Contest: Collaborative Fill-In Cryptic

(PDF of this puzzle to print out)

(Background information: This puzzle was originally co-written with Ryan Faley, with outside test-solver Joseph DeVincentis making judgment calls when we both had clues for the same word and couldn't agree which one was better. Almost a year after it was rejected by Outside the Box, I have finally decided to run it as a contest so it can see the light of day. Enjoy.)

The clues in this cryptic crossword are sorted by answer length, but are otherwise in no particular order. The letters in the shaded squares, in numerical order, yield one more cryptic clue with an 11-letter word as the final answer.

3 LETTERS

* Andy Taylor's son lost his first bakery treat

* For starters, please eat any legume

* Period of time in therapy

* Swerve and gape endlessly

4 LETTERS

* Partially screwed up pitcher

* Same rocky flatland

5 LETTERS

* Buffs go back, beginning to undo foul-up

* Editor follows upended madhouse that leaked out

* Er, am I savory?

* Handle one in woe

* I've heard Richard the comedian before

* Legitimate major empire

* Outspoken Presidential hopeful Buttigieg is a baked entity

* Parrot, "An Apple computer, how cute!"

* Reportedly, that man slurps a spiral

* Six take a chair and chat

* Steals some face cards

* Strange biopic about a President scorched up without end

6 LETTERS

* Educate a swim team?

* Was Hasbro toy turned up without executive order in horror movie?

7 LETTERS

* Cracker canister in transaction

* Flowering plant won't start back pain

* Fruit ex juggled for institution

* Gauche hospital section after a week

* Junior I'd educated initially takes - oy! - a drive in a hot car

* Oddly, this debris test has choice morsels

* Places where alcohol is sold for drunk servant

* Start to chew cheese, spitting for ball game

* Try and pet Matt badly

* West Indies music plays freely in Colorado

9 LETTERS

* Grave Mr. Waits' voice quality has a bit of bass

* Nice summer in stormy Africa and lunchroom

* Spontaneous scamp caps an easy win over you in Marseille

* Tilt a lunatic surrounded in strong odor and do several things at once

10 LETTERS

* After Jewish festival, king of Israel goes in street to perform gymnastics

* Cover one amulet without an economic system

__ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __

01 02 03 04 05    06 07 08 09 10 11    12 13 14 15 16 17

__ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __

18 19 20 21 22 23    24 25 26 27 28

Send your final answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on December 13, 2020 to enter the contest. A randomly-selected first-place winner will win my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion), plus a $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles, which can be used to purchase any of a number of fine logic puzzle e-books. A randomly-selected second-place winner will also receive a $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 367: Anacrossword 22

WORDY WEDNESDAY #365

PENT WORDS 73 (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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #366

SECTION SIX 36 (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 #367

ANACROSSWORD 22

(click here for a PDF version)

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 

36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ 

71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112

Italian commune where St. Francis was born

Tannen played by Thomas F. Wilson in Back to the Future

“Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night” singer: 2 wds.

One receiving stolen goods, or a structure between neighboring yards

Like a dialogue involving people of different religions

Buzzy musical instrument

Jitterbug relative originating from Harlem, possibly named after a nickname of aviator Charles: 2 wds.

Derides

Finding ____ (2003 Pixar film)

Book publisher that merged with Penguin Group in 2013: 2 wds.

Children’s game where players try to separate the hands of players on the opposite team: 2 wds.

Former United States Attorney General Jeff

Seltzer: 2 wds.

Painting of inanimate objects: 2 wds.

Emphasizes, as a syllable

Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, for one

Stuff that might be sampled for a drug test

In ____ (in a plant or animal’s living body)

The graphs of y=sin(x) and y=cos(x), for two

Newspaper comic created by Tom Wilson

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A puzzle with numbers instead of words? Huh? 
* Patron Puzzles #78 and #79, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), are titled Some Mind-Boggling 3somes and Cryptic Crossword Plus. I made the executive decision to give my patrons two Patron Puzzles this month. Merry early Christmas! 

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

Contest: Film Strip (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted the Film Strip contest. Here are the results!

Wordy Wednesday 366: Section Six 36

WORDY WEDNESDAY #364

CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Mark Ballinger *
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #365

PENT WORDS 73 (hint)

As of this writing, 11 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 #366

SECTION SIX 36

(click here for a PDF version)

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 outer 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, but their starting points and direction are for you to determine. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radiating from the center) will help you place 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.

Arrange the letters in the six starred spaces to form the final answer, a 6-letter word.

Ring 1

1 Move upward

2 Drug endorsed by Bob Dole and Pelé

3 Tortilla brand with a bell in the logo

4 Disobedient one

5 Non-expert in a field

6 Island in New York City

Ring 2

* One of twelve in the zodiac

* One straying from social norms

* Divisions of dollars

* L'Oréal subsidiary since 1996

* ____ cube (puzzle invented by Piet Hein)

 

Ring 3

* Slang term for a die or a domino

* Greek letter that's also an Overwatch character

* Like some exposure

* Lord ____ of Preston (namesake of the National Hockey League's trophy)

Ring 4

* Religious denomination

* Avengers: ____ (2019 film)

* Legume that's necessary in making tofu

 

Ring 5

* Finite portion of a line

* Ben Affleck's brother

Ring 6

* ____ of a Down (band whose album Steal This Album! includes a track titled "36")

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What newspaper comic was created by Tom Wilson? 

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

Wordy Wednesday 365: Pent Words 73

WORDY WEDNESDAY #363

SNAKE CRISSCROSS 13 (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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger *
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #364

CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 2 (hint)

As of this writing, 6 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 #365

PENT WORDS 73

(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 ____, Nelly! (Nelly Furtado's debut album) / Four pecks

2 Canal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea / Voluptuous

3 Kind of protein that aids processes like digestion / Roman emperor often anachronistically depicted with a fiddle

4 Matured, as fruit / Toupee, slangily

5 Pretty Maids All in a ____ (1971 murder mystery film) / Playing card brand that probably isn't popular with foxes: hyph.

6 ____ of the Year (1993 sports comedy) / Swiss psychiatrist Carl

7 Olympic sport for men since 1964 and for women since 1992 / Stylish

8 Area with the Recycle Bin icon in Windows, for example / Eat Drink Man Woman director Lee

9 On fire / Swiss ____ knife

10 Convey, as knowledge / The snake in Billy Gilman's "The Snake Song" falls in love with one

PENTOMINOES:

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* Its blue variety is the state gemstone of Texas

* Gossipmonger

* Minecraft ____ (augmented reality Minecraft spin-off)

* ____ Line Is It Anyway? (improv comedy show)

* Type of airship associated with Goodyear advertising

* Mall sighting

* Modify, as a constitution

* Diamond in the ____

* Brimming with excitement, like a beehive

* ____ hippopotamus (small hippopotamus variety)

* "Just take those old records off the ____. . ." (Bob Seger lyric)

* Trial and ____

* ____ Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory spin-off)

* Country where the top 23 busiest train stations in the world are all located

* Roman province governed by Pontius Pilate

* Came up

* Pompeo of Grey's Anatomy

* Extract compressed computer files, say

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "Tortilla brand with a bell in the logo"? 

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

Contest: Film Strip

(PDF of this puzzle to print out)
Each of the words and phrases below has had a film title stripped out of it. Add some letters to each of the strings to obtain the original word or phrase; the added letters will spell a film title. For example, if the string is HARLEATHGATGASSEEVTOR, then the original phrase is CHARLIE AND THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR (the stripped letters spelling CINDERELLA). Fit the film titles thus stripped into the crisscross grid and anagram the highlighted letters into a 5-letter word. This word can be formed by stripping another film title out of a longer word; send this longer word as your final answer.

BUBONIPAG (2 wds.)

CAPSKE

EHOVHSITNES (2 wds.)

EYHNISAWESME (3 wds.)

FTHEOEFISWEIT (6 wds.)

GIUEPVRI (2 wds.)

HACTEZ

IPLTAIN

IPWC

JABBEW

KFOD (2 wds.)

PRORTATIN

RCLDREN

RNUTHERKINGY (4 wds.)

SATSICLLYSIGIFANT (2 wds.)

SRESSG (2 wds.)

TSRESSIN

UDINGHT (2 wds.)

WESTNTABBE (2 wds.)

WYEGREKY (2 wds.)

Send your final answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on November 22, 2020 to enter the contest. A randomly-selected first-place winner will win my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion), plus a $15 gift card for the fine establishment whose name I've stripped from LONDONINTENATONALINANCIALUUESNDOPTIONSECHANGE (7 wds.). A randomly-selected second-place winner will receive a $10 gift card for the same fine establishment. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 364: Cryptogram Fun Pack 2

WORDY WEDNESDAY #362

ANACROSSWORD 21 (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 **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Arkayde **
John Bulten *
Leo Termin **
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin *

WORDY WEDNESDAY #363

SNAKE CRISSCROSS 13 (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!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #364

CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 2

(click here for a PDF version)

Solve these six cryptograms; each has its own code, and each has a six-letter word missing. Words that are always capitalized (such as proper names) are indicated with asterisks (*), and words that are capitalized because of their presence in a title are indicated by carats (^). For example, ^Sir *Isaac *Newton's favorite film is “^Gravity”. Fit the six missing words into the crisscross grid and anagram the highlighted letters into the final answer word.

1. *S UMYP NSBMEWO KMP RQA *HKEHKFSYH NKEDSOY ______. PQW NKMFOWE RLY FLHWO *UKW; QW OSOF'P RLFP TWKTXW OESFGSFB QSH.

2. ______, DVN DNWS TXW XWBUQGONY *IUMUQNCN LWGSGQURC, XWGBGQUDNC TWXS DVN EXWCD MXCCGPRN VUQY GQ U LUWY BUSN.

3. NBDX MYPQO, ZEYD OTTHDC JLT BDHNBJTF "^SBJO" JUBHPTU, EUBXTF JY UTNYWT HJO ZCPX SLBUBSJTUO MUYN JLTHU PYDC-JTUN "^______".

4. IZQ ^TNKLHHYC BKAGAL: BEC VQYR BEKCC TBLBCT MEVTC QLSCT IVKS YCWLY XYLRT LKC *NVYVKLFV, *BCDLT, LQF *______.

5. OHEQ LRBM IRPTER, QKNTSHEV OTW YBMCMKSIUV PREERB PRCMBR YURSEHCKU ^TSSMVHSD ^______ AHIRMW BRIRCHSRI “STARU”-DTLHSD.

6. BSEESNMWK DUEULMVSHJ DSWBEUKQUVMSW, HWIUHWVGI JZUDGLGW UISZVGI WGN *UZSEES LUJDSV, OGESYGI DSLMDJ OGUKEG *______.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "'Just take those old records off the ____. . .' (Bob Seger lyric)"?

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

Contest: 10 Mario Challenges (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted the 10 Mario Challenges contest. Here are the results!