PUZZLE #598
MINI-MARCHING BANDS 9
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 fictional villain
ROWS
1) Molds and mushrooms, e.g.
Ran in the wash
2) Email pretending to be from Amazon asking for your password, most likely
Chinese bear such as Ling Xiaoyu's pet in Tekken 8
3) Protects with metal suits, maybe
"To _____ is human, to forgive divine"
4) Action word
Nationality that lends its name to the alphabetically last of the seven "-stan" countries
5) Smallest dollar amounts in Monopoly
Evil plumber from the "Ghost Story" episode of Salute Your Shorts (answer hidden in MAZE KEEPER)
6) Sister with a habit
Pete's _____ (1977 live-action/animated Disney flick)
7) Scattered all over
Prefix for "corn" and "cycle"
8) Redheaded WarioWare character who shares her name with a da Vinci painting
Apple music players discontinued in 2022
9) Literal pick-me-up?
Another name for the crazy, nasty honey badger
BANDS
A) The "F" in "NFTs"
Turn down the brightness
Puny part of an archipelago
Movies that are stereotypically incomprehensible to everyone except their directors: 2 wds.
Stars that suddenly become a lot brighter
B) Go roughing it
"The Giant" of 1980s pro wrestling
Organizing consultant Marie who asks "Does it spark joy?"
Someone who makes baby grands pitch perfect: 2 wds.
C) Samuel with an eponymous telegraph code
"We've Only Just _____" (hit song by the Carpenters)
Jewish actor Klemperer who played Colonel Klink in Hogan's Heroes
D) Vulture relatives such as Beaky from Looney Toons
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!
