PUZZLE #524: New Year's Presents

PUZZLE #524

NEW YEAR'S PRESENTS

It's the final puzzle of 2024, so to ring out this year, I've decided to take last year's "Christmas Presents" puzzle and change the involved holiday so that it'd be more fitting for the season (even though I have no idea if "giving presents at New Year's" is even a thing). In case you need a reminder on how to solve this puzzle type, the directions are right here:

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 seen at a New Year's Day celebration

PRESENT #1

• Math symbol seen in streaming services from Disney, Paramount, AMC, etc.

• Royal rank higher than viscount, but lower than marquess

• Toaster _____ (Pillsbury's version of Pop-Tarts)

• Word following "pecan", "pork", and "pizza"

PRESENT #2

• Chide and chastise

• Power of 10 and The Price is Right host Carey

• Resort with mud baths and masseurs

• Spiro who was the most recent vice president to resign

PRESENT #3

• _____-jerk reaction

• Keep tabs on

• Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles network

• Top or bottom bed

PRESENT #4

• Not quite closed, as a door

• Sleep study abbr.

• _____ vera

• White rapper whose latest album is called The Death of Slim Shady

PRESENT #5

• Antlered animal on Michigan's state flag

• Greek letter that looks like an "H" (despite not being spelled with an "H")

• Its two biggest cities are Nairobi and Mombasa

• Meeting schedule

PRESENT #6

• Corn core

• Freshwater fish that becomes a synonym for "fat" if you add "by" at the end

• Got underway

• "There's a sucker _____ every minute" (quote supposedly from P. T. Barnum)

PRESENT #7

• Cars such as the Bronco and Mustang

• Group of sheep to shepherd over

• "Some _____ of Wonderful" (Grand Funk Railroad song)

• What Rosebud was in Citizen Kane

PRESENT #8

• Bill _____ the Science Guy ('90s PBS series)

• Faint trace of color

• Pledged to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

• Uncompromising, like a short time limit

PRESENT #9

• Avant-garde rocker Frank with children named Moon Unit, Dweezil, and Ahmet

• Like a pretentious painting, perhaps

• "Mighty" Mudville batter who struck out

• Second-to-last chemical element alphabetically, just before zirconium

PRESENT #10

• Clumsy dummy

• Latte foam that some baristas make art out of

• Rarity's pet cat in My Little Pony, for short (or October's birthstone)

• Rottweiler's restraint

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: Back-Oops 3

It's been nearly two weeks since "Back-Oops 3" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Marie desJardins
• Mike Armstrong
• Kevin Orfield
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Michael Lebowitz
• Stasi Gustafson
• Chris Kochmanski
• Wendy Walker
• KeoFam
• Josie Giles
• Steve Gunter
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #523: Puzzle in the Round 8

PUZZLE #523

PUZZLE IN THE ROUND 8

This puzzle type was suggested by Patron Grant Fikes. Normally, you can suggest a puzzle type of your own choice over on my Patreon page, but both slots are still full, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

To solve this tough puzzle, fill in as many of the 5-letter answers next to their clues as you can. Next, look for shared letters, and then enter each letter into its correct place in the diagram (though you'll most likely need to scramble the order of the letters to make them fit). The letter in the grid's center will be shared by all of the answer words. As a little hint, look for unshared letters to help you determine the letters that will go in the outer ring to form the FINAL ANSWER, reading from 1 to 24.

The FINAL ANSWER is the name of a comic book series from the mid-20th century

1) "_____ Burr, Sir" (song from Hamilton)

     _ _ _ _ _

2) Heaviest (and most radioactive) noble gas

     _ _ _ _ _

3) Mist or steam, say

     _ _ _ _ _

4) Pagliacci or The Pirates of Penzance, e.g.

     _ _ _ _ _

5) Condor's claw

     _ _ _ _ _

6) _____ Recall (1990 film where Arnold Schwarzenegger gets his butt to Mars)

     _ _ _ _ _

7) For everyone to hear

     _ _ _ _ _

8) Dahl who wrote The Witches (1983)

     _ _ _ _ _

9) Anyone strutting her stuff at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

     _ _ _ _ _

10) Forms for making die-cast toys

     _ _ _ _ _

11) Hatred, like the kind that Garfield feels about the dog he lives with?

     _ _ _ _ _

12) Baseball pitcher's place

     _ _ _ _ _

13) X-Men member who can control the weather

     _ _ _ _ _

14) Kitchen, library, and seven others in Clue

     _ _ _ _ _

15) _____-Goldwyn-Mayer (movie studio that turned 100 in 2024)

     _ _ _ _ _

16) The Simpsons dad who once asked a phone operator for "the number for 911"

     _ _ _ _ _

17) Centers of apples and pineapples

     _ _ _ _ _

18) Use steel wool on

     _ _ _ _ _

19) Future oak tree, assuming it's buried properly

     _ _ _ _ _

20) Die like a frog?

     _ _ _ _ _

21) Remote-controlled aircraft with its own racing league

     _ _ _ _ _

22) _____ Drive (short-lived game show named after a street in Beverly Hills)

     _ _ _ _ _

23) Not nearly as good

     _ _ _ _ _

24) Mister, in Mexico

     _ _ _ _ _

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: Anagram Chambers 12

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Anagram Chambers 12" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Marie desJardins
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Stasi Gustafson
• Chris Kochmanski
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Mom
• Michael Lebowitz
• Wendy Walker
• Steve Gunter
• Patrick Jordan
• KeoFam
• Lynn Sweeney
• Tamara Brenner
• Josie Giles

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #522: Back-Oops 3

PUZZLE #522

BACK-OOPS 3

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: a term used in video games

FORWARD WORDS (blue arrow)

1) Large amount of soup or stew

2) Cut-and-_____ (simple and straightforward)

3) Winter sport for Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn

4) With "The", classic rock band that did "We Gotta Get Out of This Place"

5) Completely immerse

6) Lighthearted parody

7) Famous vampire Count whom Batman fought in a non-canonical comic book

BACKWARD WORDS (pink arrow)

• April _____ Day ('80s slasher film where, as a prank on the audience, nobody dies)

• Compact computer also known as a "notebook"

• Endurance that runs out when Lara Croft sprints for too long in Tomb Raider III

• Handicapped permit hung off of a car's front view mirror, for one

• Metamorphic rock that sounds pleasant?

• Quirky and quite odd

• Well-versed in a language

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: Loopy Links 2

It's been almost two weeks since "Loopy Links 2" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• KeoFam
• Tamara Brenner
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mom
• Derek Allen
• Marie desJardins
• Steve Gunter
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Stasi Gustafson

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #521: Anagram Chambers 12

PUZZLE #521

ANAGRAM CHAMBERS 12

One of the clues in this puzzle contains a word or 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!

For this puzzle, there are several dark-green "chambers" with yellow rectangles and light green squares in them. For each chamber, you take a word in the first yellow rectangle as hinted at by the clue, add a letter from the light green square, and scramble them to get a word in the second yellow rectangle, then you repeat the process to get the word in the third yellow rectangle. Unfortunately, none of the chambers are labeled, and all seven sets of clues are in no particular order, so you have to figure out which set of answers go to which proper chamber so the columns of light green squares will both spell out words reading vertically.

Once all of the chambers are in the correct order, the light green squares will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a two-word phrase

• [Body lacking limbs and a head] + _ = [Groups of Girl Scouts] + _ = [Atom parts other than electrons and neutrons]

• [Pass into law] + _ = ["Hypnotic" subgenre of electronic dance music] + _ = [Human-horse hybrid seen in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment of Fantasia]

• [Angela's _____ (Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir)] + _ = [Stock market units] + _ = [Strapped device that can hold your horses]

• [What's left of a chopped-down tree] + _ = [It separates the nostrils in a human nose] + _ = [Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and so on]

• [Word preceding "piano" or "prix"] + _ = [Fire-breathing creature such as Spyro] + _ = [Doting or devoted]

• [Narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird] + _ = [Specially made] + _ = [Any outfit worn by contestants on Let's Make a Deal]

• [My Dinner with _____ (minimalist movie from 1981)] + _ = [Made money] + _ = [#1 Bruno Mars song named after a throwable explosive]

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: Logicrossword

It's been almost two weeks since my first "Logicrossword" puzzle was posted on this blog. I correctly predicted that it would be tougher than usual, as a total of thirteen people have solved it since then, but some of them did tell me that they successfully solved the normal version of this puzzle (as opposed to the easy one), so perhaps it wasn't too difficult after all.

• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Stasi Gustafson
• Sam Levitin
• Steve Gunter
• Tamara Brenner
• Michael Lebowitz
• Josie Giles
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Chris Kochmanski

Now head below the break for the answers as well as some solvers' comments!

PUZZLE #520: Loopy Links 2

PUZZLE #520

LOOPY LINKS 2

All of the answers in this puzzle weave through the grid in a single long chain via a series of straight lines and right-angled turns. Each square is used once except where the answers link together in squares with circles in them, each serving as the last letter of one answer and the first letter of the next. The letters in these circled squares are blank and for you to fill in. The chain begins and ends in squares that have letters already filled in.

Once you've solved this puzzle, the circled letters (when read left to right starting at the topmost row) will spell out a clue that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER: a proper name

1) Reptilian movie monster with an atomic breath attack

2) Pop rock duo that sang "Potential Breakup Song": 3 wds.

3) Girl Scout gathering

4) Clint _____ (actor who played Dirty Harry five times)

5) Philadelphia university that The Gong Show host Chuck Barris graduated from

6) Like an elaborate banquet with food galore

7) Sophisticated, like some arthouse fare

8) Tootsie Roll's covering

9) _____ & Isles (2010s crime drama that aired on TNT)

10) Asthmatic's aid

11) Judy Hopps from Zootopia, e.g.

12) Perforated reward for getting a high score on Skee-Ball, perhaps

13) Robberies

14) _____ to change (may be different later on)

15) Stretchy, sleeveless shirt: 2 wds.

16) Face-covering game for babies: Hyph.

17) The Three Tenors tune whose name is Italian for "My Sunshine": 3 wds.

18) With "The", Homeric epic that O Brother, Where Art Thou? was loosely based on

19) Japan's second-most populated city (after Tokyo)

20) Flight display by the Blue Angels, for one: 2 wds.

21) A _____ in Time (Madeleine L'Engle book)

22) Shouts something like "Holy smokes!"

23) Illegible doodle

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: Eat Your Words 10

It's been about two weeks since "Eat Your Words 10" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have successfully solved it since then, as you an see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Steve Gunter
• Wendy Walker
• Michael Lebowitz
• KeoFam
• Tamara Brenner
• Chris Kochmanski
• Marie desJardins
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Josie Giles

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #519: Logicrossword

PUZZLE #519

LOGICROSSWORD

This puzzle type was suggested by Patron Grant Fikes. Normally, you can suggest a puzzle type of your own choice over on my Patreon page, but both slots are still full, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

It's the final puzzle of the month, and I have a strong feeling that it'll also be the hardest puzzle of the month as well. Since I imagine that a lot of my usual solvers will struggle with this one, I've decided to include an easier version of this puzzle with most of the black squares already filled in, and it'll be located via this hyperlink (as well as below the break underneath the link to the normal version). It's up to you which .PDF file you want to use, and you're allowed to tell me if you used the easy version or not. However, if you think you're up to the challenge, keep reading for the directions to the regular version of this puzzle, as well as the completely blank grid it uses. 

Using the clues below (as well as your vocabulary and logic skills), blacken some cells in the grid and fill the rest with letters to form words that are two or more letters long. All of the resulting words are legal to play in Scrabble, contain at least one vowel, and should be reasonably familiar to most people (those that aren't may be explicitly mentioned in the clues).

Once the grid has been correctly filled out, use it to get the FINAL ANSWER: the last name of a current daytime talk show host whose first name is one of the words in the solved grid

• No two black cells share an edge, though most of them do touch at their corners. All the white cells connect each other through their edges.

• There are 13 black cells in total throughout the grid. Row 8 has two of those black cells, while Row 5 has three black cells and only one word: VEE.

• Of the eight planets in our Solar System, four of their names are legal in Scrabble and appear in the grid. The longest one is in Row 6, and the other three (one of which is VENUS) intersect with it.

• The letter pair "SS" appears twice in row 9, and once in row 1. The letter pair "RR" appears once in column C.

• The first word in Column A starts with D and ends in T; T is also the only letter in that word to appear in Column G.

• Column B and Column H both have two 4-letter words each; one of those four words has the letter combination "EO", and another has "UN".

• Column F contains the word KILN, which intersects with the word VENEER.

• Column I contains three instances of the letter E, and one instance of the letter Y.

• The letter W appears exactly twice in the grid, in D1 and H9.

• The word BE is located in the row immediately beneath the row containing YO.

• The last letter of FLEECY intersects with the last letter of a 5-letter flower (which is the only word that uses the letter P in the entire grid).

• One of the rows contains FIFTH and OUR, not necessarily in that order.

• Only one column has a 7-letter word; the other columns have shorter words.

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 links to two .PDF versions which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Wordy Web 6

It's been nearly two weeks since "Wordy Web 6" was posted on this blog, and a whopping twenty-one people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Kevin Orfield
• Derek Allen
• Pavel Curtis
• KeoFam
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tamara Brenner
• Stasi Gustafson
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom
• Josie Giles
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Marie desJardins

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #518: Eat Your Words 10

PUZZLE #518

EAT YOUR WORDS 10

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. Insert one of the column's new words into the other to get the FINAL ANSWER: A first name or a last name

NUMBERED WORDS

1) New England fishes

2) Number of thieves that Ali Baba came across

3) Animal in a cattle drive whose name is also a synonym for "drive"

4) "It Ain't Over _____ It's Over" (Lenny Kravitz single)

5) Piece of jewelry worn by winners of the MLB's World Series

6) Musical symbol that looks like a lowercase "b"

7) Conjunction in many law firm names

8) Do as directed

EATEN WORDS

• Actor Wallach from the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven

• It's good for absolutely nothing, according to a hit Edwin Starr song

• Landlocked African country with Timbuktu

• _____ McBeal (former Fox show starring Calista Flockhart)

• Part of "TMI" or "FYI", but shortened

• Place one's posterior on a park bench, perhaps

• Recoils (away from)

• Washing the dishes or taking out the trash, e.g.

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: Chain Reaction: Extra Links 12

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Chain Reaction: Extra Links 12" was posted on this blog, and seventeen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Chris Kochmanski
• Stasi Gustafson
• Marie desJardins
• Derek Allen
• KeoFam
• Wendy Walker
• Tamara Brenner
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• Steve Gunter
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #517: Wordy Web 6

PUZZLE #517

WORDY WEB 6

This puzzle contains a word or 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!

This Web's set up with Circles and Strands, but there are no letters with which the words are woven. To complete this puzzle, enter the answers to the Circles' clues (numbered 1 to 6) clockwise around the concentric rings of the Web, though it's up to you to determine the starting point for each Circle. All of the Circles' clues are presented in order. To help figure out the Circles' starting points, fill in the Strands' answers (marked with A to L) starting at each respective letter and traverse the Web from left to right. Some of the strands have only one answer, while others have two.

Once you've completely filled in the Web, the letters in the red spaces, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: a common fear

CIRCLES
1) Grasping tool used to grab ice cubes

    Unearth, with "up"

    South Asian country with a white "Thunder Dragon" on its flag

    Grew older

    Paint with a nozzled can, perhaps

2) Disney _____ (touring figure skating show with Disney characters): 2 wds.

    Sudden impulse

    One half of a pair of jeans

    Liam who played Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins

3) Gaining use of copyrighted songs to use in a TV soundtrack, usually for a not-so-small fee

    Black woodwind commonly seen in crossword puzzles

    Friend, in Italy (HINT: It's the same as the Spanish version, but with a "C" instead of a "G")

4) Like a never-before-seen product that just hit store shelves: Hyph.

    Dental plan or employee discount, e.g.

    Hems and _____ (doesn't decide)

5) Actor White who played Urkel and once voiced Sonic the Hedgehog

    Breakfast chain that serves "Cinn-A-Stack" flapjacks: Abbr.

6) Cliff Clavin went on Jeopardy! (and blew it) in an episode of this sitcom set at a bar

STRANDS

A) Big _____ (California attraction with a lengthy coastline)

B) Messing who played Grace on Will & Grace

C) Scientific study of the environment

D) Golden Raspberry-"winning" film flop from 2003 starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

    Former Nair competitor

E) Record of a 12-month period

    Inexpensive and immensely inferior, slangily

F) Creak, squeak, and shriek, to name a few

    The Greatest _____ (musical biopic of P. T. Barnum)

G) Response to a quizmaster's question

     Enlivening (up)

H) Having harmonious sounds

     Removes a video tape from a VCR

I) "_____ Somebody" (hit song by Kings of Leon)

   Chubby fourth-grader from Hey Arnold! (or a literary kid with a purple crayon)

J) Comedy club annoyance who might say "You stink! Get off the stage!"

K) Boring shade of light brown

L) Appropriate place for this puzzle's last listed entry

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: Word Squares: Projectors 7

It's been almost two weeks since "Word Squares: Projectors 7" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people (the most ever for this tough puzzle type!) have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Derek Allen
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Wendy Walker
• Patrick Jordan
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #516: Chain Reaction: Extra Links 12

PUZZLE #516

CHAIN REACTION: EXTRA LINKS 12

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 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: Chess Words 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Chess Words 5" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Michael Lebowitz
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Mom
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Josie Giles
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #515: Word Squares: Projectors 7

PUZZLE #515

WORD SQUARES: PROJECTORS 7

There are a series of clues whose answers will fit into the provided grid, reading across and down. However, all of the answers are one letter too long to fit in properly, so each one must have either its first or last letter sticking out (or "projecting" out) of the grid. Once you're done, start at the top left and read the "Projectors" either clockwise or counterclockwise to get another word or phrase. In the example above, the Projectors spell out SAMPLE.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the eight-letter name of a 1970s horror movie.

CLUES

• Anklebones (anagram of STAIR)

• Comic book artist with black pens

• Contraction similar to "won't", as spoken by someone from the 1800s

• Department store that Chicago's Willis Tower used to be named after

• Mr. Kokoshka from Hey Arnold!, or Mr. Schindler from Schindler's List

• Songwriters' org. (answer hidden in SEASCAPE)

• "There's _____ in the Bottom of the Sea" (children's song): 2 wds.

• Tummy trouble supposedly caused by stress (it's not, for the record)

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: Sunburst 6

It's been about two weeks since "Sunburst 6" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have successfully solved it since then, as you an see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Josie Giles
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Patrick Jordan
• Wendy Walker
• Stasi Gustafson
• Lynn Sweeney
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #514: Chess Words 5

PUZZLE #514

CHESS WORDS 5

This puzzle type was suggested by Patron Grant Fikes. Normally, you can suggest a puzzle type of your own choice over on my Patreon page, but both slots are full at the moment, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

Eight 8-letter words are scrambled on the chessboard, all of which are the answers to the provided clues. Each chess piece starts on the first letter of one of the words, and can be moved across the board via standard chess moves to spell the rest of the word. Every square is used exactly once. The chess pieces move as follows:

King: one space in any of the eight directions
Rook: any number of spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction
Bishop: any number of spaces in a diagonal direction
Queen: any number of spaces in any of the eight directions
Knight: two spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction and then one space in a perpendicular direction

Once all the words have been found, read down the last letter of each filled-in word, in order, to get the FINAL ANSWER: an 8-letter word

  Queen's Rook: T _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                a1 
Queen's Knight: F _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                b1 
Queen's Bishop: O _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                c1 
         Queen: J _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                d1 
          King: L _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                e1 
 King's Bishop: E _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                f1 
 King's Knight: H _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                g1 
   King's Rook: C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                h1

CLUES
• Brazilian martial art that one may grapple with?

• Commit fraud

• Element with a single-digit atomic number

• Group of three achievements

• Joey who ate 83 hot dogs in ten minutes in a 2024 Netflix special

• Like tepid tap water

• Sticky snare for some insects

• Way too lengthy, as a speech

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: Lucky Sevens 14

It's been nearly two weeks since "Lucky Sevens 14" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Josie Giles
• Patrick Jordan
• Chris Kochmanski
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #513: Sunburst 6

PUZZLE #513

SUNBURST 6

One of the clues in this puzzle contains a word or 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!

First, solve each 4-letter word listed in the first set of clues, then rearrange them and attach an extra letter to its end (which will be up to you to determine) to form a 5-letter word that matches one of the answers listed in the second clue set. For example, if an answer is ATOP, scramble those letters, add another letter to the end, and form the 5-letter word TOPAZ. Next, place each resulting 5-letter word into the Sunburst at their corresponding numbers, starting at the outermost tile and reading inwards. Since all the 5-letter words have the exact same final letter, make sure that each 5-letter word ends in the center of the grid.

Once the grid has been filled in, the outermost ring of the Sunburst, when read clockwise from 1 to 18, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a Minor League Baseball team

4-LETTER WORDS

1) Raising the Flag on Iwo _____ (famous photograph from World War II)

2) Flightless birds with three-toed feet

3) Clever remark from Groucho Marx

4) They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh

5) Resident of Leicester or London

6) Either end of a horseshoe magnet

7) Square diagram that makes up a crossword, e.g.

8) State where Arches National Park is located

9) Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning role in Black Swan

10) Disinfectant target

11) Japanese wrestling practiced by Hinako from The King of Fighters 2000

12) Two, in Toulon, France

13) Taylor Swift: The Eras _____ (2023 concert film)

14) Near at hand, poetically speaking

15) Surname of Dorothy from the book Ozma of Oz

16) Hide a card in one's hand like a magician (or a hand's part)

17) Prompted an offstage actor

18) Extra-large or extra-small, say

5-LETTER WORDS

• Bill Withers hit once covered by Hootie & the Blowfish: 2 wds.

• Bus driver's path

• Clicking thing used to play point-and-click adventure games

• _____ couture

• Crow, Cree, or Cherokee

• Dating app that's "designed to be deleted" (supposedly)

• Feature of a Ruffles chip

• 40-40 tie in tennis (or a song from Kiss' debut album)

• In Living Color comedian and Beat Shazam host Foxx

• Irritated state

• Marahute from The Rescuers Down Under, for one (HINT: She's a bird of prey)

• Mirror _____ (reversed reflection)

• Musical based on a comic strip about a redheaded orphan

• Ooze, such as charm

• Take someone's property by force

• Turn two companies into one

• Wed without anyone else knowing

• With plenty to spare

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: Zigzagnut 8

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Zigzagnut 8" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• KeoFam
• Wendy Walker
• Chris Kochmanski
• Patrick Jordan
• Pavel Curtis
• Stasi Gustafson
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Tamara Brenner
• Josie Giles
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #512: Lucky Sevens 14

PUZZLE #512

LUCKY SEVENS 14

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 right 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, starting with the Seven marked with a 1) will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: A seven-letter word associated with video games

ROWS

i) First word in Iowa's most populated city

ii) Mai _____ (alcoholic drinks)

iii) "Golden Age of Hollywood" icon Clark

iv) Someone who joined Sam's Club, say

v) Assign to a job

vi) Snow-White's sister in a fairy tale that has just one dwarf (not seven): Hyph.

vii) More massive

viii) Cereal with flavored pieces such as Raspberry Red and Orangey Orange

ix) Pimple

x) Decisive victory in the boxing video game Punch-Out!!: Abbr.

xi) Letter on the cover of Sue Grafton's final alphabet-themed mystery novel

SEVENS

1) Wayne who was inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame the same year he retired

2) Actress Dawson who voiced Batgirl in The Lego Batman Movie

3) Bon _____ (French phrase meaning "Enjoy your meal")

4) Former cassette tape manufacturer that went bankrupt in 1996

5) More talkative

6) Rearmost part: 2 wds.

7) Baked Alaska or Mississippi mud pie, e.g.

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: Pathfinder 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Pathfinder 5" was published on this website, and eighteen people have successfully solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• M. Sean Molley
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Stasi Gustafson
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Derek Allen
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #511: Zigzagnut 8

PUZZLE #511

ZIGZAGNUT 8

The numbered clues are for the zigzags, which work their way down through the diagram in the outlined areas. The "Rows" clues are for the answers, two per row, to be entered straight across each row in the diagram, but to make things harder, you don't know which specific rows the answers will go into! (Though the answers in the rows themselves are in the correct order)

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the answer entered in the unclued entry in the middle of the diagram (marked with two question marks): the name of a video game made by Nintendo

ROWS (in random order; each contains two answers)

• Command from the king

  Pokémon that can evolve into Vaporeon, Flareon, and six others (answer hidden in SLEEVE ENDS)

• Bering _____ (waterway separating Russia and Alaska)

  Diet that's high in fat, but low in carbs

• Lloyd's telekinetic little sister from Lloyd in Space (anagram of FINANCER)

  Tennis racket's handle

• Fresca, Fanta, or Faygo, for one

  _____ Row (London street with many tailors)

• Wooden ducks

  Sci-fi princess with a "cinnamon bun" hairdo

• Motion picture's place

  McGregor who starred in the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries on Disney+

• In an emotionless manner, comparable to a statue

  Got along with

• Square-shaped cereal used to make the snack Muddy Buddies

  Same old story, same old song and dance

• "_____ Like a Back Road" (country song by Sam Hunt)

  Restaurant's atmosphere

• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers villainess Repulsa (or EGOT winner Moreno)

  One of Bob Marley's backup singers

• Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

  Walked onstage

ZIGZAGS
1) _____ butterfly (people person)

2) Resident of Aarhus, Aalborg, or Copenhagen

3) Siri-like A.I. who dated Joaquin Phoenix's character in the 2013 movie Her

4) What Nielsen ratings measure

5) Emulated the Tower of Pisa

6) Wrench-wielding worker such as Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog games

7) Calm, cool, and collected

8) Killer Krueger

9) Country with the Temple of Olympian Zeus (or rather, what's left of it)

10) Like the hooved feet of giraffes and goats: Hyph.

11) "Peace of Mind" rock band, or the state capital they hail from

12) The _____ Horror (haunted house film starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder)

13) Systems of trains, train tracks, train stations, and so on

14) Take long steps

15) Peninsula containing Spain and Portugal

16) Mexican food sometimes served as a Tuesday special

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: Empty Word Ladder 4

It's been almost two weeks since "Empty Word Ladder 4" was posted on this blog, and an impressive twenty people have solved it since then:

• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Wendy Walker
• Stasi Gustafson
• Sam Levitin
• KeoFam
• Tamara Brenner
• Steve Gunter
• Lynn Sweeney
• Mom
• Patrick Jordan
• Derek Allen

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

PUZZLE #510: Pathfinder 5

PUZZLE #510

PATHFINDER 5

This puzzle type was suggested by Patron Grant Fikes. Normally, you can suggest a puzzle type of your own choice over on my Patreon page, but both slots are full at the moment, so you might have to resort to PayPal if you still want to make a request of your own.

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in the indicated direction, and makes at least one right-angled turn as it winds through the grid. When you're finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Once the grid is filled out, there should be another entry inside it that doesn't have a corresponding clue, nor does it start in a numbered space. This unlisted word is this week's FINAL ANSWER: the name of a nerdy cartoon character

1W) Elvis Presley's middle name [4]

2W) Bearded dwarflike creatures from Gravity Falls [6]

3E) Dots in numbers like 2.71828 and 3.14159 [7 6]

4S) Beaded calculator [6]

5N) Snake-eating relative of ferrets [8]

6N) Wrens' residences [5]

7N) Long Island _____ tea (drink that doesn't even have tea) [4]

8N) Mexican Mrs. [6]

9N) "Same here!" [1 2 3]

10N) Allen Funt-hosted prank show that debuted on TV in 1948 [6 6]

11N) Gold bar [5]

12E) White bird used in classic magic tricks [4]

13N) Harshly reprimand [7]

14N) 1996 movie musical where Madonna sings "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" [5]

15S) _____ Armstrong (elastic action figure) [7]

16E) Coughing Revenge of the Sith character who can wield four lightsabers at once [7 8]

17W) Less than zero [8]

18S) Stick that one uses to stuff a cannonball down a cannon [6]

18S again) Mischievous little imp [6]

19N) Making a face like a purple McDonaldland character? [9]

20S) The _____ Bucket (restaurant from SpongeBob SquarePants that serves ground-up bait) [4]

21S) Handyman's kit [7]

22S) Purple plants which are New Hampshire's state flowers [6]

23W) College student’s quarters [4]

24W) Joe Biden's wife [4]

24E) Oxymoronic shrimp size [5]

25E) Robbed during a riot [6]

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: Flower Power 8

It's been about two weeks since "Flower Power 8" was posted on this blog, and twenty people have successfully solved it since then, as you an see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Sam Levitin
• Mom
• Stasi Gustafson
• Tamara Brenner
• Steve Gunter
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Patrick Jordan
• Derek Allen

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #509: Empty Word Ladder 4

PUZZLE #509

EMPTY WORD LADDER 4

In normal word ladders, you have to turn one word into another word by changing it one letter at a time (such as CAT — COT — DOT — DOG). However, this word ladder is completely blank, meaning that the starting and ending words are completely unknown. To fill it in, we've provided clues to all of the words that link the two mystery words, though they're not listed in any particular order. Rearrange the clues' answers so that they form a proper word ladder in the white spaces, then figure out the two mystery words on the ladder's top and bottom, signified by the yellow spaces. Combine both words in either order to create the FINAL ANSWER: a two-word tennis term or a two-word surfing term.

CLUES

• WORD AT THE START OF THE LADDER

• WORD AT THE END OF THE LADDER

• Beagle, Borzoi, Briard, or some other specific dog type

• Five Guys Burgers and _____

• Growing _____ (sitcom that lasted seven seasons)

• Handlebar coverings

• Island excursions given away as prizes on Wheel of Fortune, say

• Loaf that you can bake in the computer game Ultima VII

• Makes an attempt

• Puts on a few pounds

• Radio DJ Alan who was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986

• Smiles like the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland

• Unshackles

• Watching this dry is insanely boring, according to a well-known idiom

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: Drop Tower 12

It's been nearly two weeks since "Drop Tower 12" was posted on this blog, and an impressive twenty people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Wendy Walker
• Mike Armstrong
• KeoFam
• Dan Simonds
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mom
• Stasi Gustafson
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Derek Allen
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #508: Flower Power 8

PUZZLE #508

FLOWER POWER 8

This puzzle contains a word or 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!

The answers to this petaled puzzle will go in a curve from the number on the outside to the center of the flower. Each number in the flower will have two 5-letter answers, one going in a clockwise direction, and the other going in a counterclockwise direction.

Once you're done, look through the adjacent numbered petals to find two more words (going either clockwise or counterclockwise), and combine them both to get the FINAL ANSWER: The name of an optical illusion

CLOCKWISE

1) New Agey auras

2) Quickly sped-through section of "The Alphabet Song"

3) Little bits, or letters in Ancient Greece

4) "¡Hasta _____!" (Spanish for "See you later!")

5) "Get _____ of yourself, man!": 2 wds.

6) Dull metallic thump

7) Like a barely audible sound

8) Material used for Beanie Babies and other stuffed toys

9) Soup stock

10) Libel and slander, for two

11) Sam who directed both Evil Dead II and Spider-Man 2

12) Act overdramatically

13) Swizzle _____

14) Burr played by Leslie Odom Jr. in Hamilton

15) Added to the staff

16) Sam Cooke song named after a Valentine's Day icon

17) Made a mosaic

18) One creating a leaf pile

COUNTERCLOCKWISE

1) Logically sound

2) Gave a thumbs-up to a post on Facebook, perhaps,

3) Implant firmly: Var.

4) Introvert

5) Bugattis, Ferraris, and Infinitis

6) Like anything that costs less than a dollar

7) Gives a severe whupping to with a whip

8) São _____, Brazil

9) Duck hunter's hideout

10) Part of an elm or an elephant

11) Hens' house

12) The Day the _____ Stood Still ('50s sci-fi film)

13) "Will 2K" rapper Will

14) The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy creator Maxwell (or molecule parts)

15) Caribbean country east of Jamaica

16) Sorceress from Greek myths who often turns her enemies into pigs

17) Titular dinosaur hunter from a 1997 Nintendo 64 game (answer hidden in ARTURO KENNY)

18) Mature like a melon

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: Anacrossword 5

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Anacrossword 5" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom
• Mike Armstrong
• Wendy Walker
• KeoFam
• Steve Gunter
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen
• Dan Simonds

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

PUZZLE #507: Drop Tower 12

PUZZLE #507

DROP TOWER 12

Starting with an 8-letter word on top of the "tower", drop one letter and rearrange the rest to form a 7-letter word. Continue this process until only a 2-letter word remains. Since the tower is completely blank, use the randomly-ordered clues to figure out the words that go in each row.

Once the grid is completely filled in, look inside it for this week's FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word that can be read going down and in a straight diagonal line.

CLUES

• Influential animator Iwerks (answer hidden in DOUBLES)

• Like the "Eye" in the title of a Toni Morrison book

• "No ifs, ands, or _____!"

• Not nearly as blatant

• Port on a PC

• Squeezable paint containers

• Winnie the Pooh and the _____ Day (Oscar-winning short film)

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!