Wordy Wednesday 372: Murriam-Webster & Hump Day Word Fun 373: CUT UPT RIO BYT RIO 10

WORDY WEDNESDAY #370
PENT WORDS 74 (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:
Antoine Hinge **
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Izak Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #371
TOUCHWORD 18 (hint)
As of this writing, 15 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 #372
MURRIAM-WEBSTER
[Illustrations 02, 03, and 05 are by CyberBobcat. Illustrations 01, 04, 06, and 07 are by furrytemp. Illustrations 10, 11, 13, and 16 are by GoldFlowerFursuits. Illustrations 08, 09, 12, 14, and 15 are by Tintinabar. These artist credits are not part of the puzzle.]
A specialized dictionary for learning the lingo of the goat and the argot of the lion.
The final answer is 7 letters long.

HUMP DAY WORD FUN #373
CUT UPT RIO BYT RIO 10
This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Stephen PotterSupport 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! 
  __ __    __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __,
             ^           ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __
    ^        ^              ^           ^        ^           ^           ^
  __ __ __ __    __ __    __    __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __
    ^        ^              ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  __ __   *__ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __
       ^           ^           ^           ^           ^           ^           ^
  __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __?
    ^        ^              ^
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
01 02 03    04 05 06    07 08 09    10 11 12    13 14 15    16 17 18    19 20 21    
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
22 23 24    25 26 27    28 29 30    31 32 33    34 35 36    37 38 39    40 41 42
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
43 44 45    46 47 48    49 50 51    52 53 54    55 56 57    58 59 60    61 62 63
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
64 65 66    67 68 69    70 71 72    73 74 75    76 77 78    79 80 81    82 83 84
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
85 86 87    88 89 90    91 92 93
____ the pale __ __ __ __ __ __
              89 29 05 67 86 32
A ring that you can hook to a rope as you go up a peak __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                                       42 59 02 06 65 37 61 10 76
Hard rock that, to Mohs, is a ten __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                  45 93 56 60 62 35 07
Life is this kind of road, as per a tune used in Cars __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                                      22 09 87 28 92 44 88
The type of hard ball that Ed, Edd, and Eddy like to eat __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                                         27 01 20 04 17 41 36 47 81 57
Sign out, as from an app: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __
                                 12 73 19 14 08 68
A foe of Uber __ __ __ __
              63 90 15 24
Show your rear end to __ __ __ __
                      50 21 64 48
Size of the gap from "do" up to the next "ti" __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                              38 26 30 13 58 82 80
A very dark ale __ __ __ __ __
                33 71 53 85 79
Tell (on) __ __ __ __ __ __
          39 23 84 66 46 03
Not just in part __ __ __ __ __ __
                 74 83 70 52 49 91
You can find many a file on this site that some pols don’t __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
   want you to see                                         75 31 40 34 43 16 11 69 78
It owns Days Inn and TRYP __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                          51 18 54 77 25 72 55

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* A Crypticrostic! 
* I've decided to post double Wordy Wednesdays for the entire first quarter of 2021! What's a 5-letter word for "Zelda Williams's father"? 
* Patron Puzzle #80, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Super Pent Words. 

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

Contest: A Timely Crisscross

(PDF of this puzzle to print out)
Fit the words below the grid into the crisscross, reading left to right and top to bottom. The letters in the shaded cells, in order from left to right starting with the top row, will spell a lyric from a timely (and timeless) song.
AGAIN GNOME SATIN ADVANCE EQUINOX OPACITY
ALIEN ISLET SIGMA AIRPARK ETHICAL PIQUANT
ALIVE NEEDY SPANK ALFALFA FREEBIE PROWESS
ALLOW NINJA STRUT ANYBODY GAZETTE RANSACK
BAGEL OCEAN SWUNG AUGMENT GIRAFFE SHERBET
CEDAR OXEYE TWERP CARAVAN INCLUDE THYROID
DOUBT PASTA VINYL EDIFICE JUKEBOX TSUNAMI
EVOKE PHLOX WALTZ EPITAPH LOGBOOK 
EXPEL PIXIE XENON   
FICHE POWER ZILCH   
FLOSS RATIO    
Send your filled-in grid to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on December 31, 2020 to get two entries in the contest; identify the song the shaded lyric comes from before that time for another two entries (a maximum of four). Then an easier version of this puzzle will be posted with two words placed already as hints; solvers who submit their filled-in grids before 11:59 PM Central time on January 7, 2021 will get one entry, and solvers who identify the song before then will get one entry. A randomly-selected winner will win my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion), plus a $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles, which can be used to purchase any of a number of fine logic puzzle e-books. Additionally, for every entry in the contest, I will donate $1 to the Food Bank of West Central Texas, up to a maximum of $60, so solving the puzzle will help feed hungry people. Yappy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 371: Touchword 18

WORDY WEDNESDAY #369
SERIOUS STUMPER BEFUDDLES MANY (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:
Antoine Hinge **
Stephen Potter *
Tyler Hinman **
Adam Weaver **
foxyman **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
MelloMathTeacher *
Poochy.EXE **
Roger Strain **
Ryan Faley **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #370
PENT WORDS 74 (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!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #371
TOUCHWORD 18
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.

Arrange the letters in the shaded spaces to form the final answer, an 8-letter word.
1 Distort / Approximately 0.621 miles
2 Play roulette, say / Structure on a farm / Be combined into one unit
3 Women and girls / Six years, for a Senator / Entreat
4 Wild / “Smell you ____!” / Treats, as a disease
5 Primate associated with a brand of glue or tape / 2014 title role for Dwayne Johnson
6 Big name in chocolate / Talk idly, in slang / Mathematician Leonhard
7 Actual real name of a mongrel owned by Abraham Lincoln / Preparation that helps provide immunity to a disease / Company that removed “Cab” from its name in 2011
8 55, 89, or 144: 2 wds.
9 Suave / ____ party (sleepover)
10 Evil spirit / Some evergreens / Pertaining to the lower spine
11 Disguising pattern / Meteorological need
12 Big Wolf on ____ (1999-2002 TV series) / Fermented beer / Savage of MythBusters
13 Nutria / One without a companion at a party / ____ cracker
14 Its logo has three ovals / Certain ballroom dance / Attention-attracting interjection
15 Tropical Asian plant also known as a dasheen / ____ Woodstock (2009 film) / Western, colloquially

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* A reference book "fur" the rest of us! 
* What is a 10-unit word for "The type of hard ball that Ed, Edd, and Eddy like to eat"? 

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

Wordy Wednesday 370: Pent Words 74

WORDY WEDNESDAY #368
QUADRILATERAL REGIONS (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: 
Antoine Hinge ** 
Pavel Curtis ** 
Stephen Potter ** 
Tyler Hinman ** 
Adam Weaver ** 
Jason Boomer ** 
John Bulten ** 
Kevin Orfield ** 
Leo Termin ** 
Ryan Faley ** 

WORDY WEDNESDAY #369
SERIOUS STUMPER BEFUDDLES MANY (hint)
As of this writing, 10 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 #370
PENT WORDS 74
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 Country musician Kershaw who sang “Matches” / ____ Scope (1980 Nintendo arcade game) 
2 Goatee, for one / Grab the bull by the ____ 
3 Baseball ref / Disloyalty, as to a government 
The $100,000 ____ (game show) / Actress Thompson of Back to the Future 
Dragonriders of ____ / Country musician Jones who sang “Burn Your Playhouse Down” 
6 Country musician Paisley who sang “The Cigar Song” / Dormant 
How I Met Your ____ (2005-2014 sitcom) / Ostinato phrase in a piece of music 
8 Human-eating folkloric creature / Part of a T-shirt, but not a tank top 
9 Landlord’s client / Gateway ____ (St. Louis monument) 
10 Deer relative / Country musician McBride who sang “Independence Day” 

PENTOMINOES: 
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER 
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER 
* Crime that the country songs “Matches”, “Burn Your Playhouse Down”, “The Cigar Song”, and “Independence Day” have in common 
* ____ 6 (lodging chain) 
* Partner of gold and frankincense 
____ Lantern (2011 superhero movie) 
* Move furtively, perhaps 
* Austrian psychiatrist Alfred 
* It merged with Sears in 2005 
* Beautify 
* ____ Arlington, OH 
The ____ Clause 3: The Escape Clause 
* Bouillon 
____ de Amigo (1999 arcade game with maraca-shaped controllers) 
____ Cody Banks (2003 movie) 
* M1 Garand, for one 
* Speak pompously 
* Bull in a ____ shop 
* Series of mountains 
____ Nest (1988-1995 sitcom) 

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What company removed "Cab" from its name in 2011? 

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

Wordy Wednesday 369: Serious Stumper Befuddles Many

WORDY WEDNESDAY #367
ANACROSSWORD 22 (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:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
James Haddad **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Jason Boomer **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #368
QUADRILATERAL REGIONS (hint)
As of this writing, 10 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 #369
SERIOUS STUMPER BEFUDDLES MANY
Frustrated solvers may lay into the author at will.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 5-letter word for "____ de Amigo (1999 arcade game with maraca-shaped controllers)"? 

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

Wordy Wednesday 368: Quadrilateral Regions

WORDY WEDNESDAY #366
SECTION SIX 36 (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 **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger *
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #367
ANACROSSWORD 22 (hint)
As of this writing, 10 number of 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 #368
QUADRILATERAL REGIONS
This puzzle has a familiar ring to it. Is it in the cards for you to find this puzzle’s final answer?

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* A serious stumper! 
Patreon supporters ($1 or more per month) will receive issue #4 of Fox & Badger Magazine on December 4! A nine-puzzle meta awaits your solving in "The Hopefully-Less-Than-a-Million Second Quiz", a tribute to game shows past and present. This issue also introduces the Odds & Ends section, containing a bunch of puzzles I didn't know what to do with. I wanted to announce this last week, but the final phase of test-solving wasn't quite complete yet.

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

Contest: Collaborative Fill-In Cryptic

(PDF of this puzzle to print out)
(Background information: This puzzle was originally co-written with Ryan Faley, with outside test-solver Joseph DeVincentis making judgment calls when we both had clues for the same word and couldn't agree which one was better. Almost a year after it was rejected by Outside the Box, I have finally decided to run it as a contest so it can see the light of day. Enjoy.)
The clues in this cryptic crossword are sorted by answer length, but are otherwise in no particular order. The letters in the shaded squares, in numerical order, yield one more cryptic clue with an 11-letter word as the final answer.
3 LETTERS
* Andy Taylor's son lost his first bakery treat
* For starters, please eat any legume
* Period of time in therapy
* Swerve and gape endlessly
4 LETTERS
* Partially screwed up pitcher
* Same rocky flatland
5 LETTERS
* Buffs go back, beginning to undo foul-up
* Editor follows upended madhouse that leaked out
* Er, am I savory?
* Handle one in woe
* I've heard Richard the comedian before
* Legitimate major empire
* Outspoken Presidential hopeful Buttigieg is a baked entity
* Parrot, "An Apple computer, how cute!"
* Reportedly, that man slurps a spiral
* Six take a chair and chat
* Steals some face cards
* Strange biopic about a President scorched up without end
6 LETTERS
* Educate a swim team?
* Was Hasbro toy turned up without executive order in horror movie?
7 LETTERS
* Cracker canister in transaction
* Flowering plant won't start back pain
* Fruit ex juggled for institution
* Gauche hospital section after a week
* Junior I'd educated initially takes - oy! - a drive in a hot car
* Oddly, this debris test has choice morsels
* Places where alcohol is sold for drunk servant
* Start to chew cheese, spitting for ball game
* Try and pet Matt badly
* West Indies music plays freely in Colorado
9 LETTERS
* Grave Mr. Waits' voice quality has a bit of bass
* Nice summer in stormy Africa and lunchroom
* Spontaneous scamp caps an easy win over you in Marseille
* Tilt a lunatic surrounded in strong odor and do several things at once
10 LETTERS
* After Jewish festival, king of Israel goes in street to perform gymnastics
* Cover one amulet without an economic system

__ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __
01 02 03 04 05    06 07 08 09 10 11    12 13 14 15 16 17
__ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __
18 19 20 21 22 23    24 25 26 27 28

Send your final answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on December 13, 2020 to enter the contest. A randomly-selected first-place winner will win my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion), plus a $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles, which can be used to purchase any of a number of fine logic puzzle e-books. A randomly-selected second-place winner will also receive a $10 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 367: Anacrossword 22

WORDY WEDNESDAY #365
PENT WORDS 73 (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 **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #366
SECTION SIX 36 (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 #367
ANACROSSWORD 22
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ 
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112

Italian commune where St. Francis was born
Tannen played by Thomas F. Wilson in Back to the Future
“Red Neckin' Love Makin' Night” singer: 2 wds.
One receiving stolen goods, or a structure between neighboring yards
Like a dialogue involving people of different religions
Buzzy musical instrument
Jitterbug relative originating from Harlem, possibly named after a nickname of aviator Charles: 2 wds.
Derides
Finding ____ (2003 Pixar film)
Book publisher that merged with Penguin Group in 2013: 2 wds.
Children’s game where players try to separate the hands of players on the opposite team: 2 wds.
Former United States Attorney General Jeff
Seltzer: 2 wds.
Painting of inanimate objects: 2 wds.
Emphasizes, as a syllable
Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, for one
Stuff that might be sampled for a drug test
In ____ (in a plant or animal’s living body)
The graphs of y=sin(x) and y=cos(x), for two
Newspaper comic created by Tom Wilson

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* A puzzle with numbers instead of words? Huh? 
* Patron Puzzles #78 and #79, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), are titled Some Mind-Boggling 3somes and Cryptic Crossword Plus. I made the executive decision to give my patrons two Patron Puzzles this month. Merry early Christmas! 

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

Wordy Wednesday 366: Section Six 36

WORDY WEDNESDAY #364
CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 2 (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 **
Mark Ballinger *
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #365
PENT WORDS 73 (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 #366
SECTION SIX 36
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 Move upward
2 Drug endorsed by Bob Dole and Pelé
3 Tortilla brand with a bell in the logo
4 Disobedient one
5 Non-expert in a field
6 Island in New York City

Ring 2
* One of twelve in the zodiac
* One straying from social norms
* Divisions of dollars
* L'Oréal subsidiary since 1996
* ____ cube (puzzle invented by Piet Hein)
 
Ring 3
* Slang term for a die or a domino
* Greek letter that's also an Overwatch character
* Like some exposure
* Lord ____ of Preston (namesake of the National Hockey League's trophy)

Ring 4
* Religious denomination
* Avengers: ____ (2019 film)
* Legume that's necessary in making tofu
 
Ring 5
* Finite portion of a line
* Ben Affleck's brother

Ring 6
* ____ of a Down (band whose album Steal This Album! includes a track titled "36")

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What newspaper comic was created by Tom Wilson? 

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

Wordy Wednesday 365: Pent Words 73

WORDY WEDNESDAY #363
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger *
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #364
CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 2 (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!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #365
PENT WORDS 73
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 ____, Nelly! (Nelly Furtado's debut album) / Four pecks
2 Canal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea / Voluptuous
3 Kind of protein that aids processes like digestion / Roman emperor often anachronistically depicted with a fiddle
4 Matured, as fruit / Toupee, slangily
5 Pretty Maids All in a ____ (1971 murder mystery film) / Playing card brand that probably isn't popular with foxes: hyph.
6 ____ of the Year (1993 sports comedy) / Swiss psychiatrist Carl
7 Olympic sport for men since 1964 and for women since 1992 / Stylish
8 Area with the Recycle Bin icon in Windows, for example / Eat Drink Man Woman director Lee
9 On fire / Swiss ____ knife
10 Convey, as knowledge / The snake in Billy Gilman's "The Snake Song" falls in love with one

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Its blue variety is the state gemstone of Texas
* Gossipmonger
* Minecraft ____ (augmented reality Minecraft spin-off)
* ____ Line Is It Anyway? (improv comedy show)
* Type of airship associated with Goodyear advertising
* Mall sighting
* Modify, as a constitution
* Diamond in the ____
* Brimming with excitement, like a beehive
* ____ hippopotamus (small hippopotamus variety)
* "Just take those old records off the ____. . ." (Bob Seger lyric)
* Trial and ____
* ____ Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory spin-off)
* Country where the top 23 busiest train stations in the world are all located
* Roman province governed by Pontius Pilate
* Came up
* Pompeo of Grey's Anatomy
* Extract compressed computer files, say

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 7-letter word for "Tortilla brand with a bell in the logo"? 

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

Contest: Film Strip

(PDF of this puzzle to print out)
Each of the words and phrases below has had a film title stripped out of it. Add some letters to each of the strings to obtain the original word or phrase; the added letters will spell a film title. For example, if the string is HARLEATHGATGASSEEVTOR, then the original phrase is CHARLIE AND THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR (the stripped letters spelling CINDERELLA). Fit the film titles thus stripped into the crisscross grid and anagram the highlighted letters into a 5-letter word. This word can be formed by stripping another film title out of a longer word; send this longer word as your final answer.

BUBONIPAG (2 wds.)
CAPSKE
EHOVHSITNES (2 wds.)
EYHNISAWESME (3 wds.)
FTHEOEFISWEIT (6 wds.)
GIUEPVRI (2 wds.)
HACTEZ
IPLTAIN
IPWC
JABBEW
KFOD (2 wds.)
PRORTATIN
RCLDREN
RNUTHERKINGY (4 wds.)
SATSICLLYSIGIFANT (2 wds.)
SRESSG (2 wds.)
TSRESSIN
UDINGHT (2 wds.)
WESTNTABBE (2 wds.)
WYEGREKY (2 wds.)
Send your final answer to the above puzzle to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before 11:59 PM Central time on November 22, 2020 to enter the contest. A randomly-selected first-place winner will win my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion), plus a $15 gift card for the fine establishment whose name I've stripped from LONDONINTENATONALINANCIALUUESNDOPTIONSECHANGE (7 wds.). A randomly-selected second-place winner will receive a $10 gift card for the same fine establishment. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 364: Cryptogram Fun Pack 2

WORDY WEDNESDAY #362
ANACROSSWORD 21 (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:
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Arkayde **
John Bulten *
Leo Termin **
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin *

WORDY WEDNESDAY #363
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 13 (hint)
As of this writing, 10 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 #364
CRYPTOGRAM FUN PACK 2
Solve these six cryptograms; each has its own code, and each has a six-letter word missing. Words that are always capitalized (such as proper names) are indicated with asterisks (*), and words that are capitalized because of their presence in a title are indicated by carats (^). For example, ^Sir *Isaac *Newton's favorite film is “^Gravity”. Fit the six missing words into the crisscross grid and anagram the highlighted letters into the final answer word.

1. *S UMYP NSBMEWO KMP RQA *HKEHKFSYH NKEDSOY ______. PQW NKMFOWE RLY FLHWO *UKW; QW OSOF'P RLFP TWKTXW OESFGSFB QSH.

2. ______, DVN DNWS TXW XWBUQGONY *IUMUQNCN LWGSGQURC, XWGBGQUDNC TWXS DVN EXWCD MXCCGPRN VUQY GQ U LUWY BUSN.

3. NBDX MYPQO, ZEYD OTTHDC JLT BDHNBJTF "^SBJO" JUBHPTU, EUBXTF JY UTNYWT HJO ZCPX SLBUBSJTUO MUYN JLTHU PYDC-JTUN "^______".

4. IZQ ^TNKLHHYC BKAGAL: BEC VQYR BEKCC TBLBCT MEVTC QLSCT IVKS YCWLY XYLRT LKC *NVYVKLFV, *BCDLT, LQF *______.

5. OHEQ LRBM IRPTER, QKNTSHEV OTW YBMCMKSIUV PREERB PRCMBR YURSEHCKU ^TSSMVHSD ^______ AHIRMW BRIRCHSRI “STARU”-DTLHSD.

6. BSEESNMWK DUEULMVSHJ DSWBEUKQUVMSW, HWIUHWVGI JZUDGLGW UISZVGI WGN *UZSEES LUJDSV, OGESYGI DSLMDJ OGUKEG *______.


COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 5-letter word for "'Just take those old records off the ____. . .' (Bob Seger lyric)"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 363: Snake Crisscross 13

WORDY WEDNESDAY #361
CRYPTICROSTIC 9 (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:
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #362
ANACROSSWORD 21 (hint)
As of this writing, 10 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 #363
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 13
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
Golfer Ernie with a winemaking business
Parking ____
Knightly title
Golfer’s peg
Overly
4 LETTERS
Reference line in a Cartesian plane, say
Richard of American Gigolo (1980)
Shoestring
Company based in Billund, Denmark
____ & Stitch (2002 film)
____ and easy
Dozes (off)
Delivered
Took to court
Certain arithmetic results
5 LETTERS
Part of a butcher’s uniform
Cartographical book
Items for holding up pants
Pyramid alternative
Greece’s largest island
Consumed
Precise
Odor
The Sixth ____ (1999 film)
Separator between words, often
“Every Rose Has Its ____” (Poison hit)
6 LETTERS
Certain marbles
Sharp, as an observer
The hound in The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Rubbed away, as a pencil mistake
Clinging mollusk
Cries loudly
7 LETTERS
Heavy weight placed to improve a ship’s control
9 LETTERS
Gadgetry
14 LETTERS
Professional user of essential oils
SNAKE WORDS
5 LETTERS
Benefactor
Identifying tag
Moderate shade of purple
Lesson of a fable
Gotten up
____ Magnolias (1989 film)
Nappy leather
They may be hailed
Member of a Rwandan ethnic group
6 LETTERS
Climb
Yellow jacket relative
Jamaican music genre
Title for a Japanese teacher
Straight man
Brand once associated with the slogan, “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star”
7 LETTERS
Location in Arthurian legend
Dutch Renaissance humanist
Frozen masses: 2 wds.
Incentive
Attack verbally: 2 wds.
16 LETTERS
1996 PlayStation game whose protagonist is a musically inclined anthropomorphic dog: 3 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* A sequel nobody asked for! 
* Patron Puzzles #76 and #77, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), are titled Busted Bits and Super Pent Words. I made the executive decision to give my patrons two Patron Puzzles this month. 

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

Wordy Wednesday 362: Anacrossword 21

WORDY WEDNESDAY #360
PENT WORDS 72 (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:
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #361
CRYPTICROSTIC 9 (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 #362
ANACROSSWORD 21
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 
36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97

Prepared to shoot, say 
What a songwriter might be concerned with 
Chip of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? 
Hold ____ 
____ of the Loom (underwear brand) 
1984 film where little creatures terrorize Kingston Falls 
1969-1997 country music variety show: 2 wds. 
The ____ for Red October 
Parasitic worm 
Crazy 
Computer programs that cause undesired behavior 
Items on which to wipe your feet before entering a house 
Its state bird is the greater roadrunner: 2 wds. 
Part of a desert that may temporarily have a lake 
Button on an audiocassette player 
Instrument for jazz musician John Coltrane 
The ____ Life of Pets 
Charlie of Wall Street (1987) 
Persnickety person 
Layer 
Rocker Turner 
“Best of Intentions” singer Travis 
“Flick of the ____” (Queen song) 

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .
* What's a 6-letter word for "Brand once associated with the slogan, 'You can trust your car to the man who wears the star'"? 

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

Contest: 10 Mario Challenges

At“ten”tion Nin“ten”do fans! I have created some puzzles to commemorate this year marking the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. Each of these ten Mario-themed mini-puzzles yields an individual answer. Together, the puzzles form a meta puzzle and yield a collective answer, as well. Those of you who have never played a Mario game should be glad to know that all Mario-related information required to solve these puzzles should be relatively easy to locate on various wikis.

Part I. Solve the Mini-Puzzles!
Solve the mini-puzzles and send your solutions to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. For each correct solution received (up to 10), you will get an entry in a prize drawing to win some cool Mario-themed merchandise!

Part II. Solve the Meta Puzzle!
Solve the meta puzzle and send your solution to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com, and you will get an entry in a prize drawing to win the grand prize of some cool Mario-themed merchandise and a copy of my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion)!

The deadline for both parts of the contest is 11:59 PM Central time on November 1, 2020. After this deadline, the winners will be selected (first for Part II, then for Part I from among those who didn't win Part II). Good luck!

(note: you can click some images in this blog post to enlarge them)

01. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t BABY BOWSER


02. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t BRIGHT CARD

03. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t CACTUS MINE

04. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t CANNON KAOS
How many Coins do you get for defeating a Paper Goomba in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam?

How many green Toads make up the group of "Fun Guys" in Paper Mario: Color Splash?

What is the sticker number of the Flashy Hopslipper sticker in Paper Mario: Sticker Star?

How many FP does a Lime Candy restore in Paper Mario?

What is the number of Spike Top's Catch Card in Super Paper Mario?

In what chapter of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door do you face Hooktail?

What number is in the full name of the boss in Paper Mario: The Origami King who is known as "Colored Pencils", and is also the number of colored pencils he normally has?

05. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t COOKIE LAND

06. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t CRANKY KONG

07. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t LIGHT BLOCK

08. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t POKEY MUMMY

09. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t WALRUS COVE

10. A Puzzle Whose Answer Isn’t WARIO WORLD

The Meta
As mentioned before, these ten puzzles yield a collective answer as a meta puzzle. You may obtain hints on how to solve the meta puzzle through the following means.

First Hint: Solve Any 7 Puzzles
Just email me any 7 puzzle answers, and I’ll send you the first hint. If you don’t want to wait on me to respond, I have set up the following process so you can obtain the hint more quickly:

Step 1: For each puzzle you’ve solved, go to https://sites.google.com/view/10mariochallenges-XXYYYYYYYYYY/home, replacing XX with the two digits preceding the puzzle’s title and YYYYYYYYYY with the puzzle’s answer. If done correctly, a website will appear with a 57-character string (2 digits, a hyphen, and 54 hexadecimal digits [regular digits plus letters a through f]). These are shares for Shamir's Secret Sharing Scheme.
Step 2: When you have 7 such strings, go to http://point-at-infinity.org/ssss/demo.html. In the “Combine” field, set “Threshold” to 7 and enter the 7 strings you obtained. If done correctly, a 27-digit number will appear as the output.
Step 3: Go to https://sites.google.com/view/ATWENTYSEVENCHARACTERSTRING/home, replacing ATWENTYSEVENCHARACTERSTRING with the 27-digit number. The first hint should appear.

Second Hint: Solve All 10 Puzzles
Just email me all 10 puzzle answers, and I’ll send you the second hint. If you don’t want to wait on me to respond, I have set up the following process so you can obtain the hint more quickly:

Step 1: Go to https://www.md5hashgenerator.com/. Make a string out of all 10 puzzle answers, in puzzle order (01 through 10), in lowercase letters, separated by hyphens (for-example-it-might-look-like-this-string-right-here). If done correctly, the hash should begin with bc8a4.
Step 2: Go to https://sites.google.com/view/ATWENTYSEVENCHARACTERSTRING/home, replacing ATWENTYSEVENCHARACTERSTRING with the hash, minus the first five characters bc8a4. The second hint should appear.

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