The Joy of Puzzling: Touchword (CONTEST!)

In this two-part contest, you'll get to solve a puzzle, learn how it was made, and try your hand at making your own puzzle!

Part I. Solve a Puzzle!
THE JOY OF PUZZLING: TOUCHWORD
In a crossword, words cross each other; in this puzzle, they merely touch. More specifically, every letter shares an edge with at least one identical letter either immediately above or immediately below. The top and bottom rows are considered adjacent. (You can think of it as a diagramless, cylindrical Share-A-Letter puzzle.)

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to form the final answer, an 8-letter word. After solving, go to tinyurl.com/tjop-[answer], replacing [answer] with the answer, to learn how this puzzle was constructed and get tips on constructing your own!
1 Certain / With !, animated series about patriarch Stan Smith: 2 wds.
2 Some party decorations / Like unposed photography
3 Opposite of weakness / Substitute: hyph.
4 The Rite of ____ (Stravinsky work) / θ / Supreme Norse god
5 Orange-colored peach relative / Systematized
6 "Chattahoochee" singer Jackson / Perpetrate, as a crime / Chaos
7 A type of custard / Speeds of musical works / One of 31 at Baskin-Robbins
8 ____ of foot / Trade fair / Develop
9 Puffs rival / Neither fish nor ____ / Alabama lead singer Randy
10 One thousand grams / Foam dart gun brand / Bloated
11 Baloo's occupation in TaleSpin / Large vessels like Noah's / Blob of sour cream, for example
12 Former monetary unit of Spain / ____ out a living (barely squeaked by) / Pry
13 Button next to Power on the NES / Key beliefs / 12 hours after midnight
14 Grint who played Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter flicks / Novelist Shreve / The ____, the Witch and the Wardrobe
15 Title role for Christopher Reeve / Salad dressing variety with garlic and oregano

Send your answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on May 25, 2018 to enter Part I of the contest. After the deadline, one random entrant with the correct answer will win a signed copy of the April 2018 issue of Games World of Puzzles, which includes a Touchword by me!

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO CONSTRUCT A PUZZLE TO ENTER THIS PART OF THE CONTEST.

Part II. Make a Puzzle!
Now you get to write your own Touchword puzzle! To learn how I made the above puzzle, go to tinyurl.com/tjop-[answer], replacing "[answer]" in the URL with the puzzle's final answer in lowercase letters. It is not necessary, however, to watch this video or even solve the above puzzle to enter this part of the contest. Your puzzle must obey all of these rules:

* The puzzle must obey Touchword rules.
* The puzzle must be 15x15.
* All entries must be at least 4 letters long.
* No entry may be repeated. (Having the same 15-letter entry in all 15 rows technically satisfies the above rules, but is such a lame puzzle that I will refuse to acknowledge its existence.)
* Unlike the puzzle above, there is no need to select 8 cells to anagram to a final answer.

You are allowed to seek the assistance of one test-solver to make sure the puzzle you send me doesn't have any typos, inaccurate clues, or other bad things I won't like, and to ensure the puzzle is fun to solve. To increase my chances that I receive high-quality puzzles without typos, the test-solver is eligible for the same prize as the constructor! Teamwork makes the dream work, as they say.

Send your completed puzzle, its answer, and the e-mail address of your test-solver (if you had one) to devjoe@gmail.com [NOT TO ME!!!], before 11:59 PM Central time on May 25, 2018. The puzzle and its answer should be in plaintext, with the clues for each row separated by slashes or line breaks. After the deadline, /dev/joe will then send the puzzles to me in random order and with no bylines. I will judge which puzzle I like best; its constructor and its test-solver (if any) will both win signed copies of the Spring 2015 issue of Will Shortz's Wordplay and the August 2017 and April 2018 issues of Games World of Puzzles, which include puzzles by me! The winning entry (and honorable mentions, at my discretion) will also be reproduced on my blog for my readers' enjoyment. The following things are likely to win me over:

* Fresh entries.
* Interesting overlaps.
* Interesting clues.
* PG-ratedness.

The following things will not win me over:

* Too many obscurities. (Don't use the Portuguese word for "tablecloth" or the names of about half a dozen characters from manga comics that only about 100 people read. Even obscurities that I happen to know will be frowned upon if I don't expect my blog audience to know them. I believe the best puzzles give the solver a fair shot at solving the puzzle with their own wits!)
* R-rated things (I want to reproduce the winning entry on this highly PG-rated blog, so none of George Carlin's seven dirty words, for instance, should be in the clues or the answers).
* Etymological relatives, especially obvious ones like two compound words that share a root word in common, are frowned upon. (BLACKBOARD and BACKBOARD is not an interesting overlap.)
* Submitting the puzzle to me instead of to /dev/joe is an absolute no-no! No matter how good your puzzle is, if I know who wrote it, I cannot trust my judgment to be completely impartial. Seeing the entries without knowing who wrote them ensures that the prize goes to the puzzle I like the best, and not the person I like the best. So again, DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR PUZZLES TO ME!!!

You may only submit one puzzle, but you can change it at any time before the deadline. You may be the test-solver for any number of other entrants.

Good luck, and happy constructing!

Wordy Wednesday 216: Section Six 21 & Wordy Wednesday 217: Divided Into Columns 4

WORDY WEDNESDAY #212
TOUCHWORD 6 (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:
Anthony Bailey **
Jack Bross **
James Sinnett **
Bryce Herdt **
John Bulten **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #213
HEX PATHFINDER 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:
Anthony Bailey **
Jack Bross **
James Sinnett **
Bryce Herdt **
John Bulten **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #214
SNAKE CRISSCROSS (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 #215
PENT WORDS 43 (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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ALL MONTH!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #216
SECTION SIX 21
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 Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov
2 Mint that drives felines crazy
3 Jesse Eisenberg's role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: 2 wds.
4 High cards in poker
5 Jiggly semi-transparent dessert item
6 Whole step, in music

Ring 2
* Churchgoer's interjection
* Whooping ____
Cash Cab vehicle
* Excessive amount
* Choice

Ring 3
* Resident of North Carolina: 2 wds.
* Canonize
* Leftover bit
* Banish, as from a school

Ring 4
* Military pilots
* One capable of extrasensory communication
* For fear that

Ring 5
* No longer fresh
* Wood-eating insect

Ring 6
* 21 Jump ____ (1987-1991 TV series)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #217
DIVIDED INTO COLUMNS 4
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!
Note: The symbol † indicates headlines from the Christian satirical news site The Babylon Bee.
Aggravate __ __ __ __ __
          47 61 71 74 46
† “Evangelicals Abandon Trump In Droves After He __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   Says McDonald’s Is Better Than ____”: hyph.   33 69 31 82 81 36 28 51 15
Item in a convenience store pack __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                 16 56 37 84 44 09 42 63 65
A girl plays with one in a famous 1964 Presidential ad __ __ __ __ __
                                                       22 76 54 29 45
The only island country larger than Madagascar __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                               73 20 50 55 34 67 03 06 08
Famed female soccer player: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                   43 24 79 30 40 86 77
† “‘____ Of The Christ’ Sequel To Feature Jesus Helping __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   Founders Establish America”                          14 64 75 62 38 41 19
A spice or an orange yellow color __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                  83 72 27 10 17 02 57
† “Social Justice Warrior Dislocates ____ Trying To Pat __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   Self On Back”                                        78 53 13 21 01 49 48 25
Like some steel __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                07 68 26 23 60 66 80 32 18
Does strenuous work __ __ __ __ __
                    04 58 85 39 11
Song advising the listener to “give the past a slip”: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __
                                                             52 05 12 35 70 59

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 9-letter word for "Item for Dennis the Menace"?
* Patron Puzzle #37, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Pathfinder.

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

Wordy Wednesday 214: Snake Crisscross & Wordy Wednesday 215: Pent Words 43

WORDY WEDNESDAY #210
PENT WORDS 42 (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:
Anthony Bailey **
James Sinnett **
M. Sean Molley **
Bryce Herdt **
John Bulten **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #211
PATHFINDER 7 (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:
Anthony Bailey **
Jack Bross **
James Sinnett **
M. Sean Molley **
Bryce Herdt **
Deusovi **
John Bulten **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #212
TOUCHWORD 6 (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 #213
HEX PATHFINDER 13 (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 ALL MONTH LONG!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #214
SNAKE CRISSCROSS
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
Tavern offering
Ernie known as “The Big Easy”
Egg cells
Throne
Number of frames in a bowling game
4 LETTERS
Expresses disapproval, perhaps
Color pattern for blending in with surroundings
Scorch
Game show where contestants had 24 hours to study material they’d be quizzed on
Trial version of software
Chap
Expert
Emcee
Bill of fare
Bites
Proboscis
Was in debt
Circus venue
Promote
5 LETTERS
Green ____ (1965-1971 sitcom)
Clean oneself
Scoundrel
En ____ (on the way)
Ken who investigated the Clinton administration
6 LETTERS
Bleeds
7 LETTERS
Passage from one place to another
8 LETTERS
Alienate
Uneducated
Sound at a comedy club
Baseball player, nicknamed “Charlie Hustle”, who was banned for betting on games: 2 wds.
Possible course of events
9 LETTERS
Ensure

SNAKE WORDS
5 LETTERS
Pleasant smell
Prophet
María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baez, more familiarly
____ the Matrix (2003 video game)
Casper is a friendly one
Christopher of This Is Spinal Tap
Kelly of One Tree Hill
Banished
Asian noodle variety
Some mixed precipitation
Apparatus in a submarine
6 LETTERS
Lansbury of Murder, She Wrote
Declared openly
____ on a Dime (HGTV series)
Eluded on foot
Powerful
Socially unacceptable things
7 LETTERS
Sticky substance used in roofing and soaps: 2 wds.
8 LETTERS
Shape of the moon, sometimes
12 LETTERS
Straight

WORDY WEDNESDAY #215
PENT WORDS 43
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 Total ____ (1990 sci-fi film) / Guns & ____ (magazine devoted to firearms)
2 Cutlery brand made famous in infomercials / Range
3 Spit / Allergic reaction of sorts
4 Bird associated with carrying babies / Bit of gossip
5 Textile made from cellulose / ____ acid
6 Move about aimlessly / "____ Ride" (Foghat song)
7 Be apprehensive about / Hawkeye State native
8 ____ Pie (Nestlé ice cream brand) / The front of a ship
9 Not fair, as a baseball / Gleam
10 Reverberate / ____-eye dog

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* I Have No ____, and I Must Scream (1995 video game)
* 1994 movie about a seal who befriends a girl
* Monetary unit of Norway
* The Suez, for one
* Authored
* What Kuzco is turned into in The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
* What you might do to a wet towel
* It's made from animal tusks
* Jaq in Cinderella (1950), for example
* ____ & Martin's Laugh-In
* Single-masted boat
* One of the five basic tastes
* Philbin who popularized the catchphrase, "Is that your final answer?"
* Selected
* Bones next to ulnae
* John Landis who patented a jar
* Colonel Jack author Daniel
* ____ poll

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 6-letter word for "Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov"?
* What's a 6-letter, 2-word answer for "Song advising the listener to 'give the past a slip'"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 212: Touchword 6 and Wordy Wednesday 213: Hex Pathfinder 13

WORDY WEDNESDAY #208
ANACROSSWORD 15 (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:
Anthony Bailey **
Jack Bross **
James Sinnett **
Bryce Herdt **
John Bulten **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #209
PATHFINDER 6 (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:
Anthony Bailey **
Jack Bross **
James Sinnett **
M. Sean Molley **
Bryce Herdt **
John Bulten **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #210
PENT WORDS 42 (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 #211
PATHFINDER 7 (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!

DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS ALL MONTH LONG!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #212
TOUCHWORD 6
In a crossword, words cross each other; in this puzzle, they merely touch. More specifically, every letter shares an edge with at least one identical letter either immediately above or immediately below. The top and bottom rows are considered adjacent. (You can think of it as a diagramless, cylindrical Share-A-Letter puzzle.)

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to form the final answer, an 8-letter word.
1 Daft Punk song containing 261 instances of the word "it" in under 3 minutes / Makes a mistake
2 Astronomer or Penny Arcade character Brahe / Of a bygone era / Roman goddess of agriculture
3 Tropical storm in the China sea / Sets of false teeth
4 Subatomic particle with one or more strange quarks / ____ and potatoes / Exploits
5 Bob of The Ghost Breakers (1940) / Elbow ____ / French painter Henri
6 Cowboy's greeting / The “Oxford” one irks, annoys, and aggravates some people / A dishwasher cycle
7 Obscene / Ending passage of a piece of music / React to a painful video, perhaps
8 Substance with a pH level greater than 7 / Substance with a pH level less than 7 / Measure of a large land area
9 Prophet who married a prostitute / Spin ____ (1996-2002 sitcom) / Jim Jacobs/Warren Casey musical
10 Word before "run" or "stretch" / Out of practice / Metamorphic rock with bands
11 Upper arm bone / They’re used for painting handicap symbols on parking spots
12 Jackman who played Wolverine / It wakes everyone up on a farm / Blue Öyster ____
13 Overwatch character McCree's favorite time of day: 2 wds. / Path of flowing electricity
14 About one-sixth of an inch, in typography / Boy band whose name sometimes has an asterisk in front of it / The largest airline in Spain
15 Nuts in praline candy / He said, "All pitchers are liars or crybabies": 2 wds.

WORDY WEDNESDAY #213
HEX PATHFINDER 13
In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. 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, a 7-letter word.
1E Hit song for The Who (12, 2 wds.)
2NW Balance beam user (7)
3NW Brand of artificial playing surface (9)
3SW Lower in rank (5)
4SE The Little ____ (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry work) (6)
5W “____ the Broken Road” (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song covered by Rascal Flatts) (5)
6NE Used cigarette ends (5)
7NW Monetary units formerly used in Cannes (6)
8NE Subdivision of an act (5)
9E JFK and others (8)
10NW Capture with a hand (4)
10E Former Ohio senator John (5)
11NW Not short (4)
12NW Tool for some artists (6)
13SE “____ Discretion Iz Advised” (N.W.A song) (8)
14SE Former Dallas Cowboy Tony (4)
15NE Hair salon offering (5)
15NE Animal that can supposedly suck the contents out of an egg while leaving the shell intact (6)
16NW Come into view (6)
17W Surmise (5)
18E Max Keeble's Big ____ (2001 Disney movie) (4)
18E Most frequent value in a data set (4)
19W Popular dating app (6)
20W Grammatical construction that’s guaranteed to endlessly annoy certain people (15, 2 wds.)
21W Moonstone, for one (8)
22NE Stuff between bricks (6)
23E “Phooey!” (4)
24SW Taking out the trash, for one (5)
24SW TV chef Julia (5)
25SE Role for Christopher Biggins in I, Claudius (4)
26SW F. H. Bradley, philosophically (8)
27E ____ Waters (Danielle Steel novel) (7)
28W Foreordain (7)
29NW Muslim mystic (4)
30E Inhibit the growth of (5)
31SE Piece attaching a door to a doorframe (5)
32SW Up to the point that (5)
33W “On This Night of a Thousand Stars” musical (5)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 4-letter word for "Game show where contestants had 24 hours to study material they’d be quizzed on"?
* What's a 5-letter word for "Philbin who popularized the catchphrase, 'Is that your final answer?'"
* Patron Puzzle #36, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($1 or more per month) on or before April 15, is a Snake Crisscross. If you aren't already supporting me on Patreon, consider doing so to gain access to awesome bonus puzzles!

Wordy Wednesday 210: Pent Words 42 & Wordy Wednesday 211: Pathfinder 7

WORDY WEDNESDAY #208
ANACROSSWORD 15 (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 #209
PATHFINDER 6 (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 ALL MONTH LONG!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #210
PENT WORDS 42
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 "Pentagon Recommends Nation Play Through All ‘____’ Video Games In Preparation For Imminent Nuclear Apocalypse" (headline from Christian satirical news site The Babylon Bee) / Like many unsafe winter roads
2 Devastate / ____ House (American restaurant chain)
3 Do not overlook / Elbow ____
4 Hasbro war game / Charm
5 More uncanny / Facial feature for which Jay Leno is famous
6 A trigonometric function / ____ Runner (1983 Brøderbund video game)
7 Crackle and Pop's partner / Say again
8 Bodily disorder / Ketchum of the Pokémon anime
9 Alight / Bother
10 By ____ of (because of) / Car carrying a coffin
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* "Multi-Campus Church Debuts New 3D Experience To Make It Feel Like Pastor Is Actually ____" (Babylon Bee headline)
* It borders Oman and Saudi Arabia
* Not domesticated
* Military surveillance, briefly
* Cassettes
* Unwanted sound
* Permit
* Ted Cassidy's The Addams Family role
* "____ in Heaven" (Eric Clapton song)
* Flabbergast
* Singer Minaj
* Emulate Romeo and Juliet, perhaps
* Third of a third
* Concepts
* Make corrections to
* Month whose birthstone is the diamond
* City on the Mohawk River
* Copal, for example

WORDY WEDNESDAY #211
PATHFINDER 7
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 Asteroid ____ (4)
1 1999 movie based on a 1976 Isaac Asimov story (12 3)
2 It begins, “We believe in one God. . .” (6 5)
3 Michelle Obama's alma mater (9)
4 Pertaining to the sense of smell (9)
5 Did some calculus, perhaps (10)
6 Brand of cooler named after a marine animal (4)
7 Gardener’s container (9)
8 Misty of Hee Haw (4)
9 Implement for Roger Federer (6 6)
10 Fashion designer Burch (4)
11 Last Call with ____ Daly (6)
12 Elliot of Open Season (2006), for one (4)
13 Whistling kitchen item (9)
14 Avis rival (5)
15 The Old Farmer’s ____ (7)
16 Goal (6)
17 Meal-ending courses (8)
18 Proofreading symbols indicating where something needs to be added (6)
19 Statue carved by Pygmalion in Greek myth (7)
19 Top-tier chess player (11)
20 Hydrochloric ____ (4)
21 ____ House (book publisher) (6)
22 The Godfather soundtrack composer Rota (4)
23 Michael Sembello song in Flashdance (6)
24 Trouble (8)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* Who said, "All pitchers are liars or crybabies"?
* What's a 6-letter word for "The Little ____ (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry work)"?

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

I'm back from the psych ward!

At least half a dozen people expressed desires for me to live on Patreon, and one prominent puzzler even gave me their phone number, which I dialed a lot during my inpatient therapy phone hours. Hopefully I'll remember all of you kind folks next time I'm depressed and maybe not talk about killing myself.

To compensate for my absence, I will post double Wordy Wednesdays throughout all of April. I am also pleased to announce that I am now receiving $125 per month on Patron, and that having hit that milestone, I will now post double Wordy Wednesdays on the last Wednesday of all months! I will also post double the Patron Puzzles on Patreon, one per month for $5+ supporters, and one per month for all supporters! Now's a better time than ever to support your favorite fuzzy puzzlemaster and get rewarded for it!

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