PUZZLE #608: Section Six 12

PUZZLE #608

SECTION SIX 12

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.

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) "YEOW, that hurts!"

2) Welded together

3) Joey formerly of *NSYNC (answer hidden in SOLFA TONES)

4) Drop the ball, if you're a clumsy NFL player

5) CVS _____ (America's largest drugstore chain)

6) Completely dead, as dodos and dinos

RING 2

• Electric current unit whose symbol is the first letter of the alphabet

• Deceptive poker ploy

• The Phil _____ Show (1967-96 daytime talk show)

• Merit badge earner

• Imprecise

RING 3

• Spots or sees

• Amount that fits into a fist

• Word following "balance" or "laser"

• Before the government's share is added to a grocery bill, say

RING 4

• Don't Forget the Lyrics! hostess Niecy (or a bandmate of Crosby and Stills)

• Quoted out of _____

• Went on and on with tangent after tangent and with seemingly no real point to be made

RING 5

• Beach umbrella's offering

• "Un-Break My Heart" singer Toni

RING 6

• Boston baseball team featured in the 2005 film Fever Pitch: 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!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jwvSucYjaLpBd0QItLpz0eMAB2DqBPX4/view