Wordy Wednesday 36: Charadagrams

WORDY WEDNESDAY #34

SECTION SIX 3 (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil 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:
Adam Weaver **
Bo Green *
Brian Michalowski **
Bryce Herdt **
Christian H.P. **
Giovanni Pagano *
Izak Bulten *
Jack Bross **
James McGowan **
Joel Martin *
John Bulten **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Tilford **
Paul Krueger **
Peter Abide **
Roger Strain **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Tim Harrod **
Walker Anderson **
And the winner of the second signed copy of Will Shortz's Wordplay is. . . Christian H.P.! Thanks to all of my solvers who helped raise $220 ($20 from me, and $200 from my reader who's matching my donation times 10) for Child's Play Charity!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #35

PENT WORDS 7 (hint)

14 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions 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 #36

CHARADAGRAMS

(click here for a PDF version)

When the answers to the PARTS clues are anagrammed and then assembled, they form the answers to the WHOLES clues. For example, if three of the PARTS clues are “Forearm bone”, “Holy item associated with a saint”, and “Telepathy and such”, and a WHOLES clue is “Event in which the Earth casts a shadow”, then the answers ULNA, RELIC, and ESP can be anagrammed and assembled into LUNA/R ECLI/PSE. PARTS clues are in alphabetical order by their answers; WHOLES clues are in no particular order, and you must determine which answer goes in which row of blanks. The letters in the shaded squares, reading down, will form two words that can be anagrammed and assembled into the final answer, a movie title.

PARTS: Suffer from poor health; “Were you raised in a ____?”; “Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great” author; Vagrants; Indian textile; Provide with duds; Chip's partner; Be courageous; Item soaked overnight; Mr. Knotts; Uses the rubber end of a pencil; Foul up; Use acid, perhaps; Performs a veterinary procedure, maybe; Big smile; Actor Ledger; Crowd; Have as a logical consequence; Falters; Wrestler Captain ____ Albano; Spiked ball on a stick; Fable feature; Be bothersome; Drug dealer's foe; “This game's rigged!” (2 wds.); Convent member; Kenobi played by Alec Guinness (hyph.); Sharif of Doctor Zhivago; Big bird; Seat; First episode, sometimes; Dispense a drink, perhaps; Sovereign's territory; Smells; Perform extremely well; Participates on The Voice, for example; Poison

WHOLES: Album with “Life in the Fast Lane”; Chicken wing accompaniment; Concern of someone who doesn't wish to offend, perhaps; Edutainment series which is now an app; Feature on some clock faces; “I'm not telling!”; Levers and such; Namesake of a United States holiday; One-Eyed Jacks director; Title role for Mike Myers; Trio noted for their unusual skin tone; TV drama about the Fisher family

Wordy Wednesday 35: Pent Words 7

WORDY WEDNESDAY #33

SECTION SIX 2 (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil 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:
Adam Weaver **
Brian Michalowski **
Bryce Herdt **
Christian H.P. **
Izak Bulten *
Jack Bross **
James McGowan **
Joel Martin **
John Bulten **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Tilford **
Peter Abide **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Tim Harrod **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #34

SECTION SIX 3 (hint)

15 have solved last week's puzzle so far. That means I'll be donating (at least) $15 to Child's Play Charity to lift the spirits of kids in hospitals through the donations of video games and the like. This may sound like small potatoes, but one of my readers has offered to match my donation times 10, meaning we've actually raised $165 for Child's Play! It still pales in comparison to the amounts some other people are able to contribute, but the aggregate total of donations of all sizes still has plenty of power to do good.

Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Don't forget: it's a contest! Speaking of which, the winner of the first prize package is: Peter Abide! All the other solvers in the past week, plus all the solvers from this week, will be eligible to win the second signed issue of Will Shortz's Wordplay. Send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to be eligible. Good luck, solvers!

Now that every solution is worth $11 to Child's Play, you have all the more reason to share this puzzle with your friends. Their solutions will marginally decrease your chances of winning a copy of Will Shortz's Wordplay, but the big winners are the children who will be able to play video games to distract themselves from whatever terrible diseases got them into the hospital. :)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #35

PENT WORDS 7

(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 below, 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 Feature of G major's key signature / Bit of gossip
2 Reddish shade of brown / Thick
3 Place for an ear piercing / 1998 Winter Olympics site
4 Spotted South American cat / 1/63360 of a mile
5 ____ Bell (fast food chain) / Plumber's tool
6 Annoy one's bedmate, perhaps / The Greek Moirai, for three
7 Like Alaska compared to any other state / Hard at work
8 "I'm glad the work week is over!": abbr. / Sitcom friend of Miranda and Gordo
9 "Duke of ____" (Gene Chandler hit) / Open a wallet, for example
10 ____ One (2013 electronic product) / Persian king

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* ____ the belt
* Filled with talk and excitement
* "____ Man" (Billy Joel song)
* Musician Reznor
* Send to a specialist
* Have in common
* Once more
* Methuselah's father
* They may be of the arctic variety
* Poetic dawns
* Word on a triangle
* Easily offended person, perhaps
* What rubber is made from
* It means "dwarf dog" in Welsh
* Greta of "Grand Hotel"
* Looney Labs card game with constantly changing rules
* Holes in which coins might be inserted
* Howard Staunton's game

Wordy Wednesday 34: Section Six 3

WORDY WEDNESDAY #32

SECTION SIX (answer)

It's been two weeks, so time to unveil 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:
Adam Weaver **
Bryce Herdt **
Christian H.P. **
Giovanni Pagano *
Izak Bulten *
Jack Bross **
James McGowan **
John Bulten **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Tilford **
Peter Abide **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Tim Harrod **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #33

SECTION SIX 2 (hint)

14 people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions 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 #34

SECTION SIX 3
(click here for a PDF version)

This week's puzzle is a contest! The winners of this contest will each receive a signed copy of the Winter 2015 issue of Will Shortz's Wordplay, in which I had the honor of being published. This time, there will be two winners; one will be randomly selected from the first week's solvers, and the second one will be randomly selected from all the other solvers from the first two weeks combined. Thus, solving during the first week will give you two chances to win, and solving during the second week will give you one chance to win. Additionally, I'll donate $1 to Child's Play Charity (maximum $50) for every person who solves this puzzle within the next two weeks! (I've never had 50 solvers for one of these puzzles, so I don't think my chances of hitting that maximum are high, but if I do hit it, I'll let everyone know.)

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 starred spaces to form the six-letter word which is the final answer.
Ring 1
1 Stab in the back
2 Esten of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
3 ____ cost (spent money that cannot be recovered)
4 Superficial, as beauty: hyph.
5 "____ Bells" (Christmas song)
6 "Take Me Out to the ____": 2 wds.

Ring 2
* Space taken up by one million characters, possibly
* Cookie ____ (General Mills cereal)
* Harsh
* It eludes an insomniac
* Spotted African wildcat

Ring 3
* Forgiveness
* Boxer Leon
* German engine inventor Rudolf
* Mean, for one

Ring 4
* Michael of the Halloween movies
* Entrails
* Many young insects

Ring 5
* One party in a 2009 acquisition. . .
* . . . and the other

Ring 6
* Site of an Old Testament miracle: 2 wds.

Wordy Wednesday 33: Section Six 2

MATHGRANT'S PUZZLING WORD THING #31

LACKING WORD DIVISIONS AGAIN (solution)

A fortnight is past, so I will now show you a solution PDF for this conundrum. If you still wish to try it, click this link for normal difficulty, or this link for not-so-hard difficulty. A list of individuals with an ability to outsmart my wordplay follows:
Adam W'av'r **
Brian Michalowski **
Bryc' H'rdt **
Ch'ryl Chan **
Christian H.P. **
Giovanni Pagano **
Izak Bult'n **
Jack Bross **
Jam's McGowan **
John Bult'n **
M. S'an Moll'y *
Mark Tilford **
P't'r Abid' **
Ryan Fal'y **
Sam L'vitin **
Tim Harrod **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #32

SECTION SIX (hint)

A number of people have solved last week's puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your solutions 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 #33

SECTION SIX 2

(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.
Ring 1
1 Over there
2 Of poor quality
3 Animals in some Serta commercials
4 Fee for a loan
5 No-goodniks
6 McDonald's logo feature

Ring 2
* It's taught in the school gymnasium: 2 wds.
* Euros, for example
* Grating, as a voice
* Concepts
* Pickle maker's need

Ring 3
* Longs (for)
* The remains of something destroyed
* Item in Super Mario Bros. 3 that keeps the Airship from flying away
* Flattened, as a soda can

Ring 4
* Many a building in the Bible Belt
* Is contingent (on)
* Dog voiced by Seth MacFarlane

Ring 5
* Awesome Games Done Quick offering
* It may depict a baseball player

Ring 6
* Ghostly title character of a 1995 film