Wordy Wednesday 306: Section Six 30 & Wordy Wednesday 307: Flower Power

WORDY WEDNESDAY #304

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 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:
Mark Ballinger **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #305

PENT WORDS 61 (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!

FIFTH WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #306

SECTION SIX 30

(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 Gunman's accessory
2 America's Funniest Home ____
3 Word before "ear" or "tube"
4 Nation whose currency is the gourde
5 Communicating non-verbally
6 Chicken ____ (butter-stuffed chicken dish)

Ring 2
* Finland's capital
* Enroll
* Timon of ____
* Crime fiction genre
* Nix a bill

Ring 3
* Big name in bathroom fixtures, or the Wisconsin city with its headquarters
* ____ waltz
* Painter, for example
* Dancing with the Stars host Andrews

Ring 4
* Something that steadily drains resources
* Kudzu, for one
* Olympian ski racer Picabo

Ring 5
* Certain stringed instrument
* Tranquil

Ring 6
* "30 Pieces of ____" (song by Christian metal band Theocracy)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #307

FLOWER POWER

(click here for a PDF version)

The answers to this petaled puzzle will go in a curve from the number on the outside to the center of the flower. Each number in the flower will have two 5-letter answers, one going in a clockwise direction, and the other going in a counterclockwise direction. Clues 1, 7, and 13 in each direction are given, but you must determine where the other answers go.

The final answer is a 6-letter word spelled by six adjacent numbered spaces, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

CLOCKWISE
1 A flower, or a princess in the Mario franchise
7 One of Columbus’s ships
13 Express gratitude
* A pale shade of yellow
* Atmospheres
* Author Verne
* Exhausted
* Exhausted
* French capital
* Makes a new word or phrase
* Mathematician Felix of bottle fame
* Pub projectiles
* Rotate
* Symbol sometimes used as a division sign
* Turns from solid to liquid
* Type of milk not to cry over
* Uncanny
* Use a mouse, say

COUNTERCLOCKWISE
1 Handed out playing cards
7 Danger
13 Many adolescents
* Bit of dust
* Crocker who wanted Britney Spears left alone
* In the ____ of an eye
* Inventor Howe
* Invertebrate’s lack
* Killed, as a dragon
* Nation split in 1948
* One of several the moon has, for example
* Rejects, as a lover
* Section of a grocery store with milk
* Some religious sects
* Uncles’ mates
* Use a scale
* Wed
* What a dieter might measure

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "____ Madagascar (Valentine’s Day Madagascar short)"?
* Patron Puzzle #64, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a diagramless crossword.

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

Wordy Wednesday 305: Pent Words 61

WORDY WEDNESDAY #303

PATHFINDER 17 (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:
Bo & Becky Green *
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy *
Joe Bernard **
Kevin Orfield **
Mark Ballinger **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #304

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 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!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #305

PENT WORDS 61

(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 Heedlessly casual / "Tinder Creators Developing Bible App To Enable Swiping ____ On Undesirable Verses" (headline from Christian satirical news site The Babylon Bee)
2 Cook in the microwave / Drool
3 Dr. of kiddy lit fame / Bank that prevents flooding
4 Suspend loosely / "Curses!"
5 Slyly disparaging / Actress Merman
6 Declare / Panacea
7 Bellyache / Lurch
8 19th century Polish pianist / Grow weary
9 You have one when you sit / A yellow shade of orange, or a spice
10 "New Unitarian Universalist Hymnal Just Contains John Lennon's '____'" (The Babylon Bee headline) / Short
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* DNA strand shape
* Some wintry precipitation
* Fell
* One of Christopher Columbus's ships
* "Night ____" (Bee Gees song)
* It may be dramatic
* Egypt's southern neighbor
* "Trick or ____!"
* Frighten
* "The Ballroom ____" (hit song for The Sweet)
* Fly like a flying squirrel
* Dickens character who taught children how to pick pockets
* Allege
* The letter Y, sometimes
* Actress Dunne
* Muddle
* Church projections
* Patronizes a store

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "'30 Pieces of ____' (song by Christian metal band Theocracy)"?
* What's a 5-letter word for "Crocker who wanted Britney Spears left alone"?

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

Contest: Vwllss Crsswrd (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted my Vwllss Crsswrd contest. Here are the results!

Wordy Wednesday 304: Fill-In Crossword 7

WORDY WEDNESDAY #302

PATHFINDER 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:
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Joseph Bernard **
Kevin Orfield **
Mark Ballinger *
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #303

PATHFINDER 17 (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 #304

FILL-IN CROSSWORD 7

(click here for a PDF version)

The answers in the crossword below are clued alphabetically by length; you must figure out where they belong. The unclued shaded entries will spell the final answer, a song title.

3 LETTERS
Much ____ About Nothing
Fore’s opposite
Mature
Winglike part
Boxer Muhammad ____
Certain snake
WNW’s opposite
A Greek letter
Role for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix
At this time
Square ____ in a round hole
Certain rodent
Number of frames in a game of bowling
Tic-tac-____

4 LETTERS
Actress Hathaway
Entryway
Greek god of sexual attraction
Makes a mistake
Large-leafed flowerless plant
Actress Dunham
Fail to win
Possesses
Religious denomination
Lovers’ quarrel
Quiznos offerings
“. . . and a partridge in a pear ____”
Banks of Coyote Ugly (2000)
Desire

6 LETTERS
Grand ____ National Park
Item on the end of a pencil
Aplenty
Part of a threat: 2 wds.
Student at a school designed to get you ready for college
Part of U.S.S.R.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Dickens character who taught children how to pick pockets"?

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

Contest: Vwllss Crsswrd (easier version)

It's been one week since I posted the harder version of this vwllss crsswrd. If you haven't solved it yet, here's the easy version with answer enumerations:
PDF version: CLICK HERE
PUZ version: CLICK HERE
You have until 11:59 PM Central time on October 18, 2019. Remember, up to three randomly-selected winners will win a copy of my board game TAILITS. Good luck, and yappy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 303: Pathfinder 17

WORDY WEDNESDAY #301

ANACROSSWORD 19 (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:
Tyler Hinman **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Mark Ballinger **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #302

PATHFINDER 16 (hint)

As of this writing, 9 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 #303

PATHFINDER 17

(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!
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 1965-1968 series starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby as undercover intelligence agents (1 3)
2 Having lessened mental faculties due to old age (6)
3 ____-in-itself (5)
4 Michigan city in which Domino’s Pizza was first founded (9)
5 ____: The Lost Empire (2001 Disney film) (8)
6 Whipping boy (9)
7 Certain guitar accessory (4)
8 Related to the mouth (4)
9 “Kiss from a Rose” singer (4)
9 Agitated with anger (8)
10 Skeptic who demonstrated that Peter Popoff was getting revelations not from God, but from his wife via radio (5 5)
11 Sesame Street’s grouch (5)
11 Synopses (8)
12 Bean who hosted a 1985 pilot of the game show Concentration (5)
13 Tom’s rank in David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (5)
14 Warns (6)
15 Sighting in a farmer’s field (9)
16 “Soulful ____” (Young-Holt Unlimited hit) (5)
17 Certain courtroom employee, briefly (5)
17 California city where Petco Park is located (3 5)
18 Devour (6)
19 Inflatable mattress (3 3)
20 Guns N’ Roses guitarist (5)
21 Word before “industry” or “cheese” (7)
22 Rand McNally offering (5)
23 Chemical in tobacco (8)
24 Bombed (10)
25 A type of heron (5)
26 Massachusetts city named after a city in England (9)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Student at a school designed to get you ready for college"?

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

Contest: Vwllss Crsswrd (harder version)

Today is my father's birthday! To celebrate, here's a puzzle that has no relevance to that fact whatsoever. This puzzle was submitted to Outside the Box, but rejected with the suggestion that I use a lower word count than 70 next time. (Consider this a public service announcement to those of you out there who want to write their own vwllss crsswrds. . . .)

Remove all instances of A, E, I, O, and U from the entries before entering them in the grid. (There are no Y's.)

PNG version:

PDF version: CLICK HERE

PUZ version: CLICK HERE

Send your completed grid to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 8:00 AM Central time on October 11, 2019 to get two entries the contest. At that point, an easier version of the puzzle will be posted with answer length enumerations. Solve that version of the puzzle before 11:59 PM Central time on October 18, 2019 to get one entry in the contest. Up to three randomly-selected winners will win a copy of my board game TAILITS. (You can only win one prize, even if you get two entries in the contest.)

Good luck, and yappy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 302: Pathfinder 16

WORDY WEDNESDAY #300

PENT WORDS 60 (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:
Joseph Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Bo & Becky Green **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Jay McConnell **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #301

ANACROSSWORD 19 (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!

RYAN FALEY'S 250TH PUZZLE!

Fellow blogger Ryan Faley has hit the big 2-5-0 milestone. Be sure to solve his 250th puzzle and give him some congratulations!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #302

PATHFINDER 16

(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 Bird a plastic version of which is a popular lawn ornament (8)
2 ____ and dangerous (5)
3 Humorous American poet (5 4)
4 A city in Michigan (3 5)
5 ____ Worth, Texas (4)
5 Skin (5)
6 Sight in many a science classroom (8 5)
7 ____ and choose (4)
7 Preserve, perhaps (6)
8 Decorated (7)
8 Allegorical 1945 novel (6 4)
9 Overused cliché (5)
10 Happens (6)
11 Item controlled by a mouse (6)
12 Hunk (4)
12 Where audio recordings are made (6)
13 Big Fat ____ (2002 comedy) (4)
14 Country singer ____ Kaye Booth (4)
15 Hairlike organelles (5)
16 Pertaining to the organization of complicated operations (10)
17 The world’s longest venomous snake (4 5)
18 Herb with yellow flowers (9)
19 Me and Earl and the ____ Girl (2015 film) (5)
20 Former capital of Turkey (8)
21 Watch What Happens Live with ____ Cohen (4)
22 Partitioning wall in a ship or aircraft (8)
23 Tube that carries air into and out of the lungs (7)
23 Compliant (9)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 9-letter word for "Michigan city in which Domino’s Pizza was first founded"?

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