PUZZLE #616: Squeezed in the Middle 23

PUZZLE #616

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 23

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: a term used in computing

CENTERS

1) Midsommar director Aster

2) Blueprint detail, briefly

3) Nimble and flexible

4) Groundbreaking Atari arcade game originally released in 1972

5) Voice just below soprano

6) _____, Lose or Draw (game show similar to Pictionary, but not directly inspired by it)

7) Acts (or rather, overacts) on stage

8) Wallach, Whitney, and Manning, for three

WHOLES

• French city that Rocko visits in an episode of Rocko's Modern Life

• In debt

• Last name of John-Boy from a 1970s show set in Virginia

• Most isolated, as an isle

• Move like a mamba or milk snake

• Rachael Ray catchphrase (meaning "Yum!") that rhymes with her pet food brand "Nutrish"

• _____ ratio (TV size such as 16:9)

• Scrubber such as Scrub Daddy

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 #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: Squeezed in the Middle 21

It's been nearly two weeks since "Squeezed in the Middle 21" was posted on this blog, and a whopping nineteen people have solved it since then:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• M. Sean Molley
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Josie Giles
• Mike Armstrong
• Sam Levitin
• Tower
• Chris Kochmanski
• Michael Lebowitz
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Pavel Curtis
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom
• Steve Gunter
• Wendy Walker
• Lynn Sweeney

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #492: Squeezed in the Middle 21

PUZZLE #492

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 21

One of the clues in 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!

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: the name of a long-running television series

CENTERS

1) Awfully adorable, like anything that the Japanese call "kawaii"

2) Plan (to)

3) Pirate ship's steering mechanism

4) Struggle for superiority

5) Video game publisher of Asteroids and Alone in the Dark: Inferno

6) Drowned river valley

7) Word preceding "resort" or "hurrah"

8) "_____-la-laaaa!!!" (Captain Underpants' singsongy catchphrase)

WHOLES

• Developer of the video games Metroid: Zero Mission and F-Zero

• Like the walls at Wrigley Field

• Louise's road trip buddy in a 1991 film

• More sharp, as an angle

• Mr. Heep the clerk from David Copperfield

• Residents of a Middle Eastern country with a maroon and white flag

• Stretchy, in product names

• "Turkey in the _____" (folk song)

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 20

It's been almost two weeks since my 20th "Squeezed in the Middle" puzzle was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then, as you can see in the following list:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Pavel Curtis
• Kevin Orfield
• Chris Kochmanski
• Mike Armstrong
• Michael Lebowitz
• Patrick Jordan
• Sam Levitin
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Perry Groot
• Steve Gunter
• Bart Gold

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #475: Squeezed in the Middle 20

PUZZLE #475

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 20

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: the name of a person born in 1920

CENTERS

1) Greeting used in A. A. Milne's original Winnie-the-Pooh stories

2) _____ al-Fitr (holiday that marks the end of Ramadan)

3) Green tube that the Super Mario Bros. travel through

4) Last word in the Bible or Biblical sermon

5) Counterpart to Down in some common word puzzles

6) Word following "Stone", "Iron", or "Bronze"

7) Cardinal direction not used in any U.S. state name

WHOLES

• _____ beaver (pumped-up person)

• Fungi that raise a lot of dough?

• Maryland's state team sport which involves sticks with scoops

• Montag from MTV's The Hills

• Oscar-winning duet by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

• Really regret

• Trademarked name for an adrenaline autoinjector

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: Squeezed in the Middle 19

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Squeezed in the Middle 19" was posted on this blog. A whopping nineteen people have solved it since then (technically, it's more, since one of them solved it with family members), and they're all listed below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Chris Kochmanski
• Nancy Stueve
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Michael Lebowitz
• Mike Armstrong
• Al Sisti
• Sam Levitin
• Wendy Walker
• Tamara Brenner
• KeoFam
• Zach Moore
• Mom
• Lynn Sweeney
• Steve Gunter
• SquishmallowsUnited

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #430: Squeezed in the Middle 19

PUZZLE #430

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 19

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: the name of a 1980s teen film

CENTERS

1) Ogre in Japanese folklore

2) Chinese wind instrument hidden in the word "NICARAGUANS"

3) Former Roxy Music member Brian

4) Wide-_____ lens

5) Last name of Jessie from Saved by the Bell

6) Stretched out on the couch, say

7) All gone, like lunch

WHOLES

• Disney movie about Rapunzel which is the most expensive animated film ever

• Element after Vanadium in an alphabetical list

• Female governor from The Secret of Monkey Island (or a Seinfeld character)

• _____ Prime (Netflix series about Sega's blue hedgehog)

• Reptile with a dewlap

• Spanish, in Spanish

• Tidies 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: Squeezed in the Middle 18

It's been thirteen days since "Squeezed in the Middle 18" was posted on this blog, and sixteen people since then have correctly figured out its Final Answer:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Kevin Orfield
• Tyler Hinman
• Steven McKinney
• Sam Levitin
• CromsFury
• Tamara Brenner
• Wendy Walker
• Mom
• Michael Lebowitz
• "Dot"
• Lynn Sweeney
• Thomas Burnakis
• Peter Abide

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #382: Squeezed in the Middle 18

PUZZLE #382

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 18

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: the name of a well-known reality TV series

CENTERS

1) Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon character who's a lunar exploration vehicle

2) Overplay feelings on stage, maybe

3) To _____ the Truth (long-running game show)

4) Frolic in the field

5) Short Morse code sound

6) Brick-carrying box

7) Competition at Talladega Superspeedway, say

8) Drei + fünf (okay, it's "three + five" in German)

WHOLES

• America's Cup crafts

• Biblical words of wisdom

• More desolate and far away

• Overwatch heroine with goggles and a British accent (or a bullet with a trail)

• Providence, _____ Island

• Right on time

• Verdi opera with roles named Iago and Desdemona

• Wharton who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize

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 17

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Squeezed in the Middle 17" was posted on this blog, and sixteen people since then have successfully solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes
• Cindy Heisler
• Joe Bernard
• Dave C
• Pavel Curtis
• Tyler Hinman
• Kevin Orfield
• Karen Spencer
• Patrick Jordan
• Mom
• Tamara Brenner
• Sam Levitin
• Giovanni Pagano
• Lynn Sweeney
• Wendy Walker
• Peter Abide

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

PUZZLE #338: Squeezed in the Middle 17

PUZZLE #338

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 17

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: the name of an '80s sitcom

CENTERS
1) Wheel of Fortune category with puzzles like "MUSIC FESTIVAL"

2) Neither Dem. or Rep.

3) My Little _____: Pinkie Pie's Party (Nintendo DS game)

4) Interview with the Vampire actor Stephen

5) Stepladder's step

6) Tree rings' indication

WHOLES

• Champing at the bit

• Lucid _____

• Nick News anchorwoman Ellerbee

• Rock genre for Melvins or Mudhoney

• Sneezy's place in an alphabetical list of Snow White's dwarves

• Word derived from someone's name, like Jacuzzi

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 16

It's been thirteen days since the final puzzle for Halloween Month II (which was my second attempt at a Double Decker-ified "Squeezed in the Middle" puzzle) was posted on this blog, and ten people have successfully solved it since then, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Cindy Heisler ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Giovanni Pagano ****
• Kevin Orfield ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Stephen Potter ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Mom ****

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

HALLOWEEN MONTH II! PUZZLE #306: Squeezed in the Middle 16: Double Decker Word Sandwiches Return

HALLOWEEN MONTH II!

PUZZLE #306

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 16: DOUBLE DECKER WORD SANDWICHES RETURN

It's the final puzzle for Halloween Month II, and not only is the puzzle that I've planned one that's more-or-less become my signature creation, it's also a variant of it that's figuratively returned from the dead, as I haven't done one of this specific type since Puzzle #150, which just happened to be published on Halloween's Eve three years ago! Now, while the previous "Double Decker" I've created failed to have a Halloween theme despite its timing, I didn't make the same mistake this time, so read on for directions on how to solve it!

It's time to make some Double Decker Word Sandwiches! Normal rules to "Squeezed in the Middle" apply, but with a twist. First, enter the "Centers" in the corresponding numbered spaces. Then, enter two "Wholes" in each row, each one using the letters in one white space and the two adjacent brown spaces. All of the brown squares have only one letter each in them, and the brown spaces in the center column will be shared by two "Wholes".

Once you've filled out everything, the letters in the brown squares, reading down, will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: A three-word title of a horror-comedy film.

CENTERS

1) Plastic thingamabob on a shoelace tip

2) The House with a Clock in Its Walls director Roth

3) Word between "veni" and "vici"

4) Kitchen flooring option, for short

5) Opposite of post-

6) Good Times star Esther

7) Cuatro − uno

8) Japanese hot spring

9) Funny or _____ (comedy website co-founded by Will Ferrell)

10) Angsty rock genre of Hawthorn Heights

11) Female alien from the Mass Effect trilogy who wears a mask (ALTERNATE CLUE: Anklebones)

12) Cosmic Crisp or Honeycrisp

WHOLES

* And others, in bibliographies: 2 wds. (HINT: This masculine plural ends with two of the same vowel)

* "Au revoir!" alternative

* Baby versions of America's national bird

* Deliberately ticked off a website's users for the lulz, say

* Emphasize a syllable

* Foe of Green Lantern who got his name when he was compared to an ancient artifact

* Fruity disc-shaped candy packaged in a tube

* Marianne's older sister in Sense and Sensibility

* Permission, especially for making love

* Spotted, like some horses

* Swab the deck again

* Tech company that creates the GeForce graphics processor

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 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 link to a .PDF version which you can print out!

ANSWERS: Squeezed in the Middle 15

It's been almost two weeks since my 15th "Squeezed in the Middle" puzzle was posted on this blog, and a whopping thirteen people since then have successfully solved it! Go ahead and take a look at all of 'em:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Cindy Heisler ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Kevin Orfield ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Stephen Potter ****
• Mom ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Ted Fields ****
• Eric Maddy ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #271: Squeezed in the Middle 15

PUZZLE #271

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 15

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: the name of a musical group

CENTERS
1) What yeast makes dough do
2) Any hit by Little Richard or Chuck Berry, today
3) Superman villain Luthor who was once elected President
4) Movie production company with a famous scene from E.T. as its logo
5) Day-_____ (fluorescent paint company)
6) "For here _____ go?": 2 wds.
7) French city where van Gogh lived and made over 300 paintings

WHOLES
* Antivirus software introduced in 1991
* Like elephant seals, and not like sea lions
* More fuzzy, like food that's been left in the back of the fridge
* Name that Amazon Echo responds to
* Playing pachinko or video poker, perhaps
* Snowy dome
* With "out", ended with a shrinking circle transition like a Looney Tunes short

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 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 two versions you can print out: a .PNG and a link to a .PDF!

ANSWERS: Squeezed in the Middle 14

Before we get to the answers to "Squeezed in the Middle 14", I have some news that I felt like telling you about..... buuut it's not very relevant to anything involving puzzles. I wrote a whole journal entry about it at my DeviantArt page, but in case you don't want to go there, I'll briefly sum it up: I got a new tablet, and a short Halloween animation that I made won a contest held by the creator of the YouTube review series Atop the Fourth Wall.

Speaking of contests, the Contest Puzzle that I posted last week looks to be an instant hit, as the number of solvers for that has already hit the double digits! That means there's gonna be two winners to this contest, so come back next week to find out who they are! Until then, here are the ten people that have solved my latest "Squeezed..." puzzle from thirteen days ago!

• Grant Fikes ****
• Keith Jackson ****
• Joe Bernard ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Mom ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Debbie Benford ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #249: Squeezed in the Middle 14

PUZZLE #249

SQUEEZED IN THE MIDDLE 14

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: the name of an actress

CENTERS
1) You, in French
2) Tree creature from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3) Actress Tara who appeared in all six Sharknado films
4) Threepio's pal
5) Pile up fallen leaves, perhaps
6) Tenacious D member Kyle (AKA the one who isn't Jack Black)
7) _____ of Good Feelings (period associated with James Monroe)
8) Hawkeye became a rogue vigilante named this during the events of Avengers: Endgame

WHOLES
* Aired Seinfeld yet again, say
* Company that created tater tots: Hyph.
* Constitutional amendment regarding states' rights
* Giant tentacled sea monster of myth
* Like a poker-faced person
* Monotonously going on and on and on and.....
* Tennis player Andre who married Steffi Graf in 2001
* Tiny Toon Adventures or Animaniacs, for example

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 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!

ANSWERS: Squeezed in the Middle 13

It's been over four years since I started this blog, so I think I'm well overdue in regards to attaching a face to it (as opposed to just an abstract black-and-red logo). Since I'm not yet ready to put a photograph of myself online, I've decided to make an avatar of my own, albeit as a Nintendo-related fan-character instead of a fursona like Grant Fikes has. So here I am:

Me as an ORANGE YOSHI (which are two of the answers to this puzzle)

Now with that out of the way, here are all the people that have solved "Squeezed in the Middle 13" from thirteen days ago:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Dan Simonds ****
• Mom ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers as well as a couple of brief solver comments!