The Joy of Puzzling: Pent Words (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: PENT WORDS

(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.

After solving, go to tinyurl.com/tjop-[answer], replacing [answer] with the answer (no space), to learn how this puzzle was constructed and get tips on constructing your own!

ACROSS (two answers per row):
1 A ____ Family Funeral (2019 film) / Say hello to
2 Foreign / Cut hair from
3 Reheat in a microwave / Spoon, for one
4 Number of people on a soccer team / Oolong and such
5 Word after "grand" or "little" in the card game bridge / Chicory relative
6 Terminate / Embraced
7 Wrestler Sammartino / Pulsate
8 Determine the value of something / Hellmann's offering, for short
9 Urge on / Shoe and clothing brand with a large cat as its mascot
10 Wanted poster detail / Microwave ____
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Charlie of Two and a Half Men
* Mexican film actor Infante
* Put right
* Online game where players control gods
* Advice
* The Adventures of ____ Billy (1989 video game)
* Concur
* Certain foot bones
* Contract between a landlord and a tenant, for example
* Lady Gaga and Madonna, for two
* Labyrinthine puzzles
* Expert
* Permian ____
* A Wheel of Fortune category
* Former Jeopardy! announcer Don
* Characters in certain ancient alphabets
* "Set Fire to the Rain" singer
* Out of whole ____

Send your answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com to enter Part I of the contest. After the deadline (May 25, 2019 at 11:59 PM), one random entrant with the correct answer will win a signed copy of the May 2019 issue of Games World of Puzzles, which includes a Snake Crisscross by me, and a copy of my board game TAILITS!

Part II. Make a Puzzle!

Now you get to write your own Pent Words 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 and with no space. It is not, however, necessary 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 Pent Words rules.
* The puzzle must be 10x10.
* All entries must be from 3 through 7 letters long.
* No entry may be repeated.
* There must be a final answer, a phrase consisting of two 5-letter words which appear as unclued pentominoes.
* The subdivision of the grid into pentominoes must be unique, even if you don't know the final answer.

Since test-solving is one of the most important parts of the puzzle-construction process, you are allowed to seek the assistance of one test-solver to make sure the puzzle you send me doesn't have any inaccurate clues or other bad things I won't like.

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!!!]. The puzzle and its answer should be in plaintext. After the deadline (May 25, 2019 at 11:59 PM), /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 a signed copy of the May 2019 issue of Games World of Puzzles, which includes a Snake Crisscross by me, and a copy of my board game TAILITS! 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 Portugese word for "tablecloth" or the names of about half a dozen characters from manga comics that only about 100 people read.)
* 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.
* 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 myself to judge the entries impartially. 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 277: Pathfinder 13

WORDY WEDNESDAY #275

PENT WORDS 55 (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:
Bryce Herdt *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #276

SECTION SIX 27 (hint)

As of this writing, 3 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 #277

PATHFINER 13

(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 The Who’s Townshend (4)
2 “Magic Carpet Ride” band (11)
3 Western Florida city (5)
4 Grow weary (4)
5 Texas ____ University (4)
6 “That’s Too ____!” (pricing game from The Price is Right) (4)
7 Sorceress in Homer's Odyssey (5)
8 Dress (6)
9 Piloted, as a plane (5)
10 Roman goddess of the hunt (5)
11 They’re often served with tea (8)
12 Gruesome (5)
13 A white sparkling wine (9)
14 Shelter facing a beach, perhaps (6)
14 Rick and Morty, for one (7)
15 Becloud (4)
15 James portrayed by Sean Connery (4)
16 Antiquated (7)
17 Item needed for playing cornhole (7)
18 Far from common (4)
18 Reddening cosmetic (5)
19 End-to-end measurement (6)
19 Baseball player who is sometimes the namesake of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (3 6)
20 Have a meal at a restaurant, say (3 3)
21 Promote (4)
22 Instance of unfair treatment (3 4)
23 ____ Council (Survivor elimination ceremony) (6)
24 You might top it with lox (5)
25 Former late night host Jay (4)
26 American History X actor (6 6)
27 Esau traded his for stew (10)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Fils-Aimé’s successor at Nintendo of America"?
* Patron Puzzle #58, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is not written yet. I'd better get to work!

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

Wordy Wednesday 276: Section Six 27

WORDY WEDNESDAY #274

FOXGERYPTICS 14 (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:
Bryce Herdt **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #275

PENT WORDS 55 (hint)

As of this writing, 2 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 #276

SECTION SIX 27

(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 Sarcastic attitude
2 Animal in its early stages of development
3 Sell
4 Hold
5 ____ Mutant Ninja Turtles
6 Difficult decision between two choices

Ring 2
* Early morning show on NBC
* National Novel Writing Month's month
* Prayer-ending interjection
* Used a yacht, say
* A type of engineering

Ring 3
* Descend gradually, as an airplane
* A type of drum
* Blade attached to a rifle
* Certain opiate

Ring 4
* Like the graph of y=mx+b
* Bed Bath & ____
* Invented, as a new word or phrase

Ring 5
* Resident of New Delhi, for example
* Horse with a habit of bucking

Ring 6
* Kurt whose death at 27 years old puts him in the so-called "27 Club"

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's an 11-letter word for "“Magic Carpet Ride” band"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 275: Pent Words 55

WORDY WEDNESDAY #273

HEX PATHFINDER 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:
Bryce Herdt **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #274

FOXGERYPTICS 14 (hint)

As of this writing, 4 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 #275

PENT WORDS 55

(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 Animal you shouldn't play cards with, according to a corny joke / TV and radio personality Linkletter
2 Bird to whose value Jesus compares the value of man / Word preceding "milk" or "sauce"
3 Singer Dion / 1/12 of a foot
4 "Hay is for ____!" (response from someone who doesn't like informal words like "hey") / Advertising symbol
5 Paquin who played Rogue in X-Men (2000) / Mexican foodstuff wrapped in a corn husk
6 Magazine that dubs the "Sexiest Man Alive" / ____ browns
7 Druggie / Through the ____ (Reiner Knizia board game)
8 Employed a razor / 1998 film with Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Chip
9 Not old / Ire
10 Life, for one / What a rolling stone doesn't gather

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Fruit of the Loom rival
* "Lather, ____, repeat"
* Eyes amorously
* Defenders of the ____ (2010 board game)
* 1/16 of a pound
* Laundry detergent brand
* Far from fresh
* The Divine Comedy author
* Astronomer Brahe
* One who doesn't consume milk, eggs, or meat
* Fred Flintstone's wife
* Like a high-pressure salesman
* Alamo rival
* Character in Disney's Hercules voiced by James Woods
* Crime committed by those with burning desires?
* Novel title character and cookie namesake Doone
* Disgusting
* A Chevrolet vehicle or a lake

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "____ Mutant Ninja Turtles"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 274: Foxgeryptics 14

WORDY WEDNESDAY #272

FOXGERYPTICS 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:
Bryce Herdt **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #273

HEX PATHFINDER 18 (hint)

As of this writing, 2 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 #274

FOXGERYPTICS 14

(click here for a PDF version)

Insert a single letter in each space of each grid so that each grid's five rows and five columns spells a word from left to right or top to bottom (including the letters outside the grid).

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

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Defenders of the ____ (2010 board game)"?

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