PUZZLE #215: Trailblazers

PUZZLE #215

TRAILBLAZERS

Find the answers to each clue, and then enter them in the grid by making trails between matching colors to fill the board. To complete each trail, enter the first letter in the correspondingly-numbered square, and then move in any of the four directions (never diagonally) until the last letter goes in the square whose color matches the first one. None of the trails should cross over itself or over other trails, and all of the squares must be filled in.

Once the entire grid has been filled in, look closer at it: the white squares in one row (skip the colored ones) will spell out a word, and the white squares in one column will spell out another word. Combine them both to get the FINAL ANSWER: a book title

1) "She Blinded Me With Science" singer Thomas
2) String of pearls that Lisa Simpson wears
3) Kenya's capital
4) Type of motion that continues indefinitely
5) Someone suffering from somnambulism
6) Pee-wee's _____ (children's show that once aired on Adult Swim)

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: Color Wheels 2

A Goomba holding a RACKET (one of the answers to this puzzle)

Neat animation, huh? Anyhoo, before I reveal who solved "Color Wheels 2", I wanted you to know that I've added my first goal to my Patreon page! Right now, I'm at $19 monthly, so if I get at least $20 a month, I'll add a second Patreon-exclusive puzzle every month! Okay, so it's not a very good goal, as it only applies to the three people that currently support me at the $5 level, so let me know in the comments or through email if there are any better goals that I can add in addition to the one I've already set. Now with that bit of news out of the way, here are the nine people that solved my puzzle from thirteen days ago!

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

Now head below the break for the answers as well as some solver comments!

PUZZLE #214: Moving Staircases 8

PUZZLE #214

MOVING STAIRCASES 8

The two staircase-shaped halves of a "Moving Staircases" puzzle are designed to be pushed together in two different ways, horizontally and vertically. A horizontal push creates shorter words ("Shorts"), while a vertical push creates longer words ("Longs"). The example above shows a completed grid and the grids that result from pushing it both ways. The lists of clues given for the Shorts and Longs are not in order; it's up to you to determine where the answers go by working back and forth between the two lists.

Once you've completely filled out the grid, hidden inside it will be this week's FINAL ANSWER: a type of person whose name is not hidden horizontally OR vertically.

SHORTS
* Animated spy spoof on FXX with over 100 episodes
* "Awww, how adorable!": 2 wds.
* _____ Bell (series of direct-to-DVD Disney movies about fairies)
* Glue brand with a bull's head on it
* Headrest filled with feathers or foam
* Insultingly small
* Scrooge's interjection

LONGS
* "Ain't I a _____?" (Bugs Bunny quote)
* Gwyneth who played Pepper Potts in the Iron Man films
* Olympic sport with plenty of bows
* Speak well in public (anagram of TOE CLUE)
* Stupidly large SUVs discontinued in 2010
* Tuck or Roll from a certain Pixar movie about insects, for example

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 version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Central Scramble 2

One of the answers to this puzzle is HUMOR, and what better way to illustrate that than a single-panel comic?

Thirteen days have passed since "Central Scramble 2" was posted on this blog, and ten of you succeeded in solving it, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Dave Millar ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Dan Simonds **
• Debbie Benford ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #213: Color Wheels 2

PUZZLE #213

COLOR WHEELS 2

D'oh! Sorry I'm late! Forgot to schedule this one! Anyway, here's a type of puzzle that I haven't done in a really long time!

The five- and six-letter answers in this puzzle go in three directions: straight across, uphill (up diagonally), and downhill (down diagonally), all from left to right, with one letter per triangle. Each entry is marked with a colored pointer: red for across, green for uphill, and blue for downhill. This is important, because all the answers are grouped according to the direction that they're entered into the grid. To make things a tad easier, six letters have already been entered into the grid.

Once you've completely filled in the grid, the two unclued blue entries will combine to make the FINAL ANSWER: the name of a British TV show

ACROSS (marked with red arrows)
* First island sung in The Beach Boys' "Kokomo"
* Idiotic green-haired fairy from The Fairly Oddparents
* Letter after gamma
* The Fog of War documentarian Morris
* _____ out (went overboard on describing nerdy stuff)
* Egged on
* Fire-type starter Pokémon that evolves into Incineroar (HINT: It rhymes with the name of a baby cat)
* Arcade game with Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde: Hyph.
* Airport runway surface
* "I Want YOU for _____" (words on an iconic Uncle Sam poster): 2 wds.

UPHILL (marked with green arrows)
* Insurance company with a quacking mascot
* More appropriate
* "Do a _____ roll!" (Star Fox 64 quote)
* Presidential proclamation
* Bulletproof vest material
* Succeeded in hitting the big time: 2 wds.
* Last name of Stan from South Park
* Ornate 18th-century architectural style
* Use your tongue's buds
* Late Mother with a Nobel Peace Prize

DOWNHILL (marked with blue arrows)
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* _____ Point (Ohio amusement park)
* Lassie's species
* Detroit-based soda brand that Insane Clown Posse sprays their fans with
* Stories about ancient Egyptian gods, say
* E-commerce site owned by eBay until 2015
* Tennis tool with strings once made of catgut
* Family Video offering
* Pearl Jam singer Eddie

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: Slot Machine 2

Personally, I think the best lifeguard would be a MERMAID (which is one of the answers to this puzzle)

It's been roughly two weeks since my last puzzle of 2018, "Slot Machine 2", was posted on this blog, and ten people since then have correctly solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom Faley & Alex Milton ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Dan Simonds ****
• Tyler Hinman ****
• Chris Hendricks ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #212: Central Scramble 2

PUZZLE #212

CENTRAL SCRAMBLE 2

Below are four octagons with letters inside. Place a different letter in the center of each octagon so that four 5-letter words can be unscrambled out of its four diagonal sections. Also, each added letter has to be in the exact center of each resulting 5-letter word.

Once you're done, take the four letters added to each octagon and place a fifth letter into the exact center of those letters (no scrambling required) to get the FINAL ANSWER: a mathematical term

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 version you can print out!

ANSWERS: Link-Letters 6

I know one of the answers to this puzzle is SUBS plural, not singular, but look! It's animated!

It's been almost two weeks since "Link-Letters 6" was posted on this blog, and seven people since then have correctly solved it, as you can see in the list below:

• Grant Fikes ****
• Patrick Jordan ****
• Mom ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****
• Dan Simonds ****

Now head below the break for the answers!

PUZZLE #211: Slot Machine 2

PUZZLE #211

SLOT MACHINE 2

In this Slot Machine, the Row answers are entered normally, from left to right in the order of the clues given. The Tumbler answers going down are entered in the same way, but all of the Tumblers have been "spun", meaning that the Tumblers' answers can start in any row and continue downwards. When a set of Tumbler answers hit the bottom of the grid, it continues at the start of the same column that it started in. There's also a "Jackpot Answer" that is comprised of the first letters of the first answer of each Tumbler. In the example above, the Rows spell out INN, TIE, and WOW, while the Tumblers spell out WIT, ION, and NEW, and the first letter of each Tumbler spell out WIN.

This week's FINAL ANSWER is the answer to the Jackpot.

JACKPOT
• A video game set during the holiday season: ? wds.

ROWS
1) SpongeBob's pet Gary, e.g.
    Language that gave us "plaid" and "clan"
2) Seedy amusement park workers
    Stink to high heaven
3) Pizza sauce herb
    Prefix for "scope" or "vision"
4) Stop sign's shape
    Calvin and Hobbes' winter glider
5) Ferb's friend in a Disney Channel cartoon
    _____ kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart composition)
6) Toy that's like Rubik's Cube, but with triangular faces
    "_____ guy walks into a bar...": 2 wds.
7) To-do list entries
    Goat-legged creatures like Pan
8) Cryptographers' creations
    Nickname of John Goodman's character from Monsters, Inc.
9) "Autobots, transform and _____!" (Transformers catchphrase): 2 wds.
    Thomas Edison's middle name
10) Crosswordese hodgepodge
      Madison from Splash, for one
11) Zesty chip dip
      Eliza's older sister from The Wild Thornberrys

TUMBLERS
1) Type of logic puzzle also called a "Nonogram" or a "Griddler"
    Hen pen
2) A complete lack of government
    Metal band that released Lateralus and 10,000 Days
3) No longer working for a living
    Real first name of Diane Sawyer
4) "I Got _____" (posthumous Jim Croce song): 2 wds.
    Failing to win
5) Country located on the Horn of Africa's tip
    Jewels used as currency in the Spyro the Dragon games
6) Sent out, like magazines?
    Birthplace of Columbus
7) Traitorous acts
    Flagstaff sch. (answer hidden in SCHNAUZER)
8) Phone no. add-on
    Openly gay singers Adam and Mary
9) Peyton Manning's younger brother
    One of six in "onomatopoeia"
10) Number for a frequently-married Henry
      1968 Turtles hit that parodies their own "Happy Together"
11) 2010 Emma Stone flick that references The Scarlet Letter: 2 wds.
      Sent to the canvas

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: Brick By Brick 6

I do have a DeviantArt picture for this week, but I'm going to save it until the very end of this post. Instead, I'm going to show you guys a couple Christmas presents I got earlier this week:

Besides the usual video games and newspaper comic collections, I also got the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia and a book filled with rebuses from Classic Concentration! But you're not here for me showing off gifts like I'm on Instagram; you're here for the answers to "Brick By Brick 6" as well as the list of people who solved it!

• Grant Fikes ****
• Pavel Curtis ****
• Dan Simonds ****
• Sam Levitin ****
• Mom ****
• Eric Maddy ****
• Lynn Sweeney ****

Now head below the break for the answers, an Easter Egg of sorts that I hid in this puzzle, and a picture I made of one of the answers that I usually put on the top of these posts!