PUZZLE #537: Gryptics 9

PUZZLE #537

GRYPTICS 9

Insert a single letter in each space of each grid so that each grid's five rows and five columns spells a word from left to right or top to bottom (including the letters outside the grid).

Once you're done, take a word from the first grid and a word from the second grid and pair them up to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a movie released in 1990

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: Triangle Tangle 7

It's been almost two weeks since "Triangle Tangle 7" was posted on this blog, and an impressively high twenty-two people have solved it since then! Take a look:

• Marie desJardins
• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Okieboy2008
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• Derek Allen
• Tamara Brenner
• CP80
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Patrick Jordan
• Lynn Sweeney
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Craig Leach
• Steve Gunter
• Stasi Gustafson

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #536: Fumble

PUZZLE #536

FUMBLE

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.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the Jumble newspaper comic (in case you aren't, you can find an interactive version through the Chicago Tribune's website right here), so for this month's request, Grant wanted me to make use of my drawing skills and craft my own tribute/ripoff of That Scrambled Word Game®. No directions will be provided, however, as everything that you need to know will be provided inside the cartoon panel below.

The FINAL ANSWER to this puzzle is a four-word phrase

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: Quadruple Cross 6

It's been almost two weeks since "Quadruple Cross 6" got posted on this blog, and an impressive twenty-two people have solved it since then:

• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Derek Allen
• Sam Levitin
• Stasi Gustafson
• Okieboy2008
• Wendy Walker
• CP80
• Patrick Jordan
• Tamara Brenner
• Craig Leach
• Mom
• Pavel Curtis
• Lynn Sweeney
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #535: Triangle Tangle 7

PUZZLE #535

TRIANGLE TANGLE 7

To solve this puzzle, enter the 4-letter answer to each clue into the diagram either from top to bottom or diagonally upward. There are two numbers starting each clue; each answer begins in the triangle marked with the first number, and ends in the triangle marked with the second.

Once the grid has been filled in, there are two more words hiding in the topmost row of letters and the bottommost row of letters. Combine them both to get the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a basketball video game

1-2) _____-chat

2-3) DVR brand that turned 25 in 2024

3-4) Preposition between "head" and "heels"

4-5) Not a dream, a hoax, or an imaginary story

5-6) Extol and exalt

6-7) Two-player card game battle in Yu-Gi-Oh!, for one

7-8) Type of year with an extra day in February

8-9) "A Whiter Shade of _____" (#5 hit song by Procol Harum)

9-10) State trees of Massachusetts and North Dakota

10-11) Cause of a bad air day in L.A.

11-12) Point scored in Super Mario Strikers (HINT: it's a soccer video game)

12-13) Hang out in a hammock, perhaps

13-14) Miller who played the Flash in 2023's The Flash (or poet Pound)

14-15) United _____ Emirates

15-16) The Tin Woodman of Oz author L. Frank

16-17) Button to make talk shows stop talking

17-18) Handmade crafts website with a "Games & Puzzles" section

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: Mini-Marching Bands 8

It's been about two weeks since "Mini-Marching Bands 8" was posted on this blog, and over twenty-three people have solved it since then! Go ahead and take a look at that massive amount:

• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Sam Levitin
• Michael Lebowitz
• Wendy Walker
• KeoFam
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tamara Brenner
• Derek Allen
• Craig & Tracy Leech
• Mom
• Patrick Jordan
• CP80
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Stasi Gustavson

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #534: Quadruple Cross 6

PUZZLE #534

QUADRUPLE CROSS 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!

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 an Oscar-winning film from the 1960s

CLUES

1) Inner turmoil for a teenager

    Winter Olympian on a sled

2) Cinnamon roll's scent, say

    Wood-burning appliance of old

3) Bespectacled cartoon character who first says "Jinkies!" in The New Scooby-Doo Movies

    Where's _____? In Hollywood (1993 picture book)

4) Corn, or a color named after corn

    Mammal whose full name is from the Greek for "nose-horned"

5) Bank of America's virtual assistant whose name is hiding inside "BANK OF AMERICA"

    Spanish island known for its nightlife

6) Avant-garde rocker Frank who once wrote a song about yellow snow

    Flavor of syrup that Canada has an emergency reserve of

7) Temporarily stop a Netflix video, perhaps

    Tic-Tac-_____ (game show where Thom McKee won 43 matches in a row in 1980)

8) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, for one

    "Lucky" digit on a slot machine

9) Bright-eyed and _____-tailed

    Social system of ancient India

10) Bloodsucking parasite, literally or figuratively

      Laughing carnivore

11) Blinky, Pinky, Inky, or Clyde from Pac-Man, e.g.

      Smile 2 actress Scott

12) Dungeons & Dragons monster that can imitate treasure chests (or a synonym for "imitate")

      Hunter Fudd from the Looney Tunes short Rabbit Fire

13) Male singing voice higher than baritone

      Wing newly added to a building

14) Banish to parts unknown

      East Asian country where fireworks were invented

15) Group of employees

      Terrier's tether

16) Greek muse of poetry (anagram of OATER)

      "_____ Your Groove Thing" (disco song by Peaches & Herb)

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: Moving Staircases 15

I'm sorry that this got posted later than usual; I forgot to schedule this one until now. Anyway, there were a lot of people who solved "Moving Staircases 15" from two weeks ago (twenty-one, in fact!), and here they are!

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #533: Mini-Marching Bands 8

PUZZLE #533

MINI-MARCHING BANDS 8

The answers in this grid march both across the Rows and around the Bands. Each row contains two answers, clued in order. Their dividing point is for you to determine, except in Row 5, where the two answers are separated by a black square. The answers in each Band will be entered clockwise, starting at a lettered square (A-D) and ending in the space below that square. The dividing points in each band's string of words are also for you to determine. Each square will be used twice; once in a Row's word, and once in a Band's word.

Once you've filled everything in, read the letters on the diagonal dashed line for the FINAL ANSWER: The name of a newspaper comic character

ROWS
1) Marshy area such as the one where Shrek lives

    Synonym for "prance" that rhymes with the previous answer

2) Victory that wasn't even close

    Tales from the _____ (influential comic book series)

3) Forever and a day

    Monopoly space surrounded by "Just Visiting": 2 wds.

4) Masked swordsman whose name is Spanish for "fox"

    "Invisible" singer and American Idol alumni Aiken

5) Beech or birch

    Donkey _____ Jungle Beat (Nintendo game where you control an ape with bongos)

6) Cocker spaniel voiced by Peggy Lee in a 1955 Disney film

    "Red" flying ace on boxes of frozen pizza

7) Persevere

    Org. with Grizzlies and Timberwolves

8) Hoity-toity types

    I _____ What You Did Last Summer (Lois Duncan novel)

9) Suffix for "million" or "billion"

    Air freshener brand that manufactures PlugIns

BANDS

A) Did the backstroke or breaststroke

     Right away without delay

     Bit like a beaver

     Largest nation in Africa, after South Sudan split off of Sudan in 2011

     Alka-_____ ("Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz" product)

B) Public uproar

     Keyed instrument played by Rowlf from The Muppet Show

     Knocks on the noggin

     Annual music festival held in Tennessee since 2002

C) Stealthy Japanese assassin such as Sekiro from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

     Longtime Saturday Night Live producer Michaels

     Boat's steering blade

D) Opening word for a lullaby involving a falling baby: Hyph.

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: Code Crossword 2

Roughly two weeks have gone by since my second-ever "Code Crossword" puzzle (not counting the ones exclusive to my Patreon page) was posted on this blog, and seventeen people have solved it since then:

• Cathy Bowen
• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Marie desJardins
• Dave C
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• Tamara Brenner
• Mom
• SquishmallowsUnited
• Lynn Sweeney
• Derek Allen
• Craig Leach

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