Wordy Wednesday 358: DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 9 & Wordy Wednesday 359: Snake Crisscross 12

WORDY WEDNESDAY #356

SECTION SIX 35 (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 **
Izak Bulten *
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Leo Termin **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #357

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 8 (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!

FIFTH WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #358

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 9

(click here for a PDF version)

  __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __

          ^           ^           ^           ^           ^        ^           ^

  __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __,

       ^           ^        ^           ^           ^           ^        ^

  __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __   *__ __ __ __ __ __

          ^        ^        ^        ^           ^        ^           ^        ^

 *__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __   *__ __ __ __ __   *__ __ __ __ __ __.

    ^        ^        ^           ^           ^        ^           ^

__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __

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

“Chef” of canned pasta fame, based on a real chef named Hector __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                               05 32 12 66 52 50 36 87

____ dissonance __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                48 72 42 02 77 79 60 33 16

Anterior __ __ __ __ __

         63 58 43 23 65

Last adjective in the Pledge of Allegiance __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                           89 56 04 19 78 38 27 75 69 11 07

At arm’s ____ __ __ __ __ __ __

              90 53 39 35 24 45

For every one hundred __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                      15 81 59 51 47 34 82

Namesake of the most populous city in Texas: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                    21 01 31 74 62 85 14 68 84 09

Quietude __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

         54 17 26 28 80 37 13 64 61

Giggle __ __ __ __ __ __

       30 22 44 73 20 55

Online bot also called a spider: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                        71 57 03 86 41 08 88 25 10 49

2006 video game featuring baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

   and tennis: 2 wds.                                      83 18 29 67 46 40 06 76 70

WORDY WEDNESDAY #359

SNAKE CRISSCROSS 12

(click here for a PDF version)

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

Snooze

Stool pigeon

Moderately dry, as champagne

____ of a gun

4 LETTERS

Associate

Likewise

Sitcom starring Sherman Hemsley as a church deacon

Painter Warhol

Certain Egyptian symbol

Bottle toppers

Hair salon item

Pub projectile

Give off

Greek counterpart to Cupid

Emulate a pleased cat, say

Mineral used in making a powder

Separated a paper towel sheet, say

5 LETTERS

____ of the Titans (2010 movie)

1996 movie where Madonna portrays Juan Perón's wife

Evil organization in the Captain America comics

Senate Majority Leader McConnell

Certain Japanese noodles

Biblical mountain also known as Mount Horeb

A type of chord in music

6 LETTERS

GoDaddy offering

Wheel of Fortune category that formerly included proper names

Painter Warhol’s movement: 2 wds.

7 LETTERS

Londoner’s “goodbye!”

Basketball team that moved from Fort Wayne, IN to Detroit, MI in 1957

The Little ____ (1994 movie based on the Our Gang short films)

8 LETTERS

Expert on plant life

Be a tyrant

Hairstyle pulled together with a band

9 LETTERS

Medical device that really sucks

Netflix series inspired by the real-life story of British women who became radical Islamists

Items at the bottoms of sets of Groucho glasses

SNAKE WORDS

5 LETTERS

Absinthe-making need

Ratchet’s robotic partner

Small jazz band

Like a lice-infested scalp, perhaps

Grind finely into a paste

Sotomayor of the Supreme Court

Deck in a psychic reading

6 LETTERS

Item in the game Texas 42

Charlton who was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003

Like numbers generated by fair dice

Antonin of the Supreme Court

7 LETTERS

When something is broadcasted on radio or television

“The Girl from ____” (bossa nova classic)

French’s offering

Singer Frank who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan in 1985

Shapes of phonograph record grooves

Bullfight participants

To an indispensable extent

8 LETTERS

Role for Jason Robards in The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967): 2 wds.

Measuring pair

They may be spotted on an African safari

10 LETTERS

Video game franchise from which the “Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing” memes originated: 2 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Stereotypical name of a woman who wants to see your manager"?
* Patron Puzzle #75, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a pair of Codewords. 

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

Contest: Let's Guess THREE Words! (Week 3 update)

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words beginning with a letter between Q and Z inclusive: NONE

The set of all words whose letters have a combined point value of 15 or higher in English-language Scrabble (examples: JOKE, ZZZ): ONE

The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, U, or Y: TWO

The set of all words containing a double letter (examples: EGG, BOOT, LLAMA; counterexamples: FIFE, NANA): ALL

Week 1:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length greater than 10: NONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BORROWER, counterexample: ROWER): ONE

[Jason Boomer] The set of words with length of 8 or more: ONE

[Jessica Timmerman] The set {BALLOON, BEEPED, BOOKING, BOOMING, BULLFROG, CHICKEN, FEED, FEELING, FOOD, GULL}: NONE

[John Bulten] The set of all words with second-to-last letter between L and S inclusive: ONE

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): NONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): NONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words beginning with a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, Y): NONE
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 6 through 10: ALL

Week 2:

[Arkayde] [private guess of a set of 3 words]: NONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words in which either the first or the second letter appears in the string HE WEARS MANY HATS: NONE

[John and Izak Bulten] The set of all words containing a double letter between NN and ZZ inclusive: TWO

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all 6- and 7-letter words that contain the letter O at least once: ONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words ending with a double letter: NONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words beginning with a letter between J and P inclusive: NONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words with 3 or more consecutive consonants (consonants being defined as all letters except A, E, I, O, U, and Y): ONE

Week 3:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of words with at least 8 letters, of which at least 3 are (not necessarily distinct) vowels (A, E, I, O, U, and Y): ONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words in which the fifth letter exists and appears in the string FAMILY REUNIONS: ALL

[John Bulten] The set of all words which contain the letter R: ONE

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all 6- and 7- letter words that contain the letter R at least once: NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words which contain three or more of the same letter: ONE

[Leo Termin] The set of all words ending in a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, Y): NONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words with 2 or more non-overlapping double letters in them (examples: VOODOO, ZOOKEEPER; counterexamples: PEEP, ZZZ): NONE

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $44.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 357: DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 8

WORDY WEDNESDAY #355

PENT WORDS 71 (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 **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #356

SECTION SIX 35 (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 #357

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 8

(click here for a PDF version)

  __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __,   __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __

          ^        ^        ^           ^           ^        ^           ^        ^

  __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __

       ^           ^           ^           ^        ^           ^           ^

  __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __-__ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __,

       ^        ^           ^        ^        ^           ^           ^

  __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __

    ^        ^        ^        ^           ^        ^           ^           ^

  __ __ __ __ __.

       ^

__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __

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

2009’s Car Allowance Rebate System, __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

   colloquially: 3 wds.             81 01 45 35 31 70 54 10 05 24 92 09 13 75 87

Cause to lose one’s bearings __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                             14 40 82 80 12 30 17 61 27

Viscous __ __ __ __ __

        39 74 83 42 91

One of the seven traditional colors of the rainbow __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                   21 38 53 46 59 32

____ Clown Posse (hip hop duo) __ __ __ __ __ __

                               93 58 66 90 26 36

It may be dramatic __ __ __ __ __

                   37 76 51 55 94

Congratulatory phrase heard at a Jewish wedding, perhaps: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

     2 wds.                                               78 07 71 56 03 48 64 18

Load again, as a web page __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                          68 77 15 41 28 06 63

Colorfully-titled 1968 Vietnam War film __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

   starring John Wayne: 3 wds.          62 96 16 34 79 19 22 52 02 25 08 72 86 44

____ Online (2003-2013 Disney MMORPG) __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                      57 11 60 84 88 67 33 65

Lovers’ rendezvous __ __ __ __ __

                   95 29 50 85 69

Neck injury caused by a rear-end car collision, perhaps __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __

                                                        89 20 43 73 49 04 47 23

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's an 8-letter word for "'Chef' of canned pasta fame, based on a real chef named Hector"?
* What's a 6-letter word for "Charlton who was president of the National Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003"?

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

Contest: Let's Guess THREE Words! (Week 2 update)

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words beginning with a letter between Q and Z inclusive: NONE

The set of all words whose letters have a combined point value of 15 or higher in English-language Scrabble (examples: JOKE, ZZZ): ONE

The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, U, or Y: TWO

The set of all words containing a double letter (examples: EGG, BOOT, LLAMA; counterexamples: FIFE, NANA): ALL

Week 1:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length greater than 10: NONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BORROWER, counterexample: ROWER): ONE

[Jason Boomer] The set of words with length of 8 or more: ONE

[Jessica Timmerman] The set {BALLOON, BEEPED, BOOKING, BOOMING, BULLFROG, CHICKEN, FEED, FEELING, FOOD, GULL}: NONE

[John Bulten] The set of all words with second-to-last letter between L and S inclusive: ONE

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): NONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): NONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words beginning with a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, Y): NONE
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 6 through 10: ALL

Week 2:

[Arkayde] [private guess of a set of 3 words]: NONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words in which either the first or the second letter appears in the string HE WEARS MANY HATS: NONE

[John and Izak Bulten] The set of all words containing a double letter between NN and ZZ inclusive: TWO

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all 6- and 7-letter words that contain the letter O at least once: ONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words ending with a double letter: NONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words beginning with a letter between J and P inclusive*: NONE

[Sam Levitin] The set of all words with 3 or more consecutive consonants (consonants being defined as all letters except A, E, I, O, U, and Y): ONE

*Kyle didn't clarify in time whether this included J and P or not; I went with inclusive because it matched the week 0 clue. Better to give information that wasn't intended to be asked for than no information.

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $46.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 356: Section Six 35

WORDY WEDNESDAY #354

TOUCHWORD 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Mary Maynard **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #355

PENT WORDS 71 (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!

RYAN FALEY HITS THE BIG THREE-ZERO-ZERO!

Congrats to colleague Ryan Faley hitting 300 puzzles with his newest challenging offering, "He Wears Many Hats"! Way to go!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #356

SECTION SIX 35

(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 Punish a child, perhaps 
2 Beverage brand based in, surprisingly enough, New York 
3 ____ Columbia (Canadian province) 
4 Nocturnal insect inhabiting small crevices 
5 The first reindeer mentioned in "A Visit from St. Nicholas" 
6 Legend 

Ring 2 
* Radio host Gregg nicknamed "Opie" 
* Innumerable 
* ____ Vocal Band (gospel group) 
* Classic TV series about the Cartwrights 
* Read the ____ act 

Ring 3 
* Dietary supplement brand created by a schoolteacher 
* Word before "party" or "rail" 
* ____ of Thrones (2011-2019 HBO series) 
* ____ wedding 

Ring 4 
* Metal band with the album Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? 
* 1998 film whose title refers to a Japanese samurai without a master 
* Diamond in the ____ 

Ring 5 
* Spiny mammal 
* Common type of golf club 

Ring 6 
* Actor Segal who starred in TV Land's Retired at 35

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 14-letter, 3-word answer for "Colorfully-titled 1968 Vietnam War film starring John Wayne"?

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

Contest: Let's Guess THREE Words! (Week 1 update)

(Author's note: I apparently accidentally deleted this post. I am reposting it for archival purposes, months after the contest is over.)

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words beginning with a letter between Q and Z inclusive: NONE

The set of all words whose letters have a combined point value of 15 or higher in English-language Scrabble (examples: JOKE, ZZZ): ONE

The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, U, or Y: TWO

The set of all words containing a double letter (examples: EGG, BOOT, LLAMA; counterexamples: FIFE, NANA): ALL

Week 1:

[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length greater than 10: NONE

[Inge S. Kraft] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BORROWER, counterexample: ROWER): ONE

[Jason Boomer] The set of words with length of 8 or more: ONE

[Jessica Timmerman] The set {BALLOON, BEEPED, BOOKING, BOOMING, BULLFROG, CHICKEN, FEED, FEELING, FOOD, GULL}: NONE

[John Bulten] The set of all words with second-to-last letter between L and S inclusive: ONE

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words that appear as distinct words in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (as opposed to as substrings of words), according to www.rhymezone.com/shakespeare (example: BRANCHLESS, counterexample: RANCH): NONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing a double vowel (AA, EE, II, OO, UU, YY): NONE

[Kyle Nils] The set of all words beginning with a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, Y): NONE
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 6 through 10: ALL

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $48.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 355: Pent Words 71

WORDY WEDNESDAY #353

HEX PATHFINDER 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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
John Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #354

TOUCHWORD 17 (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 #355

PENT WORDS 71

(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 Neighbor of Turkey / Peculiar 
2 Layer, as of a wedding cake / Crazy ____ (card game) 
3 Carrie who played Princess Leia / Leave out 
4 ____ valley / Wildebeest 
5 Comedian Gottfried / Golfer Ernie 
6 Sigmund and the ____ Monsters / Grasshopper relative 
7 1995 Martin Scorsese film / Dragon's ____ (1983 arcade game) 
8 ____ wolf (South American canine resembling a fox on stilts) / WWF No ____ (2000 wrestling video game) 
9 Extraordinary ability / Popular lunch meat 
10 Have something in common, perhaps / Moray, for one 

PENTOMINOES: 
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER 
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER 
* Icy 
* Garfield ____ Garfield (webcomic adapted from the newspaper comic Garfield) 
* Item tossed in Scotland 
* Silly 
* Women's fitness magazine 
* Mushrooms and such 
* Animal known as the ship of the desert 
* Reasons to call a plumber, perhaps 
* Rascal 
* Mars vehicle 
* Fuming 
* Chex ____ (1996 first-person shooter game that replaces the violence of Doom with cereal) 
* Texas city named after a President 
* Cylindrical rod 
* ____ Wolfhound 
* "Rhythm of the ____" (DeBarge song) 
* It may be Socratic 
* Parts of molecules 

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "Beverage brand based in, surprisingly enough, New York"?

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

Contest: Let's Guess THREE Words!

I am thinking of three (not two) distinct English words that are at least 2 letters long and no more than 15 letters long. All of the words are valid in Scrabble according to https://scrabble.merriam.com/. Your goal is to guess them. Everyone who guesses the trio of words correctly by the time the contest is over will be entered for a chance to win a copy of my board game Mammalath (with the Mammalath Plus expansion).

Once per week, each and every single person reading this blog post is allowed to e-mail a set of words to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. If it is a set of at least 10 words, I will publicly post on this blog (on the following Monday at 12:01 AM Central time) whether NONE, ONE, TWO, or ALL of my words are in that set. If it is a set of 9 words or fewer, I will privately give you the same information. If I can't easily verify whether a set of words has at least 10 words in it, I will assume it does, so if you want your information kept private, submit your set of words in the form "{CINQ, QADI, QAID, QATS, QOPH}" rather than "the set of all Scrabble-legal 4-letter words with a Q and not a U".

Once someone has guessed the trio of words (that is, submitted to me a set of exactly three words and gotten a result of ALL), one last weekly update will be posted on this blog, and then people who haven't guessed the words yet will have one more week to try to do so and be entered in the prize drawing.

This contest will also benefit the Food Bank of West Central Texas. The money pool which I will donate to them will start at $50, and then go down $2 for every weekly update that has gone by without someone guessing the trio of words. If the money pool would hit $0, I will instead withdraw the prize drawing. So even if you aren't interested in the prize drawing, your participation may help someone else solve the words faster and thus help charity!

To kick things off, I'll make four guesses for you, chosen from among the guesses that were made in Let's Guess Two Words II!:

The set of all words beginning with a letter between Q and Z inclusive: NONE

The set of all words whose letters have a combined point value of 15 or higher in English-language Scrabble (examples: JOKE, ZZZ): ONE

The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, U, or Y: TWO

The set of all words containing a double letter (examples: EGG, BOOT, LLAMA; counterexamples: FIFE, NANA): ALL

Good luck, and yappy guessing!

Wordy Wednesday 354: Touchword 17

WORDY WEDNESDAY #352

PATHFINDER 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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Izak Bulten *
John Bulten *
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #353

HEX PATHFINDER 22 (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 #354

TOUCHWORD 17

(click here for a PDF version)

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  2020 video game whose release on the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons inspired many pieces of crossover fan art: 2 wds. / Smart

2  College campus building, briefly / Hit song for The Who / Machine for shaping wood, perhaps

3  Clear a hard drive to prepare it to store data, say / Inflammation of the liver

4  ____ 21 (fashion retailer) / Squabble, as between lovers / Part of an eye

5  Kind of poetry that often mimics natural speech patterns: 2 wds. / ____ projection

6  Piece of armor for the shin / On the rocks / Tremendous bargain

7  Palestinian city / With The, NBC singing competition / Loathe

8  Pavilion in a park, perhaps / Slyly disparaging / Direction from Fort Worth to Dallas

9  Rational / ____ and Herzegovina / “I ____ to Do That” (Paul Brandt song)

10 Common playground sighting / Defraud / “We're an American ____” (Grand Funk Railroad song)

11 Rocker Jimi / Sheath for a sword

12 “____, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” / Remington product / “All ____!” (train conductor’s shout)

13 ____ and home / ____ market / Animal also known as a hog-nosed coon

14 Smell / ____ & Louise (1991 film) / Prickly pears and such

15 Car dashboard component / One of the Minor Prophets

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Garfield ____ Garfield (webcomic adapted from the newspaper comic Garfield)"? 

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