Wordy Wednesday 407: This Puzzle Is 2 Short! & Wordy Wednesday 408: Snake Crisscross 16

WORDY WEDNESDAY #405
PENT WORDS 81 (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 **
Karen Spencer **
Kyle Nils **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #406
SECTION SIX 40 (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!

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #407
THIS PUZZLE IS 2 SHORT!
(click here for a PDF version)

That’s not an overstatement.

AC BA EN ER HE RE RE SA SP TH

__ __ __   *__*__*__’__   *__ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __ __

     ^        ^     ^        ^     ^     ^        ^     ^        ^     

AD AN IT LE ME OT SI SM TO

__ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __  “*__    __ __ __ __”

     ^        ^     ^     ^        ^     ^        ^        ^      

AD ER IA IS IT MO ND ON RT SQ UA

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

        ^     ^     ^     ^        ^        ^        ^  

__ __ __ __ __ __ __

  ^     ^     ^     

AS BL GR HO IC ME OF SM UE US

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

     ^        ^     ^        ^     ^     ^     ^        ^     ^     

BL ER EY FI HE ND NS OU UE WH

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

     ^     ^        ^     ^        ^     ^        ^     ^        ^     

CO KE ME NA ND OR SA

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

     ^     ^     ^        ^     ^     ^     

DO ED EV IL IT NT TH TO WE WN

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

     ^        ^     ^     ^        ^     ^        ^     ^        ^        

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

     ^     ^        ^     ^     ^        ^     

WORDY WEDNESDAY #408
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 16
(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

Lovelace of Analytical Engine fame

Mongrel

Handgun, slangily

Pen part

Chum

____ judicata

4 LETTERS

“Money, Money, Money” band

Sore

Grows older

____ Domini

Prop in many a stoner film

Dry, as champagne

____ pickle

Relative of Cheems, in memes

It may be geodesic

Irradiate

____ Chop's Play-Along! (1992-1997 PBS series)

“____ and learn!”

Insect eating clothes, often

Grammy-winning pianist Peter

Comedian Foxx

Wise one

Religious splinter group

Nasal mucus, familiarly

Emulate Bethany Hamilton, say

Keep ____ on (watch carefully)

Diplomacy

“The Bear ____ Over the Mountain”

5 LETTERS

Dental hygiene item

Emerge from an egg

You might see one on a runway

Program for drug abusers, for short

Shoot from cover

Snake’s toxin

6 LETTERS

They’re often kept off the table

7 LETTERS

Theoretical physicist Feynman

Moved in small waves

10 LETTERS

Many church instruments: 2 wds.

11 LETTERS

Hanging light fixtures

Nervousness experienced by an actor, say: 2 wds.

16 LETTERS

Title of a 1971 hit for the Doors, or of drummer John Densmore’s 1991 biography: 4 wds.

SNAKE WORDS

5 LETTERS

Luxury Honda subdivision

You might see one on a runway

More unusual

Common martini garnish

____ institution (prison)

Longstocking of kid lit

Uttered an oath

Like the diet of many animal rights activists

6 LETTERS

They can be passed

Citation maker

Cones with their tips cut off

Legal adverb

Charlton of Ben-Hur

Dull

Homily

On Photography essayist Susan

Make a roof from straw

7 LETTERS

Absolutely lacking in class

Brazilian dance

Addressee of the two epistles preceding Titus in the New Testament

Water wheel, for example

8 LETTERS

____ and Kings (1904 O. Henry novel whose title references Lewis Carroll’s poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter”)

20 LETTERS

Messiah composer: 3 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What does Buzz McCallister have as a pet in Home Alone?
* Patron Puzzle #84, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a Words Without Friends.

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

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

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:

The set of all words where the fourth letter is a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, or Y): NONE

The set of all words containing a doubled consonant (BB, CC, DD, FF, . . . XX, ZZ): ONE

The set of all words in which the 3rd and 5th letters both exist and are a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, or Y) and a consonant (any letter besides A, E, I, O, U, or Y) in some order: TWO

The set of all words that begin with and end with a consonant (anything besides A, E, I, O, U, or Y): ALL

Week 1:

[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words containing at least one of the letter combinations HH, KK, LL, SS, and ZZ: NONE

[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words containing at least three instances of vowels (A, E, I, O, U, or Y): NONE

The Grandmaster Puzzles gift card value is now $48.

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

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 406: Section Six 40

WORDY WEDNESDAY #404 (title)

Here is the title to this puzzle. If you still wish to find it yourself, please go here for the solution to the puzzle, or here for a hint. Here's a list of people who found the title:
Cole Kendall **
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Stephen Potter **
Jason Boomer **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
yyw **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #405
PENT WORDS 81 (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 #406
SECTION SIX 40
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Kyle Nils. 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!
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 Item on a bathroom rack

2 The first US space station

3 Show up

4 "____ Waltz" (song associated with Harry Truman)

5 Pillboxes and such

6 Grain harvesting machine

 

Ring 2

* Emcee

* Regained consciousness: 2 wds.

* Air Jordan maker

* Japanese hiragana and katakana, for two

* Computer infection

Ring 3

* Item you might strike

* Amadeo of Brazilian firearms fame

* Spoken

* Abbott and Costello Meet the ____ Kops (1955 film)

 

Ring 4

* Become dry and wrinkled

* Fruits ____ (manga)

* Make into a law

Ring 5

* Melbourne missy

* ____ Falls, New York (site of the first women's rights convention)

Ring 6

* Napoleon at Saint ____ (solitaire card game also known as Forty Thieves)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A puzzle that is too short!
* What's a 6-letter word for "On Photography essayist Susan"?

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

Contest: Let's Guess Three Words III!

New rules are in bold! Read them carefully!

I am thinking of three 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 gift card for Grandmaster Puzzles worth up to $50.

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. To give me more time to prepare the weekly posts (in case of a freak statewide power outage, for example), the deadline to guarantee your guess being accepted is now 12:01 AM Central time each Sunday. If it is a set of at least 10 words or it is defined by a property of the words rather than an explicit list, 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 and you list the words explicitly (that is, you guess "{CINQ, QADI, QAID, QATS, QOPH}" rather than "the set of all Scrabble-legal 4-letter words with a Q and not a U"), I will privately give you the same information in an email sometime that Sunday.

I reserve the right to reject any guess if it is impossible for the average reader (who doesn't know what my words are already) to determine whether or not any given word is in your set within a relatively short amount of time. This is a difficult quality to define empirically, but valid guesses would include "the set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME" or "the set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters", and invalid guesses would include "the set of the three words Grant is thinking of" and "the set of all words still in at least one possible word trio given the information publicly available right now, and which, if the words in that set were listed and numbered alphabetically starting from 1, would have prime indices". Keep it simple!

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, including one last hint from me (I've run out of anagram-based pseudonyms), 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. The deadline for this final week will be 12:01 AM Central time on the following Monday (that is, the aforementioned 12:01 AM Sunday deadline will not be applied). The rules for private guesses still apply (you must explicitly list the three words you are guessing, not define them uniquely by some convoluted property).

The value of the Grandmaster Puzzles gift card will start at $50, and then go down $2 for every weekly update that has gone by without someone guessing the trio of words. (Exception: the value cannot go to $0.) A matching amount will also be donated to the Food Bank of West Central Texas, 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 Three Words II!:

The set of all words where the fourth letter is a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, or Y): NONE

The set of all words containing a doubled consonant (BB, CC, DD, FF, . . . XX, ZZ): ONE

The set of all words in which the 3rd and 5th letters both exist and are a vowel (A, E, I, O, U, or Y) and a consonant (any letter besides A, E, I, O, U, or Y) in some order: TWO

The set of all words that begin with and end with a consonant (anything besides A, E, I, O, U, or Y): ALL

Good luck, and yappy guessing!

Wordy Wednesday 405: Pent Words 81

WORDY WEDNESDAY #400
PENT WORDS 80 (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 **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Kyle Nils **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Bo & Becky Green **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #401
FOXGERYPTICS 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
James Haddad *
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #402
ANAWORDSEARCH 3 (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:
Karen Spencer **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #403
CODEWORDS 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Karen Spencer **
Kyle Nils **
Leo Termin **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #404 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have found the title of this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's a hint. Send the title 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 #405
PENT WORDS 81
(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 “But it's all right now, in fact, it's a ____!” (Rolling Stones lyric) / Participates in a parade, say
2 Dog doc / The North Star
3 Read an online forum without posting / Interlocked
4 Its leaves are used to make cigars and cigarettes / Israeli politician ____ Ariel
5 Contemptible / Missing, as from class
6 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s ____ / Make cookies and pies, say
7 1969 Disney movie about a raccoon / ____ with the punches
8 Periodic table item / Bill who got his “Science Guy” nickname from John Keister
9 Ulna’s partner / Alternative to stairs, perhaps
10 Sum of money payable at regular intervals / Pigpen

PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Televised again
* Maxwell portrayed by Don Adams
* ____ dot
* Robber ____
* Common courtroom sighting
* Dull
* Leung of Glee
* ____ sprawl
* Musical with the song “Pity the Child”
* Opposite of full
* Islamic holy city
* Member of an Alaskan indigenous group
* Consume water, for example
* They list the offerings of restaurants
* Marisa of My Cousin Vinny
* Ice cube containers
* Ascend
* Ascend

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's an 8-letter word for "'____ Waltz' (song associated with Harry Truman)"?

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

Contest: Crisscross Relay (RESULTS!)

About two weeks ago, I posted the contest Crisscross Relay. Here are the results!

Wordy Wednesday 404

WORDY WEDNESDAY #398
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:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Kyle Nils **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Mary Maynard **
Stephen Potter **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Patrick Jordan *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #399
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 15 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Leo Termin **
Mark Ballinger **
Bo & Becky Green **
Kevin Orfield **
Lee Glascock **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #400
PENT WORDS 80 (hint)

As of this writing, 14 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 #401
FOXGERYPTICS 16 (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 #402
ANAWORDSEARCH 3 (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 #403
CODEWORDS 14 (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 #404
(click here for a PDF version)

[Author’s note: I tried to share a link to this puzzle, but the website went down, and now gives a 404 error! On this page and the following page are the solution write-up and comments from my patrons who got to see the puzzle before the site went down, so you can get some sense of what an absolutely fantastic puzzle you missed. Perhaps you can figure out what the puzzle’s title was.]

The solver is presented with an interactive online word search puzzle, but instead of a regular word list, the solver is given clues to the words. After finding all of the words, a button appears that says “HIDE WORDS”; doing so hides all of the words, resulting in this grid:

Thanks to the words being hidden, it is easy for the solver to realize that the unused letters in the word search spell DECODE FIRST LETTERS OF HORIZONTAL WORDS IN READING ORDER USING PUZZLE TITLE AS VIGENERE KEY. After discovering this message, the solver will probably need to use the “UNHIDE WORDS” button to see the words again, unless the solver has perfect memory. Since there are 21 horizontal words and 21 letters in the puzzle’s title, any Vigenère cipher decoder can easily be used to obtain the clue GREAT GETAWAY GAME EMCEE. (Note that some decoders don’t work if you type spaces in the key.) Great Getaway Game was a short-lived game show based on word searches (aptly enough); the final answer is the name of the legendary emcee who hosted it, WINK MARTINDALE.

Patron Agnes R. Kift writes: Although I think I solved this puzzle, I was never able to figure out the significance of the 40-digit number 9684456666447445446554457564645644544859 or the 26 numbers 16-3-7-6-29-3-5-5-11-0-4-12-6-10-21-8-0-19-16-14-6-3-1-5-1-0. [Author’s note: The first number contains the lengths of the 40 answer words in alphabetical order; the list of 26 numbers indicates how many times each letter of the alphabet appears in the answers: 16 A’s, 3 B’s, 7 C’s, and so on.] The first word I found was the name of the Jeep; I just bought a JL model myself, so I recognized it instantly. Then I identified the chemical element and the musical instrument, both starting with the same unusual initial letter. (Did you know the instrument’s name comes from Greek words for “wood” and “sound”?) The MP4 video of the song “Tom Sawyer” over an image of the robotic dog from the Mega Man games was clever, but whose voice clips were those? [Author’s note: They are voice clips of late political commentator Limbaugh, naturally.] I would never have figured out what word the picture of all the trees referred to without the hint that it’s an anagram of TAMBOURER, nor did I know Moon Zappa's middle name. The last word I found was the newspaper comic about the fictional newspaper The Treetops Tattler-Tribune (I had to look that up, because I’m more familiar with the footwear than the comic).

Patron Greta N. Fisk writes: I liked how you used one image, the table of contents from a Bible with the names of the first two books censored, to clue two words. You missed a chance to do that again with the two words that form the title of that classic 1990 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid. [Author’s note: I decided the puzzle had too many movie references already – actor Harrison from Star Wars, actor Tom from Top Gun, the Beatles movie from 1965, the 2007 movie where Nicolas Cage plays a magician pursued by the FBI, the one with Adam Sandler holding a remote control, the John Wayne movie True ____, the Tom Hanks movie Saving ____ Ryan, the 1951 movie A Streetcar Named ____, and DreamWorks Animation’s utterly deplorable The ____ Baby – so I clued those two words a different way to keep things varied.] And it’s a good thing you specified that the picture of an egg cell was a 4-letter word, because the word EGG coincidentally appears in the word search, but the web app doesn’t recognize that as the correct answer.

Patron Karen F. Stig writes: As a Nintendo fan, I was proud of myself for identifying all the Mario answers without looking them up. The picture of the Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga map with the caption “Half the name of this kingdom” was a snap (other people might have preferred a picture of comedian Orson), as was the racing game Mario ____ 64 and the name of the bird in Super Mario 64 who steals Mario’s cap (an apt name for the kind of “-maniac” who steals things) – and don’t get me started on how easy it was to identify that princess Mario rescues! Most people wouldn’t identify the Super Scope game Yoshi’s ____, which was actually the first game to refer to said princess by her current name instead of Toadstool outside of Japan; you could have used the Apple browser for that one if you wanted it to be easier. I’m surprised that you didn’t use Super Mario 64 to clue the dome-shaped arctic dwelling, since such a dwelling appears in the level Snowman's Land.

Patron Reg F. Atkins writes: I appreciated the sitcom references like the one about the New York City cabbies that aired from 1978 to 1983, and the more recent ____ Development. It was also apt that a game show featured in the final clue phrase when you also used the GSN original show ____ Knowledge as a clue. I had to look up the NATO phonetic alphabet to learn what preceded “Lima”. I also had never heard of rapper DeShaun Dupree Holton; I might have gotten that word without looking it up had the clue been “____ of purchase” or “burden of ____”. And thanks for invoking my childhood memories of playing the tic-tac-toe-inspired Mattel game ____ Across.

Patron Stefan G. Rik writes: I enjoyed how easy the cryptic clues were, and that they were alphabetized by answer, because I’d never solved any before: “Secret found in sugarcane (6)”, “Rage about cog (4)”, “Meld a broken Olympic prize (5)”, “Scooter relative sulked (5)”, “Flip peels to snooze (5)”, “Austere oboist has sound system (6)”, and “Gloves, ties concealing sleeveless garment (4)”.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Marisa of My Cousin Vinny"?

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