ANSWERS: Pieces of Nine

Before I get to the answers to "Pieces of Nine", I just wanted to point out that Patreon did a redesign last week, and that includes a completely new logo, so if you see that giant orange "P" on the far right change soon, that'll be why. Also, I messed up on one of the blocks in the puzzle, so when I corrected it, I sent an email to everyone who might've been stuck to notify them of the change, and it resulted in the solver count rising back to seven! Take a look:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Brad Eldredge ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Mom ****

Now just head below the break for the answers as well as a couple of solver comments!

The two highlighted vertical columns spell out MISSING PERSONS

Random Fact: "Spring Session M" is an anagram of "Missing Persons"!

Solver Eric Maddy noticed a big problem in the original puzzle, saying "There's a mistake in the puzzle -- you have two ASTs and no AMS in the blocks at bottom." Needless to say, I corrected it as soon as possible.

I didn't get Patron Grant Fikes' email until after this blog post went up (he had accidentally sent it to Patreon instead of me), but it turns out he caught the mistake, too: "Never heard of a steasthip. Is that anything like a steamship? I have to admit, MISSING PERSONS is a better band name than SISSING PERSONS."