PUZZLE #562: Flower Power 9

PUZZLE #562

FLOWER POWER 9

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 a flowering plant

CLOCKWISE

1) Hawaiian island or a Hawaiian patio

2) "_____ Mind Set on You" (George Harrison song): 2 wds.

3) Complete beginners in online games, slangily

4) Villain from Othello and Jafar's parrot from Aladdin, for two

5) Japanese camera brand used by Veronica Mars

6) Herbie _____ Again (1974 sequel to The Love Bug)

7) Schindler who is buried in Jerusalem

8) Boxes of pre-prepared brownie ingredients

9) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland author Carroll

10) Body minus the head and limbs

11) Gets together, or events where runners get together

12) MTV hidden camera show that host Ashton Kutcher pretended to cancel after season 2

13) Chromosome components

14) Furious

15) John who co-wrote and co-sung "She's Gone" with Daryl Hall

16) Fix a shoelace that didn't get laced properly the first time

17) Ten or more of these equal a first down in football

18) Budapest-born billionaire George

COUNTERCLOCKWISE

1) "Slow" primate from Southeast Asia

2) En _____ (fencing phrase)

3) Taboos for a toddler: Hyph.

4) Greek letters that look like Roman numerals for 1

5) Tennis star Osaka

6) Raccoon from Regular Show who once got turned into a house (yes, really)

7) Greek yogurt brand sold by Dannon

8) Pre-Windows operating system with games such as Commander Keen: Hyph.

9) Compare, but not contrast

10) Southern state with the Bull Riding Hall of Fame

11) Grass-cutting machine

12) Fairies in Persian myth (anagram of SPIRE)

13) _____ Who? (board game with 24 faces to choose from)

14) Slowly, in classical music

15) Sows' sounds

16) Went "Oh my gosh, this is the greatest movie I've ever seen in my life!", maybe

17) Hairy Himalayan creatures of legend

18) Full from food

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: Logicrossword 2

It's been almost two weeks since "Logicrossword 2" was posted on this blog, so now it's time to take a look at all of the people who have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Kevin Orfield
• Michael Lebowitz
• Chris Kochmanski
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Okieboy2008 [Hint Used]
• Derek Allen
• Steve Gunter
• Lynn Sweeney
• Adam Weaver
• Mom [Hints Used]

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #561: Lucky Sevens 15

PUZZLE #561

LUCKY SEVENS 15

Before we get to the directions, I wanted to alert you all that there's been a small change in them. Normally, the FINAL ANSWER is read in the colored squares using the numeric order of the seven Sevens. However, I was unable to get a proper word out of my usual extraction system this time, so I had to resort to having the FINAL ANSWER be read backwards. I put this warning here (and on this puzzle's original post back on my Patreon page) because I'm just paranoid that any solvers who have done this type of puzzle multiple times would go into autopilot and thus get confused that the colored squares don't seem to make a proper word this time. I don't know if those worries of mine would've been justified or not, but what's done is done, so now it's time to get to the directions proper (which aren't nearly as long as this opening paragraph!).

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, read the letters in the colored squares in the reverse order of the Sevens that they appear in (in accordance of the colors of the rainbow, starting with the red square in the Seven marked with a 7) to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter place

ROWS

i) "Mad" messy-haired witch from Disney's The Sword in the Stone

ii) Chimpanzee who escaped from a Serbian zoo twice (or the first parts of a Green Eggs and Ham character)

iii) Birth year of the Roman emperor Claudius, which is about a decade before AD started: 2 wds.

iv) Skyscraper's supporting beam

v) Alex Keaton's "material girl" of a sister in Family Ties

vi) _____ for Godot (play whose title character never shows up)

vii) Giant sea monsters seen in both versions of Clash of the Titans

viii) Credit card company whose cards have a dove hologram on them

ix) Actor Barinholtz who won both Celebrity Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

x) Musical note before the scale loops back to "do"

xi) Letter above a sleeping comic strip character's head

SEVENS

1) "Fly Away" and "Dig In" rock singer Lenny

2) Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii

3) Adjective for a falcon statuette in a Humphrey Bogart movie

4) "_____ Country Song" (platinum-certified country single that hates bro-country): 3 wds.

5) Muscle-to-bone connectors

6) Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy

7) Copycat's talent

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: Coined Phrases 7

It's been almost two weeks since "Coined Phrases 7" got posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #560: Logicrossword 2

PUZZLE #560

LOGICROSSWORD 2

This puzzle (suggested by Patron Grant Fikes) 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!

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 longest word in the solved grid which doesn’t contain the letter "T".

• No two black cells share an edge, though some 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. Four of those black cells are in Row 5, and five more black cells are in the four rows above it.

• A word in Row 2, 3, or 4 contains the letter sequence "DD"; the only other set of double consonants in the entire grid appears in the row immediately above this word.

• The only black cell in Row 9 is either in Column A or Column I.

• The first word in Column A starts and ends with the same letter; that letter doesn't appear anywhere else in the grid.

• Column C contains the words ALFA and GIRN (though not necessarily in that order); one of those words intersects the word LEONINE.

• Column G contains the word VIER, which intersects the word UTES.

• None of the columns have a word beginning with the letter "O".

• The vowels in B1 and A3 (neither of which is an "A" or "E") are identical to each other.

• The only two 9-letter words in the grid both end with the string of letters "ESTI_E" intersecting each other at F6.

• The word AVERS is in the same column as the word ENS, though not necessarily in that order.

• One word in the grid is an anagram of SPIRITED and ends with "S". An anagram of TRINE runs parallel to, and touches, this 8-letter word.

• The letter "D" appears four times, with no more than one appearing in a single column, and none in Column B.

• The four "L"s in the grid all lie within a group of four consecutive rows (not necessarily having one in each row).

• The three 2-letter words in the grid are AH, RE, and UP.

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: Sunburst 7

Two weeks have passed by since "Sunburst 7" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #559: Coined Phrases 7

PUZZLE #559

COINED PHRASES 7

There is a set of five coins, all of which have one letter on each of their two faces. Each letter appears only once throughout the set, and no two coins share the same letter. Random flips of all the coins have produced six 5-letters words hinted at by the numbered clues. Once all six answers have been solved, use logic and deductive reasoning to figure out the letters that are printed on each coin. Finally, rearrange the coins so that both sides spell out two more 5-letter words that combine to make a two-word phrase.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the name of a dog breed

1) Wails like a werewolf

2) Scottish lakes (one of which may or may not contain a monster)

3) Skill needed to solve Masyu, Shikaku, or Sudoku puzzles

4) The Taming of the _____ (Shakespeare play featured in Kiss Me, Kate)

5) Former PepsiCo soda line named after a piece of lemon or lime

6) Metal strings used to make old coat hangers

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 13

Two weeks have passed by since "Drop Tower 13" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #558: Sunburst 7

PUZZLE #558

SUNBURST 7

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 1980s science fiction movie

4-LETTER WORDS

1) Pans' partners

2) "Where _____ You Been" (Rihanna song)

3) Coccyx or clavicle, for one

4) Prune, prior to being dried out

5) "You _____?" (question from Lurch the butler on The Addams Family)

6) Roster of actors

7) Not necessarily need, but still wish to get nonetheless

8) Siberian city with a Dostoevsky museum (answer hidden in "MOMS KITCHEN")

9) Numerical factoid on a baseball card

10) Female bunny from Space Jam who hates being called "doll"

11) Chow from a chuckwagon

12) Petty squabble

13) _____ Bizkit (rap-rock band with the multi-platinum album Significant Other)

14) Pulls (at), as heartstrings

15) Current Dateline NBC presenter Lester

16) Projectile thrown at a certain circular board in the British game show Bullseye

17) Black, Bering, and Baltic, e.g.

18) It's played by those playing the board games Razzle, Tapple, and Scrabble

5-LETTER WORDS

• Enraged

• European sport like American football, but with less padding

• Frog-like enemy in Wario Land 3 (or a way to describe non-smooth oatmeal)

• Full of fearlessness (and intestines?)

• Gwen _____ (Emma Stone's role in 2012's The Amazing Spider-Man)

• Ivory's partner in a Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder duet

• Late for class

• Metal mixture such as rose gold or white bronze

• Number on a bill featuring Ulysses S. Grant's portrait

• Often opinionated article in The New Yorker

• "On Top of Old _____" (folk song parodied as "On Top of Spaghetti")

• Pleasing to the palate

• "Rambunctious" adjective for WWE Hall of Famer Roddy Piper

• Subtly hint at

• Team Fortress 2 character with a thick Russian accent and a "weighty" name

• "_____ Turvy" (musical number from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

• Word meaning "with intensity" often seen before "contested"

• Yellowish-brown color of a lion's fur

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: Chess Words 6

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Chess Words 6" was posted on this blog, and quite a few people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Cindy Heisler
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• J&J
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Derek Allen
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mom
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• KeoFam
• Steve Gunter

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #557: Drop Tower 13

PUZZLE #557

DROP TOWER 13

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

• Green _____ (rural sitcom with Eva Gabor and a pig named Arnold Ziffel)

• Initials for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader author Lewis

• Key next to F1 on most American keyboards

• Late Night Liars panelist who's basically Paris Hilton as a poodle (or a soft woolly sweater fabric)

• Sousa songs such as "The Stars and Stripes Forever"

• Use Ecosia or Ask.com, say

• Word that can precede "closed" or follow "open-and-shut"

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: Nonplussed 4

It's been almost two weeks since "Nonplussed 4" was posted on this blog, so now it's time to take a look at the twenty people who have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #556: Chess Words 6

PUZZLE #556

CHESS WORDS 6

This puzzle (suggested by Patron Grant Fikes) 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!

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, pick two of the words and combine them to get the FINAL ANSWER: a multi-platinum album from the 1970s

  Queen's Rook: O _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                a1 
Queen's Knight: B _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                b1 
Queen's Bishop: E _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                c1 
         Queen: M _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                d1 
          King: A _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                e1 
 King's Bishop: P _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                f1 
 King's Knight: C _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                g1 
   King's Rook: G _ _ _ _ _ _ _
                h1

CLUES

• Body part or book part

• Caught up with, then passed

• Grammy-winning music video by Olivia Newton-John

• Knightly vegetable that you play as in Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom

• Newspaper comic magician who turned 90 in 2024

• Part of Wyoming's state nickname

• Tubes used for shooting poison darts

• Writings on the wall?

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: Empty Word Ladder 5

It's been almost two weeks since "Empty Word Ladder 5" got posted on this blog, and twenty people have solved it since then:

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

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

PUZZLE #555: Nonplussed 4

PUZZLE #555

NONPLUSSED 4

The answers in this puzzle are entered in two ways: the fifteen numbered rows have one or two answers that read left to right (even the two rows that only have one letter in it), and the plusses have five-letter answers that read left to right beginning in the top row (exactly like how they're entered in Pent Words). The clues for the plusses are split up into two groups: white plusses and gray plusses. Answers to those clues should be placed in their respectively-colored plus, though you have to use the Rows' answers to find out where each plus answer is located.

There are two unclued rows in this puzzle; combine them to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a two-word military phrase

ROWS
1) Vowel that acts as the pseudonym for Pretty Little Liars' blackmailing villain

2) No _____, no fuss

3) Win back one's losses

4) THE FIRST HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

5) The View co-host Joy who voiced Sid the Sloth's mom in Ice Age: Continental Drift

    Rule Rhode Island, maybe

6) Raised fingerprint part

    Not chemically inert

7) Poplar part that falls in the fall

    Animated series set in the 31st century that spawned the phrase "Shut up and take my money!"

8) Add to, as a robotic build

    It is I (on the periodic table, at least)

9) Bruce Springsteen album with "Hungry Heart": 2 wds.

    NBC's peacock, CBS's eye, or ABC's lowercase "abc" in a ball, e.g.

10) Semester-ending test

      Pillar carved by many tribes of the Pacific Northwest: 2 wds.

11) Word that can usually be pluralized

      Party board game "for your Whole Brain" with art by cartoonist Gary Baseman

12) THE SECOND HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

13) A quart has 32 of these fluid units

14) Word preceding "five", "flying", and "fidelity"

15) To a ___ (quirky video game where you play a teen stuck in the shape of the 20th letter)

WHITE PLUSSES

• Get a smile out of

• _____ of Frankenstein (Universal monster movie where Elsa Lanchester plays the title role)

• Networking company founded in San Fran (or what's missing from "San Fran")

• "Ouchless" bandage brand

• Number of bits used in an original Apple II computer

• Rock type Pokémon named after a clay creature from Jewish folklore

• Taz-_____ ('90s Warner Bros. cartoon that's a pun on an Australian island)

• Be deserving of

• German cosmetics company

• Chicago airport not named "Midway"

• Penguin from The Backyardigans (or cubist Picasso)

• Member of an NFL team that plays home games in Houston's NRG Stadium

• Make knots not be knots anymore

GRAY PLUSSES

• Tennis Hall of Famer Chris who won the US Open four times in a row

• Social faux pas

• _____ white shark (fish such as Jabberjaw)

• Gut feeling

• "Live, _____, Love" (slogan commonly found on home decor from the 2010s)

• Sal who got a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Rebel Without a Cause

• Pitcher's hill

• Deck in the Obra Dinn ship from Return of the Obra Dinn (answer hidden in DOCTOR LOPEZ)

• Swiss/French river with a circumflex (^) in its name

• Scrub with a Brillo pad

• Hard-to-control impulses

• Person picking a politician to elect

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 Magic Square 9

Two weeks have passed by since "Anagram Magic Square 9" was posted on this blog, and an astonishing twenty people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #554: Empty Word Ladder 5

PUZZLE #554

EMPTY WORD LADDER 5

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 the correct order to create the FINAL ANSWER: a two-word phrase relating to marketing.

CLUES

• WORD AT THE START OF THE LADDER

• WORD AT THE END OF THE LADDER

• Burn, but barely

• Crank-operated hoisting device

• Feathered appendages that allow Hawkgirl to fly

• Grimace at a groin shot, say

• Grows smaller, as the Moon

• Magical sticks that can be bought at Ollivanders in the Harry Potter universe

• Plays the voice-activated video game Karaoke Revolution, for example

• Sabrina the Teenage _____ (Archie Comics character)

• The greatest thing _____ sliced bread

• Twists a key to power an old toy mouse, with "up"

• United Kingdom country whose capital is Cardiff

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: Diagramless Crossword 8

Two weeks have passed by since "Diagramless Crossword 8" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Marie desJardins
• Cathy Bowen
• Pavel Curtis
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom [Help used]
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• Chris Kochmanski
• Stasi Gustafson
• Derek Allen

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #553: Anagram Magic Square 9

PUZZLE #553

ANAGRAM MAGIC SQUARE 9

The 5-letter word in each box is an anagram to the answer to each of the clues below.... almost. You see, in this puzzle, all of the answers are six letters long, so add an extra letter to each 5-letter word to get each answer. Put the number of each corresponding clue into the small box below the initial word and write down the anagram on the dash directly below that. The numbers in each row and column will add up to 65.

Once you're done with the puzzle, the added letter of each answer, in numerical clue order, will spell out a clue; the FINAL ANSWER is the answer to that clue.

1) Successfully disarm a bomb

2) Fancy fish eggs

3) Type of flower that the vanilla bean is derived from

4) Be Kind _____ (2008 movie where Jack Black works at a video rental store)

5) Kiss album with "Tears Are Falling" (or a refugee's sanctuary)

6) Surname of futuristic Hanna-Barbera characters George, Jane, Judy, & Elroy

7) Pre-fetus stage

8) Submit a video to America's Funniest Home Videos' website, perhaps

9) 5 × 18

10) French curly-haired dog such as Georgette from Oliver & Company

11) Voice box in the throat

12) Crunchy peanut butter alternative

13) Little tune such as "Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There"

14) Lara Croft's manservant Winston from Tomb Raider II, for one

15) Fish-tailed fellow

16) Any number that divides into a larger number evenly

17) Positive particle in an atom

18) _____ metals (periodic group which includes lithium and potassium)

19) Mourn

20) Marsupial that “plays dead”

21) Anyone with an IQ of 200 or more

22) Messenger of the Greek gods (and of expensive luxury handbags?)

23) Don't take any _____ nickels

24) "Have You Ever?" singer who played Moesha on Moesha

25) Like an open bank account that allows transactions

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: Fronts Off 8

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

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #552: Diagramless Crossword 8

PUZZLE #552

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 8

This puzzle (suggested by Patron Grant Fikes) 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!

Diagramless crosswords are solved by using the clues and their numbers to fill in the answers as well as the black squares. When completely filled in, the black squares in the grid will have diagonal symmetry, meaning that they'll look the same when rotated upside-down. As a help, the first number has already been placed in the grid.

Once everything's filled in, two of the across answers will spell out a clue that will lead you to the FINAL ANSWER: A person's name.

ACROSS

1) Warty amphibian such as Slippy from Star Fox: Assault

5) With "The", Hope van Dyne's superhero identity in Marvel movies

9) Currency for Greece

10) Actress Kendrick from the Pitch Perfect trilogy

11) Striped feline in the Chinese zodiac

12) Traffic signals

14) Lead singer of the Holograms in a very 1980s cartoon

17) PART ONE OF THE FINAL ANSWER'S CLUE

19) Bearded bovine on Wyoming's state flag

20) "Finally, it's over!": 2 wds.

21) "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" band (or a birthday dessert)

22) Les États-_____ (French for "The United States")

23) Renewable energy source for rooftop panels

24) Win Ben _____'s Money (Comedy Central game show)

26) Flour factory

27) Handle hardship

28) Single-celled organism often seen in The Far Side comics

31) More cunning

33) PART TWO OF THE FINAL ANSWER'S CLUE

37) Learn the _____ and outs of something

38) Utterly lacking in logic

39) They can't handle telling the truth

40) Famed '50s Cleveland Browns quarterback Graham

41) "Behold!", in ancient Rome

42) Vowelless version of "Hey! Over here!"

43) A fortnight has fourteen of these

DOWN

1) Supermodel Crissy who married John Legend in 2013

2) You _____ to Be in Pictures (Looney Tunes short combining animation and live action)

3) "Chain of Fools" singer Franklin

4) English county on the English Channel (anagram of SORTED)

5) "Clean" word following "brain" or "mouth"

6) Pay to play poker

7) Grew uncontrollably (especially in winter?)

8) 2006 anime film featuring devices that let people enter dreams (or a spice made of red peppers)

11) Retired MMA fighter Ortiz

13) Not a winner

14) Richie Cunningham's kid sister in Happy Days

15) Red dye (answer hidden in TEOSINTE)

16) NYSE, NASDAQ, etc.

18) Architectural schematics

21) Orange, green, and purple are secondary ones

23) _____ & Schuster (publishing house)

24) Genre that the magazine Amazing Stories specializes in: Hyph.

25) Simplest figure skating jump: 2 wds.

26) Country north of Burkina Faso

29) Made water hot enough to bubble

30) Continent with the answer to 26-Down

31) Doesn't hog all of one's toys, say

32) "_____ not and say we did"

34) Comic strip detective Dick known for his yellow hat and coat

35) Munches on macaroons, maybe

36) Coin opening in an arcade cabinet

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: Squeezed in the Middle 22

It's been almost two weeks since "Squeezed in the Middle 22" was posted on this blog, so now it's time to take a look at everyone who has solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #551: Fronts Off 8

PUZZLE #551

FRONTS OFF 8

First, find the answers to each clue so that there are two words in each rectangular box. Then change the first letter of each word to the new same letter for both words of a pair to form two new words, and write the new letter in the square box to the left of the rectangle.

Once you're done, read down the boxes to get the FINAL ANSWER: a seven-letter word

1) Garbage bag brand that's stronger than those other "wimpy, wimpy, wimpy" types

    Lumberjack's version of "Heads up!"

2) Sons of Anarchy actor Jimmy

    Craftiest (HINT: think of a certain cartoon coyote from Warner Bros.)

3) The first letter in "R.E.M."

    False teeth

4) Simon whose song "You're So Vain" is partially about Warren Beatty

    Having no name, such as Korn's eighth album

5) Father of Perdita's fifteen puppies in Disney's 101 Dalmatians

    More unclear, like ancient film reels

6) Use cash or a debit card

    Letter between delta and zeta

7) Meta _____ 3 (VR headset released by Facebook's parent company in 2023)

    Big the Cat's pet amphibian in Sonic Adventure (HINT: It's not "Toady")

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 10

It's been almost two weeks since "Deck It Out 10" got posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Cathy Bowen
• Marie desJardins
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Okieboy2008
• Michael Lebowitz
• Sam Levitin
• Chris Kochmanski
• KeoFam
• Derek Allen
• Lynn Sweeney
• Craig Leach
• Tamara Brenner
• Patrick Jordan
• Alex Milton
• Steve Gunter
• Joe Bernard

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #550: Squeezed in the Middle 22

PUZZLE #550

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 22

It's my 550th puzzle! My last milestone puzzle involved a return to my very first puzzle type on this site, and this time, it'll be a return to my signature creation, "Squeezed in the Middle". What makes this particular one so special is that it'll be my largest one of this type that I've crafted so far, with ten rows and twenty clues in all! If you need a refresher on how to solve this particular puzzle type, then keep on reading!

For this puzzle, you're going to sandwich together words (entered in the white rectangles) by surrounding it with a letter on each side, one at the beginning and one at the end, making a new word in the process. Once you're done, the extra letters you've added in the "crust" (the brown squares) will spell out a two-word phrase. In the example above, the words URN, RAT, and OVER become BURNT, IRATE, and GOVERN, and the letters in the brown squares, reading down, spell out BIG TEN. However, to make things trickier, the "Wholes" will be in no particular order, so it's up to you to figure out which one of the "Centers" it matches up with!

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out this week's FINAL ANSWER: something useful for crafting word puzzles

CENTERS

1) Weird, like the case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

2) Strategic board game based on Portuguese tiles that has a "Crystal Mosaic" expansion

3) Actress Long, Peeples, or Vardalos

4) Misplaces one's car keys, say

5) "We want _____!" (chant from baseball fans sick of batters whiffing pitched balls): 2 wds.

6) Letters before the Enterprise's name in Star Trek

7) 4:3 or 16:9, for one

8) Water pitcher seen in many still life paintings

9) Stand-up comedienne Margaret who competed on Celebrity Jeopardy in 2025

10) Frau's husband

WHOLES

• Avengers: Endgame co-director Anthony or Joe (or Rene who acts in said film)

• Blood of the Greek gods

• Flavor of the bright red LifeSavers candy

• Highest (and largest) island in French Polynesia

• Huge computer built in the 1940s

• Lapis _____ (deep blue metamorphic rock, or a Steven Universe character)

• Least distant

• Not on speaking terms, like some exes

• Public speech

• The MLB's exclusive baseball cap manufacturer (or a time period to "usher in"): 2 wds.

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: The Spiral Squared 8

It's been about two weeks since "The Spiral Squared 8" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #549: Deck It Out 10

PUZZLE #549

DECK IT OUT 10

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 proper noun

A) Spelunking site mentioned in the lyrics to "Clementine"

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♥       ♣   ♦   ♠

2) Sealing ring that’s metaphorically blown when one gets really angry

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♦   ♥       ♠   ♣

3) Pro baseball team humorously nicknamed the "Motor City Kitties"

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♠   ♣   ♦       ♥

4) Resident of Mumbai

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♦       ♥   ♣   ♠

5) A bit burned

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♣       ♥   ♠       ♦

6) Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (anagram of OAK ASH)

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♦   ♣       ♥       ♠      

7) Little Jack Horner sat in one

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♣   ♠   ♥       ♦

8) Manufacturer of the Tacoma and Tundra trucks

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♠       ♦       ♣   ♥

9) "Weird", "beard", and "cleared", for three

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

        ♠       ♥   ♣   ♦

10) Top 5 Matchbox Twenty hit that’s also a synonym for "ill"

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♠       ♦   ♥       ♣

J) Pixar movie featuring two blue-skinned elf brothers

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♦           ♣   ♠   ♥

Q) Fern leaves

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♥   ♦       ♣       ♠

K) Scribble aimlessly

   ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

    ♣   ♥       ♦   ♠

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: Section Six 11

Two weeks have passed by since "Section Six 11" was posted on this blog, and nineteen people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #548: The Spiral Squared 8

PUZZLE #548

THE SPIRAL SQUARED 8

This puzzle turns in two directions. The Spiral's "Inward" clues yield a sequence of words to be entered clockwise in the spaces from 1 to 100. The "Outward" clues yield a different set of words to be entered counterclockwise from 100 to 1. Fill in the answers, one letter per space, according to the numbers beside each clue. Make sure to keep track of which way you're going!

Once you've filled out the grid, read out the highlighted squares diagonally to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: a ten-letter word.

INWARD

1-5: Large tobacco item in Groucho Marx's mouth

6-9: Star _____: Deep Space Nine (1993-99 TV series)

10-14: Weeping statue of Greek myth

15-20: Croatia's capital

21-25: Winnie-the-Pooh author whose first two initials stand for "Alan Alexander"

26-33: He made Icarus' wings and warned him not to fly too close to the sun

34-41: Leave: 2 wds.

42-46: Frasier Crane's brother on Frasier

47-51: Man-goat hybrid seen in the "Fracture Hills" level of Spyro 2

52-58: Diamond style named after a thorny flower: 2 wds.

59-66: Go from Point A to B instantaneously (but only if you're a sci-fi character)

67-70: Bulky boats like the one used by Noah

71-76: The dots over the "O" in Blue Öyster Cult's name

77-81: Walking sticks used by Cranky Kong and Scrooge McDuck

82-90: Naruto's catchphrase (or part of the title of Ripley's "strange but true" series): 2 wds.

91-96: "Holy" city in Ohio?

97-100: Japanese spider _____ (world's largest crustacean)

OUTWARD

100-94: Supermarket scanner's target

93-88: Nickname of Tiana's best friend in The Princess and the Frog (anagram of ELIOTT)

87-84: Face covering for a belly dancer, sometimes

83-79: Buddy who played the title role in Barnaby Jones

78-73: Based on fact

72-66: Semiaquatic rodent in love in a Captain & Tennille song

65-62: Soap on a _____

61-55: One of the ingredients in a BLT

54-50: "Apologetic" board game similar to Parcheesi

49-41: Adorning with those swingy things on top of graduation caps

40-36: Tenet director Christopher

35-30: Tentacled Disney villainess who sings "Poor Unfortunate Souls"

29-24: Make soundproof

23-18: Flexible and lithe

17-12: Octagonal park pavilion

11-7: Comic book's line artist

6-1: _____ Kingdom (multi-platinum album by No Doubt)

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: Pieces of Nine 13

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Pieces of Nine 13" was posted on this blog, and twenty-one people have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #547: Section Six 11

PUZZLE #547

SECTION SIX 11

This puzzle (suggested by Patron Grant Fikes) 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 puzzle's grid has six rings and six sections. Each ring contains a series of words placed end to end, reading either clockwise OR counterclockwise; all the words in a given ring will read in the same direction. Ring 1 (the outermost ring) contains six answers that read clockwise; the starting spaces are numbered in the grid. Clues for the answers in the remaining rings are given in order, and each answer’s starting points are marked with a dot [•]. However, which direction they proceed in is for you to figure out. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you figure out the letters in the inner rings: in a given section, each ring segment contains all but one of the letters in the next segment outward. In other words, a section's outermost segment contains six letters; the next segment inward contains five of those six letters in some order; and so on, until only one of the original six letters remains.

Once you're done, unscramble the six spaces with stars in them to get the FINAL ANSWER: a six-letter word.

RING 1

1) Covering for a classic Kit Kat bar

2) Her #1 song "Raise Your Glass" went five times platinum

3) Sun blocker on a baseball cap

4) Poison used in old Agatha Christie mysteries

5) Like a bug in a rug

6) _____-Webster (dictionary company)

RING 2

• Blondie's pet dog in Blondie (or an oxeye flower, e.g.)

• The "C" in the mathematical memory aid "SOH-CAH-TOA"

• Crucially important, like a literal turning point?

• _____ of the board (male committee leaders)

• Strongly advise

RING 3

• Status of a volcano currently erupting lava

• Too loud

• Calvin Klein, or the type of clothes his company makes

• Video game plumber who appears as a baby in Yoshi's Island

RING 4

• Supercuts' parent company (or former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host Philbin)

• Manufacturer of the Airblade hand dryer

• British Queen with an African lake and an African waterfall named after her

RING 5

• Letter between Romeo and Tango

• Novelty song by C. W. McCall based on the CB radio fad of the 1970s

RING 6

• Johnny who hosted over 6,700 episodes of The Tonight Show

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: Dilly Dally 8

It's been almost two weeks since "Dilly Dally 8" was posted on this blog, so now it's time to take a look at all twenty people who have solved it since then:

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

Now head below the break for the answers!