Wordy Wednesday 455: Pent Words 91 & Wordy Wednesday 456: Section Six 45

WORDY WEDNESDAY #453
PUZZLE BUFF'S NIGHTMARE (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:
Cathy Bowen **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #454
PATHFINDER 27 (hint)

As of this writing, 12 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!

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #455
PENT WORDS 91
(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 Unix shell programming language created by Brian Fox / Image representing someone online

2 Itemized bill / Nanakuli neckwear

3 Like some awakenings / Interval between two adjacent C’s, in music

4 Wintertime conveyance / It’s often seen on a pirate’s shoulder

5 Richard Nixon insisted that he wasn’t one / Squander

6 Navedo of Jane the Virgin / Mario ____Live: Home Circuit (2020 Nintendo Switch game)

7 “Oh, give me a home where the buffalo ____. . .” / Popular hot dog condiment

8 Large-eared desert fox / Vague

9 Deep breath, as of relief or exhaustion / Prisoner

10 Second-lowest voice in a four-part chorus / Wizards of the ____ (Magic: The Gathering publisher)

PENTOMINOES:

* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER

* Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded it in 1972

* Word before “gang” or “reaction”

* Baking need

* Florida senator Rubio

* Banquet in which the honoree is lovingly ridiculed

* Avoid

* Classical composer Franz

* Fully conscious

* Basketball player Rajon, or a classical music form

* Japanese noodle soup

* Whinny

* Item on a washstand

* Having lines, as notebook paper

* Common part of a winter outfit

* Welcome to ____ (2021 Disney+ series starring Will Smith)

* Certain courtroom employee, briefly

* Chosen

* “Cry ‘____!’ and let slip the dogs of war. . .” (line from William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #456
SECTION SIX 45
(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 It may be served on the cob

2 Buckner’s partner

3 Government order prohibiting outgoing merchant ships

4 Name shared by a Catholic theologian and Charles Darwin’s poet grandfather

5 Christian music genre

6 Football commentator John whose surname can also mean “make very angry”

Ring 2

* Called to respond to a charge, as an accused person

* Fast food mascot McDonald

* ____ salt (common form of magnesium sulfate)

* ____ protector (electrical device)

* Brazilian music genre

Ring 3

* Many a Muslim, ethnically

* Wizards

* Often rubbery item at a computer workstation: 2 wds.

* Tearing to pieces

Ring 4

* With “The”, the smallest nation on mainland Africa

* What Bruno Mars “would catch. . . for ya” in a 2010 hit

* “Grandma” of folk art fame

Ring 5

* Word following “mirror” or “spitting”

* Pharmaceutical company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ring 6

* Rapper associated with the Sirius XM station Shade 45

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A Crypticrostic!

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 454: Pathfinder 27

WORDY WEDNESDAY #452
CODEWORDS 16 (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 **
Cathy Bowen *
Karen Spencer **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Lebowitz **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #453
PUZZLE BUFF'S NIGHTMARE (hint)

As of this writing, 6 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!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #454
PATHFINDER 27
(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, an 8-letter word.

1 ____ Without a Cause (1955 film) (5)

2 Sci-fi adventure video game published by Chucklefish in 2016 (9)

3 Devilish (7)

4 Lewinsky who became famous from a Bill Clinton scandal (6)

5 ____ duck (Chinese dish) (6)

6 German physician Alois after whom a form of dementia was named (9)

7 Cartoon character who sings “Oh My Darling, Clementine” (11 5)

8 The ____ and I (4)

9 Gentle breeze (6)

10 Experimental test subjects (3 4)

11 2007 Disney film starring Amy Adams as Princess Giselle (9)

12 Dawdle (10)

13 Rational (4)

13 Outer covering of an ear of corn (5)

14 Holdup (5)

15 Doughy (6)

16 De novo (4)

17 Storekeeper (8)

18 ____ 6 (lodging chain) (5)

19 Sleeper’s affliction, perhaps (5)

20 Word after “martial” or “liberal” (4)

21 Covalent ____ (4)

22 “____ Madonna” (hit song for The Beatles) (4)

23 Unofficial vote (5 4)

24 Move like a horse, perhaps (6)

25 People hired to park customers’ cars (6)

25 Tramp (8)

26 A type of alga (6)

27 William Randolph Hearst’s great-granddaughter who’s a fashion model (5)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Welcome to ____ (2021 Disney+ series starring Will Smith)"?

* What's a 6-letter word for "Rapper associated with the Sirius XM station Shade 45"?  

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 453: Puzzle Buff's Nightmare

WORDY WEDNESDAY #450
PENT WORDS 90 (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 **
Cathy Bowen *
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Lebowitz **
Patrick Jordan *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #451
TOUCHWORD 24 (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 **
Cathy Bowen *
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Lebowitz **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #452
CODEWORDS 16 (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 #453
PUZZLE BUFF'S NIGHTMARE
(click here for a PDF version)

You wake up and find yourself trapped in a spacious 25-foot-by-40-foot room. You have no memory of how you got here. A voice booms over a loudspeaker: “I want to play a game. On the ground are buckets of black paint and gray paint. You will notice numbers on the north and west walls. I dare you – and your reflection in the one-way mirror, which I installed on the east wall to allow me to watch you be tortured by my puzzle without you seeing me – to use these numbers to paint the squares on the floor beneath you. Tell me the correct password, and I’ll set you free!”

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Lewinsky who became famous from a Bill Clinton scandal"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 452: Codewords 16

WORDY WEDNESDAY #449
PL8S (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 **
Karen Spencer **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Lebowitz **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #450
PENT WORDS 90 (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 #451
TOUCHWORD 24 (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!

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #452
CODEWORDS 16
(click here for a PDF version)

In the crossword puzzle above, every letter is represented by an integer from 1 through 26. You must decipher the code to reveal the words.

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to spell the final answer, an eight-letter word.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A real nightmare of a puzzle!
* Patron Puzzle #92, which will be delivered on January 8, 2022, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is a Words Without Friends.

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!