PUZZLE #480: Family Reunions 7

PUZZLE #480

FAMILY REUNIONS 7

Before I get to this week's puzzle, I have some major news to announce: My Patreon page now has a shop! My first offering for sale is five pages' worth of different types of Cryptogram puzzles, such as "Crypto-Lists", an encrypted 4-panel comic strip, and a new creation I call "Crypto-Quiz"! More details are on that product's store page, and it only costs $3 (but only because Patreon wouldn't let me sell it at a lower price). However, you need to have a Patreon account to gain access to it (though you don't have to necessarily subscribe to my Patreon page), so I'm also offering an alternate workaround: if you're not on Patreon, you can still send me $3 through my PayPal account, and I can send you the .PDF file via email! I haven't sold any copies of this puzzle pack yet, so I hope this bit of shameless self-promotion works! So now with all that out of the way, let's get back to our regularly-scheduled puzzle!

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 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 4

It's been about two weeks since "Chess Words 4" was posted on this blog. I personally view it as one of the more difficult puzzle types that I do for this blog, but this particular one got a record-high of seventeen people!

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Josie Giles
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Tower
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Chris Kochmanski
• Steve Gunter
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #479: Loopy Links

PUZZLE #479

LOOPY LINKS

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) Long-haired princess voiced by Mandy Moore in Disney's Tangled

2) Lower back pain

3) _____ Magic (Shaq's original NBA team)

4) It measures how far your car goes

5) Rock paper scissors

6) Three sixteenths plus five sixteenths: 2 wds.

7) Total debacle

8) Desdemona's husband in a Shakespeare play

9) Geographically-oriented Wheel of Fortune category: 3 wds.

10) E _____ unum (Latin phrase meaning "Out of many, one")

11) Scoopable dessert that comes in a "rainbow" flavor

12) Parody

13) "I'm Like a Bird" singer Nelly

14) Animal voiced by William Shatner in Over the Hedge who overacts while playing dead

15) Barrel of _____ (toy originally made in the 1960s)

16) WetJet manufacturer

17) Soak up again

18) According to Jim star Jim

19) Like this type of text

20) _____ rolls (pastries also known as croissants)

21) Type of questions to answer in video games like Buzz!: Quiz World

22) Tick or scorpion, say

23) Google Drive alternative

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: Vanishing Act 4

It's been nearly two weeks since "Vanishing Act 4" was posted on this blog, and a whopping nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #478: Chess Words 4

PUZZLE #478

CHESS WORDS 4

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: B _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                a1 
Queen's Knight: G _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                b1 
Queen's Bishop: L _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                c1 
         Queen: P _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                d1 
          King: S _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                e1 
 King's Bishop: M _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                f1 
 King's Knight: T _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                g1 
   King's Rook: H _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                h1

CLUES
• Bothersome bloodsucker

• Dessert whose name is Italian for "pick me up"

• Fall guy who's miles high

• Goliath, Brooklyn, or Demona from a ‘90s Disney series, say

• Noontime container

• One way to cause a trance

• Paper tract

• Trendy (yet meaningless) business term

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: Helter Skelter 8

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Helter Skelter 8" was posted on this blog, and an impressive eighteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #477: Vanishing Act 4

PUZZLE #477

VANISHING ACT 4

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!

Below are a set of what are supposed to be valid words, but instances of one duplicated letter in each word have all disappeared! Your job is to reinsert the missing duplicate letters into each numbered string of letters so that the resulting words all match up to the provided clues (listed in no particular order). The number in square brackets next to each group shows how many of the same letter need to be inserted into it. For instance, if one of the groups is "XAMPL [2]", then you'll need to insert a letter two times ("E" in this case) to get "EXAMPLE".

Once you've completed everything, the letters that have been added back in, in order, will form another incomplete string of letters. Insert three more of the same letter to get the FINAL ANSWER: an 11-letter noun associated with the Armed Forces

CLUES

• Door banger that turns into Marley's face in A Christmas Carol

• Funhouse's warped reflector

• In a way that could lead to you being arrested

• James Cameron film with a sequel subtitled The Way of Water

• Motorcycle's accelerator

• Regularly recurring

• Sort of sugar on snickerdoodles

• What hearts represent in The Legend of Zelda

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: Squeezed in the Middle 20

It's been almost two weeks since my 20th "Squeezed in the Middle" puzzle was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then, as you can see in the following list:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Patrick Jordan
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Perry Groot
• Steve Gunter
• Bart Gold

Now head below the break for the answers!