Wordy Wednesday 380: Pent Words 76 & Wordy Wednesday 381: Snake Crisscross 14

WORDY WEDNESDAY #376

SECTION SIX 37 (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 **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Adam Weaver **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

 

WORDY WEDNESDAY #377

FEELING AWFULLY PUZZLED (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:
Leo Termin **
Stephen Potter *
Tyler Hinman **
Adam Weaver **
Jason Boomer **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #378

THE 64 PUZZLE SQUARE (hint)

As of this writing, 7 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 #379

CRYPTICROSTIC 11 (hint)

As of this writing, 5 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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ENTIRE FIRST QUARTER OF 2021!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #380

PENT WORDS 76

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by Nate Cardin. 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!

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 Command to Spot to retrieve something / French ____ (dessert item)

2 ____ Baba and the Forty Thieves (Bing Crosby album) / Fridge drawer for preserving produce

3 Unknown gadget / Complain endlessly

4 The Iron ____ (1999 animated film) / Get up from sleep

5 Costumed performer at a sports game, say / Frank portrayed by Millie Perkins in 1959

6 "Four score and seven years ____. . ." / Yellow pike

7 Not imaginary, like a number / Number of players on a soccer team

8 Cereal namesake John Harvey ____ / ____ feeling (intuitive reaction)

9 "Regardless. . ." / Spoken

10 French ____ (pet breed) / Actress Mendes of Hitch (2005)

PENTOMINOES:

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* " ____ Eclipse of the Heart" (Bonnie Tyler song)

* Certain tropical fruit

* Nib-shaped pasta

* Princess honored by "Candle in the Wind 1997"

* Afghanistan's capital

* Mournful poem

* Leonard Joseph Marx, familiarly

* Mean glare

* The Great ____ Search (1992 picture-hunting video game)

* Boxing great De La Hoya

* Substance composed of multiple metals

* Certain fall bloomer

* Basic variety of chord

* Code of established tenets

* 1983 title character played by Barbra Streisand

* Be a glutton

* ____ alcohol syndrome

* Naproxen brand name

WORDY WEDNESDAY #381

SNAKE CRISSCROSS 14

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron M. Sean Molley. 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! 

This puzzle's crisscross grid contains entries which read across and down as normal; these words are defined in alphabetical order by length under the heading “Crisscross Words.” The grid also contains a number of “snakes”: areas which follow a single clear path. Each of these snakes contains an entry which snakes from one end of the path to the other. These entries are defined under the heading “Snake Words”, and are also clued in alphabetical order by length. You must determine how the grid is divided into snakes; no two snakes overlap.

Arrange the letters in the highlighted cells to form the final answer, an 8-letter word.

CRISSCROSS WORDS

3 LETTERS

Nothing ____ Trouble (1991 comedy)

Many a Keebler employee

Viral disease, briefly

____ Wheels (toy car brand)

Certain retriever, for short

“____ It Be” (The Beatles hit)

____ doll

4 LETTERS

Taiwanese computer company

Guinness who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi

“Where’s the ____?” (question asked in old Wendy’s ads)

Some beds

Cimarron novelist Ferber

Currier’s partner

Emulates Drake, say

Like old milk

5 LETTERS

Certain heron

____ with Muscles (1996 comedy)

Title shared by a 5 Seconds of Summer song and a Lady Gaga song

6 LETTERS

Book after Song of Songs in the Protestant Bible

Church leader

Proneness to anger

Remove a sheepshank, say

Suave

7 LETTERS

Poisonous metalloid once used in wood preservation

Pygmalion’s sculpture

Document providing permission to drive or hunt

8 LETTERS

Item in the Best Buy logo: 2 wds.

Turnip relative

9 LETTERS

Mark the perimeter of

American boy band member who trained to be a cosmonaut: 2 wds.

Swiss psychiatrist Hermann of inkblot fame

11 LETTERS

Having really poor eyesight: 4 wds.

SNAKE WORDS

5 LETTERS

Striped form of quartz

____ Through the Looking Glass (2016 film)

Drum majorette’s item

Runs away from danger

Fail, as an exam

Bellhop’s place of employment

Large brasses

Italian scooter brand

6 LETTERS

Latin American ballroom dance: hyph.

Tidy up

Withdraw, as a belief

Used a ketch

Tetley container: 2 wds.

Wobble

Sikh headdress

7 LETTERS

Amount in a bank account

Country with no McDonald's restaurants because they couldn't compete with Hambórgarabúllan

____ Wars (A&E Network series)

8 LETTERS

Fruits that are considered bad luck in the US Marines

Some monarchs

12 LETTERS

Arab-American Women's March co-chair: 2 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* Nine!
* What's a 5-letter word for "1982 film with Daniel Stern as Laurence 'Shrevie' Schreiber"? 
* Patron Puzzle #81, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Mini-Puzzle Fun Pack. 

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

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words II! (Week 2 update)

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words with 3 or more consecutive consonants (consonants being defined as all letters except A, E, I, O, U, and Y): NONE 
The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): ONE 
The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): TWO 
The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and appears in the string FAMILY REUNIONS: ALL 

Week 1:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length strictly less than 8 (that is, 7 or below): ALL

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words with a length of 9 or more letters that do NOT contain a double vowel: NONE

[Leo Termin] The set of all words with a length matching a number in the Fibonacci sequence (2, 3, 5, 8, or 13): ONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words whose length is greater than or equal to 12: NONE

Week 2:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words that begin with a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, or Y): ONE

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words beginning with I, J, Q, U, X, Y, or Z: NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing exactly two instances of vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and Y): ONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words which begin with a vowel (A, E, I , O, U and Y): ONE

[Leo Termin] The set of all words containing at most two instances of vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and Y): ONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words in which the first two letters are both consonants (anything besides A, E, I, O, U, or Y): ONE

The Grandmaster Puzzles gift card value is now $46.

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $46.

Special shout-out to Daniel Levitin and Kyle Nils for their impeccable teamwork this week!

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 378: The 64 Puzzle Square & Wordy Wednesday 379: Crypticrostic 11

WORDY WEDNESDAY #374

CRYPTICROSTIC 10 (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 **
James Haddad **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
M. Sean Molley **
Pavel Curtis **
Tyler Hinman **
Adam Weaver **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #375

PENT WORDS 75 (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 **
Cole Kendall **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Adam Weaver **
Bo & Becky Green **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #376

SECTION SIX 37 (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 #377

FEELING AWFULLY PUZZLED (hint)

As of this writing, 7 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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ENTIRE FIRST QUARTER OF 2021!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #378

THE 64 PUZZLE SQUARE

(click here for a PDF version)

(With acknowledgments to Charles Steinhardt, creator of The 10,000 Puzzle Pyramid, The 10,000 Puzzle Tesseract, and The 10,000 Puzzle Square, whose patience – or ability to program a computer to make thousands of puzzles, more likely – towers over mine.)

The square below contains 64 simple anagram puzzles. Unless otherwise indicated, each puzzle’s answer is a single word. If there are multiple words, then each individual word is scrambled (without mixing letters from different words together) and then the spaces are removed.

WORDY WEDNESDAY #379

CRYPTICROSTIC 11

(click here for a PDF version)

The answer is two words enumerated (6 8). (Note: The final clue ends in an exclamation point, and is &lit.)

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

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

Byrne of the Labour Party leaves the British government to be a __ __ __ __ __ __

    father                                                      16 11 02 29 07 25

Dramatic TV series featuring drunk driver and alcohol __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                      35 08 28 13 18 39 01 23 03

Execute underling for sovereignty __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                  04 36 12 19 38 31 06 09

Experts turn over floor covering, followed by you and me __ __ __ __ __

                                                         33 21 26 17 22

Reportedly understood bishop's authority – wise __ __ __ __ __

                                                14 27 37 05 24

Weird Al song becomes political motto __ __ __ __ __ __

                                      15 30 20 10 34 32

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "The Great ____ Search (1992 picture-hunting video game)"? 
* What's a 5-letter word for "Title shared by a 5 Seconds of Summer song and a Lady Gaga song"? 

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

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words II! (Week 1 update)

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words with 3 or more consecutive consonants (consonants being defined as all letters except A, E, I, O, U, and Y): NONE 
The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): ONE 
The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): TWO 
The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and appears in the string FAMILY REUNIONS: ALL 

Week 1:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length strictly less than 8 (that is, 7 or below): ALL

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words with a length of 9 or more letters that do NOT contain a double vowel: NONE

[Leo Termin] The set of all words with a length matching a number in the Fibonacci sequence (2, 3, 5, 8, or 13): ONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words whose length is greater than or equal to 12: NONE

The Grandmaster Puzzles gift card value is now $48.

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $48.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 376: Section Six 37 & Wordy Wednesday 377: Feeling Awfully Puzzled

WORDY WEDNESDAY #372

MURRIAM-WEBSTER (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 a hint. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Stephen Potter **
Adam Weaver **
Jason Boomer **
Jason Taniguchi **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

HUMP DAY WORD FUN #373

CUT UPT RIO BYT RIO 10 (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:
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #374

CRYPTICROSTIC 10 (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 #375

PENT WORDS 75 (hint)

As of this writing, 13 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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ENTIRE FIRST QUARTER OF 2021!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #376

SECTION SIX 37

(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 African capital city in which you won't find adobe, according to Mario Is Missing!

2 "Peace in the ____" (gospel song)

3 One of a pair used for sniffing

4 Injures

5 ____ Beach (big name in gaming headsets)

6 Actress Shore of Belle of the Yukon (1944)

Ring 2

* Atlas Shrugged author Ayn

* Substance coating paper used in some tests

* Swimming, cycling, and running race, for example

* Course summaries

* "You're So ____" (Carly Simon hit)

Ring 3

* Drool, less slangily

* Hammer's target

* Pertaining to manufacturing

* "____ cow!"

Ring 4

* State whose flag includes a torch and 19 stars

* Nani Pelekai's younger sister in animated Disney films

* Japanese massage technique

Ring 5

* Hilo hello

* Clock's ancestor

Ring 6

* Texas city where the pop punk band Thirtyseven and the NFL's Cowboys hail from

WORDY WEDNESDAY #377

FEELING AWFULLY PUZZLED

(click here for a PDF version)

Don’t be blindsided by this puzzle’s resemblance to that one Windows computer game! It’s just a shade different. Warning: this one could be a bumpy ride.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* It's 64 puzzles for the price of one! 
* Possibly my most brutal Crypticrostic ever! I'm sorry. . . 

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

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words II!

I am thinking of three distinct English words that are at least 2 letters long and no more than 15 letters long. All of the words are valid in Scrabble according to https://scrabble.merriam.com/. Your goal is to guess them. Everyone who guesses the trio of words correctly by the time the contest is over will be entered for a chance to win a gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles worth up to $50.

Once per week, each and every single person reading this blog post is allowed to e-mail a set of words to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. If it is a set of at least 10 words, I will publicly post on this blog (on the following Monday at 12:01 AM Central time) whether NONE, ONE, TWO, or ALL of my words are in that set. If it is a set of 9 words or fewer, I will privately give you the same information. If I can't easily verify whether a set of words has at least 10 words in it, I will assume it does, so if you want your information kept private, submit your set of words in the form "{CINQ, QADI, QAID, QATS, QOPH}" rather than "the set of all Scrabble-legal 4-letter words with a Q and not a U". RULES CLARIFICATION: It must be possible to determine whether or not any given word is in your set without knowing my words.

Once someone has guessed the trio of words (that is, submitted to me a set of exactly three words and gotten a result of ALL), one last weekly update will be posted on this blog, and then people who haven't guessed the words yet will have one more week to try to do so and be entered in the prize drawing.

The value of the Grandmaster Puzzles gift card will start at $50, and then go down $2 for every weekly update that has gone by without someone guessing the trio of words. (Exception: the value cannot go to $0.) A matching amount will also be donated to the Food Bank of West Central Texas, so even if you aren't interested in the prize drawing, your participation may help someone else solve the words faster and thus help charity! Last time, you smart people managed to solve the trio of words with the money pool at $44, but I think I've picked a more difficult word trio for this iteration, and you'll be getting far less help from mysterious entities, to boot!

To kick things off, I'll make four guesses for you, chosen from among the guesses that were made in Let's Guess Three Words!:

The set of all words with 3 or more consecutive consonants (consonants being defined as all letters except A, E, I, O, U, and Y): NONE
The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): ONE
The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): TWO
The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and appears in the string FAMILY REUNIONS: ALL

Good luck, and yappy guessing!

Contest: A Timely Crisscross (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted the contest A Timely Crisscross. Here are the results!

Wordy Wednesday 374: Crypticrostic 10 & Wordy Wednesday 375: Pent Words 75

WORDY WEDNESDAY #371

TOUCHWORD 18 (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 **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Ballinger **
Pavel Curtis **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #372

MURRIAM-WEBSTER (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's a hint. 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!

HUMP DAY WORD FUN #373

CUT UPT RIO BYT RIO 10 (hint)

As of this writing, a number of 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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ENTIRE FIRST QUARTER OF 2021!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #374

CRYPTICROSTIC 10

(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

A male youth in captivating legend, ultimately! __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                26 15 42 40 46 33 06

BMW conclusively declining fabric from which seat belts are made __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                                 36 12 32 44 14 21 07

Delineate sketchy hotel suite __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                              19 05 34 39 45 27 41 10 38 20

Disheartened timid person and youth leader saunter __ __ __ __ __

                                                   30 08 25 17 47

Grand word found in the King James Bible, perhaps __ __ __ __

                                                  22 11 29 03

Kelvin only eats young goat, going back to Canadian river __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                          01 16 31 04 43 37 13 23

Weaselly pet has paws around sides of Rottweiler __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                 09 35 18 24 02 28

WORDY WEDNESDAY #375

PENT WORDS 75

(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 White item painted red in Wonderland / First name of composer Holst or Mahler

2 Sweetheart / Hand-to-hand struggle

3 Make better / Zombies ____ My Neighbors (1993 video game)

4 Game theorist and equilibrium namesake John / Spinning helicopter parts

5 ____ one on (get drunk) / Make like new again

6 Tim whose surname became synonymous with genuflecting in prayer / Fruit on the reverse of Georgia's state quarter

7 Musical composition for practicing a technique / Instrument for Pablo Casals

8 "Okie from Muskogee" singer's surname / ____-O-Honey (candy brand)

9 Not ecclesiastical / Toilet

10 What Mr. Brown can do in a Dr. Seuss book / Tropic Thunder actor ____ T. Jackson

PENTOMINOES:

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* Big name in violins

* ____ Kai (Netflix series based on The Karate Kid)

* Brigham Young University's city

* Fend (off)

* Laconic

* The Taming of the ____

* Euthyphro author

* Certain billiards shot

* ____ Cenotaph (San Antonio monument where Ozzy Osbourne took an infamous leak in 1982)

* Extremely, in slang

* Certain welding need

* Item on a vine, perhaps

* Form a canyon, say

* Zelda Williams's father

* Ration

* Incisors, for example

* Joe who mistakenly identified himself as his own husband in 2020

* Transition without interruption

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "African capital city in which you won't find adobe, according to Mario Is Missing!"? 
* You'll feel awfully puzzled by this one! 

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

Contest: A Timely Crisscross (easier version!)

Last week, I posted the contest A Timely Crisscross. As promised, here is an easier version with two words placed at the outset. Despite it no longer being Christmastime, I hope you will try this puzzle out. Remember, you stand a chance to win prizes and to help feed people (see the original post for more details)! The deadline is 11:59 PM Central time on January 7, 2021!