Wordy Wednesday 315: Pent Words 63

WORDY WEDNESDAY #313

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 3 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
James Haddad **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Mark Ballinger *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #314

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 8 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #315

PENT WORDS 63

(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, you must divide the grid into pentominoes (regions containing five cells each), and write a letter in each cell. The rows, reading from left to right, will contain the words hinted at by the ACROSS clues. The letters in the pentominoes, in reading order (left to right starting with the top row), will form the words hinted at by the PENTOMINOES clues; these clues are presented in no particular order. (In the example, the rows spell PLANT, SHARE, and BITES, and the pentominoes spell the words PLANS, TREES, and HABIT.) Use the ACROSS answers to determine where the pentominoes are.

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1 Moisten cooking meat, say / Square or rectangle, for one
2 Fill with air, as a balloon / Billiard player's stick
3 Psi's predecessor / Unscrupulous lawyer
4 One loop around a track / Have
5 Long (for) / With one's hand on one's hip and one's elbow outward
6 Will of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air / 2019 and 2020, for two
7 Annual publication of sorts / Freudian concern
8 ____ sergeant / Astronaut Shriver
9 The ____ Hungry Caterpillar / One with a freezer, perhaps
10 Beta's predecessor / Part of a flower
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Boot-shaped nation
* Wine-making need
* Like a 45-degree angle
* Sacred song
* The Lion King protagonist
* Large-headed African mammal, briefly
* Members of a jury, perhaps
* Actor Welles
* Billy of the band Kansas
* Large violin relative
* Laughing mammal
* Permian ____
* Base eight
* Steppenwolf author Hermann
* Irritable
* You may stake one
* Move furtively
* Consumer advocate Nader

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Rob who directed the horror movie 31 (2017)"?
* Patron Puzzle #66, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Words Without Friends.

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, keep on living, and yappy solving!

Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy: 10x10x10 Crosswords

This update to the Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy initiative is to announce the 10x10x10 Crosswords pack! It's yours for US$2.50. It contains 10 10x10 mini-crosswords that will provide many minutes of enjoyment. There's variety here, too: 5 themed, 3 themeless, one vwllss, and one Something Different/freewheeling! Each puzzle comes with one PDF file (for printing), one PUZ file (for solving on the computer), and one file of the solution. The vwllss comes in two difficulty levels (one with answer enumerations, and a harder one without), and with a text file providing the full answers (with vowels included).

As a reminder, this is a charity initiative. Please e-mail me (glmathgrantATgmailDOTcom) a copy of your charitable receipt to my local food bank, the Food Bank of West Central Texas, to receive this puzzle pack. (It must be a new donation, dated no earlier than one day before you email me.) Click here for a list of all of the puzzle packs in this initiative. Happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 314: Fill-In Crossword 8

WORDY WEDNESDAY #312

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 2 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Mark Ballinger **
Pavel Curtis **
Tyler Hinman **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #313

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 3 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #314

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 8

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by David Millar. Support me on Patreon at the $5 per month level and solve the monthly Patron Puzzle for a chance to suggest a seed word for a future puzzle, or at the $20 per month level to suggest one seed word every month!
The answers in the crossword below are clued alphabetically by length; you must figure out where they belong. The unclued shaded entries will spell a clue to the final answer.

3 LETTERS
Assist
Device in a bank: abbr.
Scooby-____
____ This, Not That
Wildebeest
Gardening implement
Color
Jumbo ____
As clear as ____ (not at all clear)
Zero
The Caspian, for one
Vase on a pedestal
Jon Anderson's band
Place to see animals

4 LETTERS
Zone
Microsoft web browser
Greek god of sexual attraction
Catty comment
____ Lisa Smile (2003 film)
____ Stew (children’s book by Bill Wallace)
Part of a cash register
Ace Ventura: ____ Nature Calls

5 LETTERS
Obligations
Toffee/chocolate candy bar
City in West Yorkshire, England
“Be My ____” (La Bouche song)
Geeks
The ____ that broke the camel’s back

6 LETTERS
Tweak, as the brightness on a computer monitor
Exhibit good conduct
Fire ____: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch game)
Oakland NFL player
Medicine man
Cusses
What a college professor might have
Voyaged

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Steppenwolf author Hermann"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, keep on living, and yappy solving!

TWO Contests: The World's Worst Crossword & The World's Worst Super Mario Maker 2 Level (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted not one, but two contests. Here are the results!

Wordy Wednesday 313: Diagramless Crossword 3

WORDY WEDNESDAY #311

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
James Haddad **
Mark Ballinger **
Pavel Curtis **
Tyler Hinman **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #312

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 2 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #313

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 3

(click here for a PDF version)

This crossword has 64 entries in a 15x15 grid, obeys American crossword rules, and has standard rotational symmetry.

ACROSS
1 Bird in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
5 Directed
8 Issue
9 Dreamer
11 First half of a clue to the final answer: ? wds.
16 Board game with insects on its pieces
17 Turn a Magic: The Gathering card sideways
18 Devil-____-care
20 In the midst of
22 Squeal
25 Affirmative vote
26 Pertaining to teeth
28 Word indicating a former name
29 At the moment
30 Isaac Newton’s title
32 Nineteenth Greek letter
34 Languid
37 ____ shot
39 Alaska and Hawaii, for two
44 Wrath
45 Below the ____
47 Space ____ (board game)
48 Children’s game
49 Not in
51 ____ Minor
52 Second half of a clue to the final answer: ? wds.
57 Supremacy
58 Old King ____
59 Murder, ____ Wrote
60 One ____ Hill
DOWN
1 Place to buy sandwiches
2 Leave out
3 Compact ____
4 A type of footstool
5 Fleur-de-____
6 Revise
7 Rot
10 Certain poplar
11 Steve McQueen’s son
12 “Put the ____ in the coconut. . .”
13 Big name in cosmetics
14 Dispatched
15 Popular sandwich dressing
19 Certain evergreen
21 Natural ____
23 “____ It Be” (The Beatles song)
24 Pod contents
27 Arm or leg
31 Regret
33 Actress Hagen
34 Cleverness
35 Many a Muslim, ethnically
36 Disregard
38 The Boston ____ (newspaper)
40 “Woe is me!”
41 Exam
42 A Pennsylvania city
43 ____ Search (1983-1995 and 2003-2004 reality series)
46 As the World ____
50 Texas ____ University
53 Love, to José
54 An African river
55 Leg joint
56 Little

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Fire ____: Three Houses (Nintendo Switch game)"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, keep on living, and yappy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 312: Diagramless Crossword 2

WORDY WEDNESDAY #310

PENT WORDS 62 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #311

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD (hint)

As of this writing, 10 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

THE "WORLD'S WORST" CONTESTS!

I'm giving away copies of my board games TAILITS and Mammalath in two contests on my blog. Despite how bad the puzzles are, the prizes have a value of over $80, so you'd better be entering. :)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #312

DIAGRAMLESS CROSSWORD 2

(click here for a PDF version)

This crossword has 52 entries in a 15x15 grid, obeys American crossword rules, and has standard rotational symmetry.

ACROSS
1 Moves up and down repeatedly
5 Irradiate
6 The Old Man and the ____
9 Drag ____
10 Goof up
11 “____ Is Power in the Blood” (Christian hymn)
13 First half of a clue to the final answer: ? wds.
18 Exist
19 Plastic cup brand
20 ____ cube (mathematical puzzle)
22 Divisions of psyches
23 “Read my ____”
25 Non-prescription: abbr.
27 ____ Out (2017 horror flick)
28 Acted courageously
30 To the ____ degree
31 Play it by ____
32 “How to ____ a Life”
33 Draw
34 A ____ and a promise
37 Degrassi: The ____ Generation
39 Mineral source
40 Second half of a clue to the final answer: ? wds.
44 An abnormal growth
45 ____ bark beetle
46 A command in BASIC
47 Hip-hop music
48 From the top
49 Flag maker Betsy
DOWN
1 Accommodation on a vehicle
2 The largest city in Nebraska
3 Some arm muscles
4 Involving two sound channels
6 Triple ____
7 A dwarf planet
8 Mr. Schwarzenegger
12 Alberta’s capital
13 Actress Turco who played April O’Neil
14 Severe trial
15 Set a limit
16 Walt Disney’s middle name
17 Tony played by James Gandolfini
21 Dress
24 The Magnificent ____
26 Laundry detergent brand
29 2006-2013 drama about a blood-spatter analyst
35 ____ Town (2009-2015 sitcom that, disappointingly, isn’t about large cats)
36 Traditional Japanese garment
38 Samoan monetary unit
41 Some symbols on a musical staff
42 Counting ____ (rock band)
43 A mischievous mythological being

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* Another diagramless crossword!

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, keep on living, and yappy solving!

TWO Contests: The World's Worst Crossword & The World's Worst Super Mario Maker 2 Level

It's December, so have two contests as an early Christmas present!

THE WORLD'S WORST CROSSWORD

PNG version:

(click to zoom in)
PDF version: CLICK HERE

PUZ version: CLICK HERE

Send your completed grid to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on December 15, 2019 to enter the contest. One randomly-selected winner will win my board games TAILITS and Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion)!

THE WORLD'S WORST SUPER MARIO MAKER 2 LEVEL

(click to zoom in)

Here's a map of a Super Mario Maker 2 level. If you want to play it, the level code is 1C4-7BH-N0G. There are also streamers on websites such as twitch.tv who will play viewer-requested levels, so if you don't own Super Mario Maker 2, you can have them play it for you. There is a puzzle hidden in this level; while watching the level be played (or playing it) might give you a subtle hint regarding how to solve the puzzle, it should be solvable just from the map above, even if you aren't a Nintendo veteran.

Send your final answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on December 15, 2019 to enter the contest. One randomly-selected winner will win my board games TAILITS and Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion)!

There will be a third prize drawing for those who solve both of the puzzles above. The prize is, as you might expect, my board games TAILITS and Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion). Good luck, and yappy solving!