PUZZLE #145: Lucky Sevens 4

PUZZLE #145

LUCKY SEVENS 4

Stacked together below are seven Sevens made up of 7 squares each. The answers to each Seven start in their respectively numbered squares and continue along its path surrounded by a bold outline, going left and then down. Meanwhile, the answers to the Rows go straight across the grid, including those with only one or two letters in them.

Once you've filled in the grid, the letters in the colored squares (in the order of the Sevens that they appear in) will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: A seven-letter word

ROWS
i) Type of garden filled with rocks
ii) Notes after "do": 2 wds.
iii) Archie Bunker or George Jefferson, e.g.
iv) Baywatch actress Yasmine
v) Dresser drawer parts
vi) "Royal" necktie knot?
vii) Scotland's largest city
viii) I'm Sorry I Haven't a _____ (comedic panel game on BBC Radio)
ix) TV channel with the slogan "Positively entertaining"
x) "Ick!"
xi) MPAA rating for Sausage Party

SEVENS
1) Sluggish chunk of ice
2) Blue mouse with a big nose from CatDog
3) Portable firearm
4) Former New England Patriot Drew
5) Oscar-winning director Kathryn
6) More secluded
7) Apexes

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 (And Contest Results!): Squeezed in the Middle 9

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted "Squeezed in the Middle 9", and since it's a Contest Puzzle, I think it's time for me to reveal not only the answers, but who won the signed copy of the October 2017 issue of GAMES Magazine that I got published in! First, a list of people who have solved this puzzle since it got published:

• Grant Fikes ****
• M. Sean Molley **** (He's already a subscriber, so he doesn't want the prize)
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom **** (ineligible; it'd be like giving the prize to myself!)
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Dan Simonds *

Since ten people have solved this puzzle, there will be TWO copies given away to two randomly-chosen winners! The winners are: Lynn Sweeney and Grant Fikes! Congratulations, you two!

Now just go below the break for the answers, along with some solver comments!

PUZZLE #144: Plus One 3

PUZZLE #144

PLUS ONE 3

To start this puzzle, enter the answers to the numbered clues (the "Partial Clues") in each correspondingly numbered area, skipping the gold squares as you do so. Then, add a new letter in each gold square to create a new word, which matches up with one of the "Whole Clues" that are listed in no particular order.

Once you're done, the letters in the gold squares, reading down, spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: a video game series

PARTIAL CLUES
1) CBS series about crazed animals based on a James Patterson novel
2) Wilma Flintstone's husband
3) "Slow and steady wins the race", for one
4) Oscar-winning actor Whitaker
5) Orange orchard
6) Story's sequence of events
7) Rock genre of Dashboard Confessional

WHOLE CLUES
* Free preview of a video game that lets you try it before you buy it
* Mr. Gump who said that "Stupid is as stupid does"
* When doubled, Mazda slogan
* Test episode for a TV series
* Spiral track on a vinyl record
* _____ Kombat
* Unleashed

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 (don't forget that that one is a CONTEST PUZZLE, and the deadline is this Sunday!). 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 6

It's been thirteen days since I've posted "4X Game 6", and since then, seven of you have solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Grant Fikes ***

Now just head below the break for the answers! (Oh, and SPOILERS for the new DuckTales reboot involving one of the answers, too)

PUZZLE #143: Squeezed in the Middle 9 (CONTEST PUZZLE!)

CONTEST!

PUZZLE #143

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 9

It's time for another Contest Puzzle! The prize for winning this contest is a signed copy of the October 2017 issue of GAMES Magazine that I got published in! There will only be one winner for this contest, though if at least ten people solve this puzzle, I'll give out a second copy to another winner! If you don't want to enter this contest, you can still solve this puzzle and opt out of the contest. Now with the contest rules out of the way, let's get to the directions!

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: One of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

CENTERS
1) 1/16th of a pound
2) Yellow Muppet with a unibrow
3) Actor Jogia who played Beck in VicTORIous
4) _____-Gon Jinn (Star Wars character)
5) Prefix for "hero" or "freeze"
6) 'Zine
7) Montana town named after a land formation (not a rear end)
8) British title above viscount

WHOLES
* Adult stage of an insect's life cycle
* Cuban capital
* German rocketry pioneer Hermann (Anagram of BOTHER)
* _____ Headless Nick (Harry Potter character)
* Manny from A Bug's Life, for one
* Shared a border with
* Supply oneself with gear
* With "The", early PlayStation 2 beat-em-up game by Squaresoft (or a nightclub's doorman)

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: Double Chain Reaction 3

Before I reveal the answers to "Double Chain Reaction 3", I just wanted to give out an update regarding my Patreon. To begin with, I somehow managed to get two more people supporting me on that site: Pavel Curtis and David Millar! Thanks, guys! They support me at the $2 and $5 levels, respectively, and if you are a $5 supporter too, you'll get a bonus puzzle every month that you won't find anywhere else! This month's offering is a cryptic crossword!

Also, fellow Patron M. Sean Molley directed me towards another Patreon project called Hatched, which is a new online micro-magazine by Nathan Curtis of Tortoiseshell Studio aimed at helping new puzzle creators get support and a little boost. I'll admit that I haven't supported anyone on Patreon before, but I've decided to support this project at $3 a month, and with that $3, this magazine has successfully reached its goal of $250 per issue, and now it'll "start publishing on a regular basis" as well as "post a puzzle or two every month"! Since this is a magazine aimed at supporting new puzzle constructors, it's accepting submissions from them, so if you're interested in helping out, you can visit their main website here and read their submission guidelines here!

Now that I'm done with my plugs, here are all the people that have solved my third "Double Chain Reaction" puzzle from thirteen days ago:

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

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

PUZZLE #142: 4X Game 6

PUZZLE #142

4X GAME 6

Below, there are 4 "X"'s, each containing four 5-letter answers. Each answer is entered at an angle, 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 I hope you'll still get the gist of it), the words in the first "X" are MAP, PAT, TAR, and RAM, and the words in the second "X" are ROT, TOW, WON 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" (the outermost letters) will contain the same letters as the "tips" of its neighboring "X". Going back to the example above, the rightmost "tips" in the first "X" contain the letters "R" and "T", so the leftmost "tips" in the second "X" 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 four-letter word

X #1
* Caramel-filled chocolate candies
* Donald Duck's sister and mother of Huey, Dewey, and Louie
* "_____ Nothing" (#3 hit song by O-Town): 2 wds.
* Repaired a boot's bottom

X #2
* Actresses Watson and Thompson
* Comparable to a hatter or a wet hen: 2 wds.
* Jean-Claude Van _____
* Kafka character who metamorphosed into an insect

X #3
* Greeting from BlueMountain.com or Hallmark.com: Hyph.
* Longest keyboard key
* Plays Pictionary with a pencil
* Switches two candies in Candy Crush Saga

X #4
* Chicago mayor Richard or his son (also named Richard)
* Earthenware pots
* Electronica duo whose song "Oh Yeah" played in the credits of Ferris Bueller's Day Off
* Waldorf or Cobb

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: Line 'Em Up 5

Before I reveal the answers to "Line 'Em Up 5", I just wanted to note that it looks like Grant Fikes is offline again, seemingly due to personal matters that I won't type down on this blog. I hope he comes back soon, but in the meantime, here are the six solvers of my fifth "Line 'Em Up" puzzle:

• Grant Fikes *
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ***

Now just head below the break for the answers!