PUZZLE #441: Quadruple Cross 5

PUZZLE #441

QUADRUPLE CROSS 5

To begin solving this puzzle, view each numbered square in the grid as being in the center of a plus-shaped cross where two five-letter clue answers intersect. There are two clues corresponding to each number, and each numbered pair of crossing answers has the same middle letter. Here's the tricky part: which one of each pair's two answers goes across and which one goes down is for you to figure out, so make sure all of the answers overlap each other properly!

Once the grid has been filled in, read the sixteen outermost letters in a clockwise fashion to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a game show

CLUES

1) Female name that anagrams to the male names "Jason" and "Jonas"

    New age musician whose album Live at the Acropolis went four times platinum

2) G-sharp equivalent: Hyph.

    Nabisco's wafer brand introduced in 1898

3) Biggest size of a Dairy Queen Blizzard

    Dr. Seuss character who's against chopping down the Truffula Trees

4) Lizard whose sticky toes allow it to climb glass

    Spreadsheet program in Microsoft Office

5) Foaming at the mouth, literally or otherwise

    Obese alien parodied as "Pizza the Hutt" in Spaceballs

6) American state that borders British Columbia

    _____ of Two Cities: 2 wds.

7) Raise an anchor

    Synonym for "adage" that also starts with "A"

8) Fill up a bear at Build-A-Bear Workshop, perhaps

    Steer clear of

9) Meaty part of a BLT

    Scar, to Simba, in The Lion King

10) Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin

      Like a faulty faucet

11) Ball and _____

      Nebraskan birth city of Warren Buffett

12) Enter computer data

      Swimming pool's "height"

13) How often Santa checks his list

      With "The", satirical news site with headlines like "World's Scientists Admit They Just Don't Like Mice"

14) "Can't Get You Out of My Head" singer Minogue

      Orchestra's second-largest string instrument (after the double bass)

15) Chaos and destruction

      Had a crush on

16) Theodore Roosevelt's wife, or Woodrow Wilson's wife

      "To _____ own self be true" (line from Hamlet)

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 even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Deck It Out 8

It's been close to two weeks since "Deck It Out 8" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then, all of whom are listed below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Perry Groot
• Mike Armstrong
• Tyler Hinman
• KeoFam
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner
• Alex Milton
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #440: Back-Oops 2

PUZZLE #440

BACK-OOPS 2

Some words become different words when flipped around, such as PART and TRAP. The answers to this puzzle almost fit that description, but are a little off. To figure out what they are, fill in each space in the direction of the blue arrow with the answer to each corresponding numbered clue. Where a box is divided by a horizontal line, fill in a different letter below so that a new word is formed when read backwards through the pink arrow which matches one of the clues in the "Backward Words" section (listed in no particular order).

Once everything's filled out, the changed letters on the pink arrow, when read backwards, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a computer game that has sold over 2 million copies

FORWARD WORDS (blue arrow)

1) The 7th Voyage of _____ (1958 adventure movie with a stop-motion cyclops)

2) Common material for dishwashing gloves

3) Revolving parts of tanks

4) Jackal-headed god who appears in the video game Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy

5) More hoarse-sounding, like a sled dog?

6) Descriptor of "planets" like Ceres and Eris

7) Closely-guarded recipe, e.g.

BACKWARD WORDS (pink arrow)

• 2006-2010 NBC series with characters such as Mohinder Suresh and Sylar

• Calf bone

• Electoral _____ (illegal act such as rigging votes)

• Foothold for a horse rider

• Put out a new printing of an album, say

• Something picked in a round of "She loves me, she loves me not"

• Wreckage remnants

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 even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Compound Crosswords 9

It's been almost two weeks since "Compound Crosswords 9" was posted on this blog, which means that it's time for me to reveal the list of all sixteen people who have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Michael Lebowitz
• Perry Groot
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Wendy Walker
• Mike Armstrong
• Mom
• KeoFam
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steven McKinney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #439: Deck It Out 8

PUZZLE #439

DECK IT OUT 8

One of the clues in this puzzle contains a phrase suggested by Patron M. Sean Molley. Support me on Patreon at $15 or more per month to suggest one word or phrase for me to put into a puzzle every month!

Fill in the answers to the clues below, then transfer the letters marked with playing card symbols to their proper places in the grid below. The number (or letter) of each clue will tell you what column to place those letters in. Once it's completely filled in, the grid will spell out a sentence that will provide a hint to the FINAL ANSWER.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is a title

A) Waxy coloring stick

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♠   ♥       ♣       ♦

2) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actress Fanning

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♥       ♣   ♦   ♠

3) "I must stop Christmas from coming!... _____?" (quote from the Grinch): 2 wds.

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♣   ♠   ♦       ♥

4) Hack-and-slash RPG by Blizzard named after the Spanish word for "devil"

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♦   ♥   ♠   ♣

5) Sources of sleet or snow

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♥   ♠   ♣           ♦

6) Syracuse University's Otto the Orange, for one

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♥   ♣   ♦   ♠

7) Word on a sign warning about a fierce dog

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

            ♠   ♦   ♥   ♣

8) Literal subpar score, in minigolf

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♣   ♦   ♥   ♠

9) _____ the Dead ('70s zombie film set in a mall): 2 wds.

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♦       ♥   ♠       ♣

10) 1960s supermodel whose skinniness is reflected in her name

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

            ♥   ♠   ♦   ♣

J) Perfect place that, naturally, doesn't exist

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♠   ♥   ♣           ♦

Q) First name of an egg who had a great fall

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♥   ♣   ♦   ♠

K) Gentlemen's counterparts

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♥   ♣   ♠   ♦

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 even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Family Reunions 6

It's been about two weeks since "Family Reunions 6" was posted on this blog, so now's the time for me to list the names of everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tyler Hinman
• Kevin Orfield
• Perry Groot
• Sam Levitin
• Michael Lebowitz
• Tamara Brenner
• Mike Armstrong
• KeoFam
• Bart Gold
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers and a solver's comment!

PUZZLE #438: Compound Crosswords 9

PUZZLE #438

COMPOUND CROSSWORDS 9

Fit the words hinted at by the clues into the nine grids below so that the two words in each grid combine to create a two-word phrase or compound word. There may be multiple possibilities for these phrases, but there's only one way that all the words will fit in all of the grids.

Once each grid is filled out, the pink letters in each grid will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a compound word

CLUES

• Before & _____ (common Wheel of Fortune category)

• Classic rock band whose first #1 song was "Best of My Love"

• Fish that Fonzie jumped over in an infamous Happy Days episode

• "Headline _____" ("Weird Al" song about three mid-'90s tabloid stories)

• Home team's opponent

• Joe DiMaggio, for his entire MLB career

• Like Michael Chiklis or Michael Jordan, hair-wise

• Member of the species Homo sapiens

• Moist towelette

• Place to put in a plug

• Pointy protrusion from the head of an oryx or ibex

• Quebec's only official language

• Scribbly drawing

• Shere Khan from TaleSpin and The Jungle Book, for one

• Stash, stockpile, or stow away (HINT: It also starts with "S")

• Superfast superhero from DC Comics, with “The”

• _____ Valley (brand of granola bars)

• What a 1-up mushroom grants in the Super Mario Bros. games

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 even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Moving Staircases 13

It's been nearly two weeks since "Moving Staircases 13" was posted on this blog, so it's now time for me to reveal the list of everyone who has solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Chris Kochmanski
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Perry Groot
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Patrick Jordan
• Steve Gunter
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• KeoFam
• Al Sisti
• Tamara Brenner

answers

PUZZLE #437: Family Reunions 6

PUZZLE #437

FAMILY REUNIONS 6

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 HATRED, UNSTRAP, and AUBURNS, you could drop the D from HATRED to get EARTH, drop the P from UNSTRAP to get SATURN, and drop the B from AUBURNS to get URANUS, all in the category "Planets". As an additional help, the category for the new words will also be listed on top.

Once you're done, the letters that have been deleted from each word will unscramble to spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: a ten-letter word that also fits the category

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 even ask for a hint, though you'll be marked as having used one if you do so) 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!