ANSWERS: Patchwords (And Some Ramblings)

Before we get to the answers to the "Patchwords" puzzle I made in celebration of my sister's wedding, I just wanted to discuss some things:

Firstly, I have a link to my Paypal account on the top of the sidebar to the right, and so far, absolutely nobody has donated even a penny to it. So since Paypal is clearly not working out yet, I'm thinking that maybe I should explore alternate possibilities of revenue, like Patreon. The problem is that if I did join Patreon, I wouldn't know where to begin! What would I say in my reason for being on Patreon? What kind of goals and rewards should I include? (Outside of none at all; I don't want to name names, but there are fairly successful Patreons out there that don't reward their backers or produce anything of note, and those tend to be... well, let's just say they know about the "Wounded Gazelle Gambit" and leave it at that) I know that Grant Fikes has a Patreon, but I probably shouldn't copy his rewards outright; I know this blog was heavily influenced by his, but that would be a little too on-the-nose, so to speak. If I do decide to join Patreon or somewhere similar, I think I'll leave my Paypal button there in case someone wants to pay me for a one-off commission or something.

My second quandary is about having people stay on this site: I've had more than a few people solve my puzzles, but also more than a few people who haven't solved any of my puzzles in a while. (Case in point, only six people have solved my latest puzzle so far, half of whom I know in person and was present when they solved it) Are the puzzles too hard for them? Are the clues too esoteric? Are they too busy with other things? Did they just plain forget? I was thinking of having a survey or something like that, but once again, I don't know what I should ask on it or who I should give it to.

Another question I have is this: How do I promote this blog? I don't belong to any social networking sites (Deviantart doesn't count, and even if it did, I haven't updated my profile in years), mostly because I don't want to risk coming in contact with unreasonable, short-tempered, "Everything Is Offensive"-type people. I've had a couple meta-crosswords promoted through Matt Gaffney's site, but I don't think that's going to happen anymore. I was thinking of making a TVTropes page for this site, but somehow, I fear that it'll be ignored and/or die out quickly. Are there any other possibilities that I'm not thinking of?

I want as many people as possible to respond to these questions plaguing me, so let me know what you think either through email or commenting on this blog. And because I want as many readers as possible to look at and reply to this post (and because my puzzle buffer is completely empty as I write this), I'm taking the week off, meaning that there will be no new puzzle tomorrow. I'll most likely have one next week, so look forward to that!

Oh yeah, that "Patchwords" puzzle! Here's all the people that solved it:

• Eric Maddy ****
• Grant Fikes ****
• YYW ****
• Alex & Eric Milton ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Adam Weaver ****

Now head below the break for the answers, as well as something involving this puzzle you might have missed!

PUZZLE #86: Patchwords

PUZZLE #86

PATCHWORDS

Boy, was this weekend an eventful one! After all, my sister Alex just got married last Saturday! Since this was such a momentous occasion, I've decided to make this week's puzzle sort of a tribute to Eric, the man that my sister married! I've had a FINAL ANSWER related to the groom already in mind, but none of the puzzle types I've posted on this blog so far seemed to work for it, so I've opted to do it in the form of a word search.

Believe it or not, this isn't the first word search related to the wedding that I've made; a month before the wedding happened, I was commissioned to create a word search for my sister's bridal shower. To tell the truth, I actually wound up using a web site that automatically makes word searches; all I did was add a list of wedding-related words and chose a heart-shaped grid. But don't worry, not only is this word search completely handmade (er, keyboard-made), it's also not a traditional word search! Read on to see how to solve it!

Each of the words hinted at by the clues below can be found in a continuous line in an irregularly-shaped "patch" inside the grid. (To make a patch, just draw a thick line surrounding all of the letters in the word) The line that each word takes goes vertically and horizontally, but NOT diagonally. Each letter in the grid will be used exactly once, and none of the patches overlap.

Once you've completed the puzzle, combine the two patches that don't have corresponding clues to get this week's FINAL ANSWER: One of the groom's all-time favorite TV shows

CLUES

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Board game where you remove ailments from Cavity Sam
* Dreamworks movie featuring a song called "The Snail is Fast" (yes, really)
* Emulate a lifeguard
* "Food, Glorious Food" musical
* Ghouls and goblins
* The Good _____ (Pixar movie)
* Greek letter before beta
* High gear on a car, probably
* _____ Jack (Cartoon Network series returning this year)
* Last name of Chuckie from Rugrats
* Lightning's companion
* Many a character from DC or Marvel
* Merging together
* Naruto or Sasuke, e.g.
* Organ-playing figure "of the Opera"
* Pikachu's fur color
* Power wielded by the Jedi
* Rock opera by The Who featuring "Pinball Wizard"
* Super Mario _____ (video game that introduced Rosalina)
* The lion is the king of this habitat (even though it lives in the grasslands...)
* Use a credit card
* The Wild Thornberrys network

* Wookie or Ewok, for one

Once you believe you've figured out 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 get a hint from me in exchange for a "hint star", more details for that are on the sidebar to the right) 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 version you can print out!