Words" (My first puzzle on this site)
4) Oboe mouthpiece
5) L.A. Law actress Susan
6) What Milk Chocolate M&M's were called prior to 2000
7) Woody or Buzz Lightyear, e.g.
8) Writing that can be "purple"

EATEN WORDS
* Barred baby bed
* Bile-producing organ
* Certain trigonometric functions
* Convert a video game to run on a different console
* Giant insect seen in Them!
* Like Shaq or Yao, height-wise
* Profit's opposite
* Rumble in the Bronx actor Jackie

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: Anagram Magic Square 2: Adding & Anagramming

Before I reveal the answers to "Anagram Magic Square 2: Adding & Anagramming", I just wanted to let you know that one of my regular solvers (Lynn Sweeney in this case) recently commissioned me to create a crossword puzzle using neuroscience terms for a college class she teaches. I did so, and she was definitely pleased with the final product, and her students seemed to like it as well! So if you want to commission me or collaborate with me, let me know through email or any other way you can, and once we work things out, you can pay me through my PayPal "Donate" button on the sidebar to the right. So with that shameless self-promotion out of the way, here are the eleven solvers of my puzzle from thirteen days ago:

• YYW ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• Lynn Sweeney ***
• Alex Milton ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• M. Sean Molley ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****

Now click on "Read more" below for the answers and some comments from my solvers!