Monday, December 25, 2023

PUZZLE #471: Christmas Presents

PUZZLE #471
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS

Merry Christmas, everyone! To celebrate the occasion, I've got a Christmas present for all of you guys: a puzzle format that's brand-new to this blog! It's sort of a cross between those "One-Two-Three" crosswords and gift-wrapped boxes, and you'll see what I mean when you get to the directions:


For each of these colorful presents, you’re given clues for four words reading across and down the sides of each gift, using all of the letters in the sections of ribbon that each word crosses, like with WRAP and MINER reading across as well as WHAM and PER reading down in the provided example. After you’ve filled in these words, complete the wrapping by adding a letter that acts as a bow where the strands of ribbon cross, so that two more words are formed reading along the ribbons, as with HAVE and RAVINE in the example.

Once all of the presents have been filled out, read all of the bow letters in order to get the FINAL ANSWER: something that people who give Christmas presents may have


PRESENT #1
• Brand whose products include "3D White" toothpaste
• It calls the kettle black in a well-known idiom
• "Unskinny _____" (#3 hit song by Poison)
• Voting coalition

PRESENT #2
• Hang out on a clothesline
• Magician's word similar to "Ta-da!" or "Presto!"
• Not yet expired, like a coupon
• Press _____ key to continue

PRESENT #3
• Cenozoic and Mesozoic, for two
• Fall Out Boy singer Patrick (or a chopped-down tree's remnant)
• Math symbol that's also the name of an artificial sweetener
• Place to apply ChapStick

PRESENT #4
• African snake that's one letter off from a Latin dance
• Referee in a chess match
• "To _____ is human" (quote from Alexander Pope)
• Turn while playing checkers

PRESENT #5
• Camila Cabello song named after Cuba's capital
• Crusty covering on a wound
• Ruler of ancient Persia
• She played Dorothy on The Golden Girls

PRESENT #6
• "Black sand" on a nail file
Predator prequel named after a predator's quarry
• Retired basketballer Dwyane who hosts The Cube on TBS
• Will-o'-the-_____

PRESENT #7
• Kilroy was _____ (WWII-era graffiti)
• Like Tonto's masked ranger friend
• Shylock asked for a pound of this in The Merchant of Venice
• Untamed

PRESENT #8
• Fights with a foil or épée, say
• Like showy, yet garish, costumes
• Rory McIlroy's sport
• _____ Saint Laurent

PRESENT #9
• Bang one's toe
• Big blast of wind
• Muppet with a unibrow on Sesame Street
• Season when May Day is celebrated

PRESENT #10
• Exclamation in Germany
• Japanese car company that manufactures the Pilot and Passport
Saturday Night Live veteran Carvey
• Sleeping under sheets (or a Community character)

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!

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