Kevin's Puzzles at Home, Part 5: Air Letters

PREVIOUS ENTRIES

Introduction (what these puzzles are and why they're called "Kevin's Puzzles at Home"): click here

Part 1 (See Monsters): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 5 people solved it later for 25 points.

Part 2 (The Joy of Paintings): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 1 person solved it later for 25 points.

Part 3 (Side Effects May Include Disney-ness): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 16 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 1 person solved it later for 25 points.

Part 4 (Overbooked): puzzle PDF, hint PDF (new!)

* 14 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece.

The total number of points scored is 3375. Thus, the current money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $33.75. If you haven't already, you may solve the above puzzles for 25 points each, possibly with the aid of the hints.

KEVIN’S PUZZLES AT HOME, PART 5:

AIR LETTERS

(click here for a PDF version)

Kevin wants to travel by plane to all 50 states. He’s already visited 20 of them!

1. FLG (_/9)

2. ROW (_/7)

3. ALB (_/6)

4. BTR (_/10)

5. ANC (_/9)

6. OKC (_/12)

7. LAR (_/7)

8. LAX (_/10)

9. BZN (_/7)

10. MEM (_/7)

11. MSN (_/7)

12. LAS (_/8)

13. TLH (_/11)

14. BIS (_/8)

15. PIT (_/10)

16. MOB (_/6)

17. ASE (_/5)

18. BOS (_/6)

19. LBB (_/7)

20. SPI (_/11)

---

(This illustration by Tintinabar is not part of the puzzle.)

Submit your answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com for 50 points, and stay tuned next week for Part 5's hint and Part 6's puzzle. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 476: Section Six 47 & Wordy Wednesday 477: Snake Crisscross 20

WORDY WEDNESDAY #474
HEX PATHFINDER 29 (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 **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Michael Lebowitz **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #475
PENT WORDS 95 (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!

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!
WORDY WEDNESDAY #476
SECTION SIX 47
(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 Religious leader

2 Equilateral quadrilateral

3 Snack throughout the day

4 Layered Italian pasta

5 ____ Roll (chocolate-flavored candy)

6 Brief report, briefly

Ring 2

* Series of images in a movie

* Austrian city in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born

* Like some losers

* Dance move

* Tenon’s partner

Ring 3

* Like a friend who’s been with you for ages

* English county in which the village of Cheddar is located

* Song from the deluxe edition of Taylor Swift’s album Speak Now

* Stare

Ring 4

* Forfeit

* It may be cautionary

* Beyond horrific

Ring 5

* Appear (to be)

* Word following “drill” or “staff”

Ring 6

* 47 ____ Down (2017 survival horror movie in which two sisters are trapped in an underwater shark cage)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #477
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 20
(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

“Little” amount of Brylcreem that will “do ya”

Make a mistake

Canopic ____

“____ to Joy”

Fluid in a plant

4 LETTERS

Surrounded by

Wild swine

Command heard during a pistol duel

Created

Paul Blart: ____ Cop

____ and greet

1/2, for a 30-degree angle

Mineral springs

Lyra’s brightest star

Walk through water

5 LETTERS

____-182 (rock band)

Senior

Part of the head that hair grows from

Pursue stealthily

6 LETTERS

Motionless: 2 wds.

Certain conifers

Calamity of Tiny Toon Adventures is one

Entertainer in a king’s court

Change “file.txt” to “file2.txt”, say

Cancel

7 LETTERS

____ Bureau of Investigation

8 LETTERS

Tarried

SNAKE WORDS

5 LETTERS

Home

Sports stadium

Prize

Duck hunter’s item

Former shortstop Jeter

“So God created man in his own ____. . .” (Genesis 1:27)

South American pack animal

Not secret

Spaghetti or ravioli

6 LETTERS

Poisonous gas with an odor like garlic

Proclaimed loudly

Mathematician whose “wager” is an argument for believing in God

7 LETTERS

Weasel relatives which are popular as pets

Vague notion

8 LETTERS

Prestigious

9 LETTERS

Star of Morbius (2022): 2 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A puzzle that will help you bone up on math!

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Kevin's Puzzles at Home, Part 4: Overbooked

PREVIOUS ENTRIES

Introduction (what these puzzles are and why they're called "Kevin's Puzzles at Home"): click here

Part 1 (See Monsters): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 5 people solved it later for 25 points.

Part 2 (The Joy of Paintings): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 1 people solved it later for 25 points.

Part 3 (Side Effects May Include Disney-ness): puzzle PDF, hint PDF (new!)

* 16 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece.

The total number of points scored is 2650. Thus, the current money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $26.50. If you haven't already, you may solve the above puzzles for 25 points each, possibly with the aid of the hints.

KEVIN’S PUZZLES AT HOME, PART 4:

OVERBOOKED

(click here for a PDF version)

Kevin wants to read a good book, but everything’s out of order!

AAAGILNOST → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AACDEEHILNNNOOPSSSST → _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AAEEFHIILNNORSSSSTT → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

ABEEHRSW → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

ACCDEHHIINNNOORSST → _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

ACCILNOOSSS → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

ACFHIIINNORRSSTTW → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

ACOST → _ _ _ _ + _

AEEHINOPSS → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AEEILNORSTV → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AEHHMTTW → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AEJMSY → _ _ _ _ _ + _

AEKMR → _ _ _ _ + _

AHIIILNNPPPS → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

AMNNORS → _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

CDDEEENOPRST → _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ + _

CDEHIMNOORSTTY → _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

CDEHJNNOOOS → _ _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ + _

DEEJU → _ _ _ _ + _

DHHIJNORST → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ + _

EEEFIPRRSTT → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ + _

EHILMNOPR → _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

EKLSU → _ _ _ _ + _

FHIIMOORSTTTY → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ + _

FHIJMNORST → _ _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _ + _

HJNOT → _ _ _ _ + _

ISTTTU → _ _ _ _ _ + _

---

(This illustration by Tintinabar is not part of the puzzle.)

Submit your answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com for 50 points, and stay tuned next week for Part 4's hint and Part 5's puzzle. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 475: Pent Words 95

WORDY WEDNESDAY #473
CODEWORDS 19 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Michael Lebowitz **
Tyler Hinman **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #474
HEX PATHFINDER 29 (hint)

As of this writing, 13 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 #475
PENT WORDS 95
(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 Erudite one / ____-gallon hat
2 Three-point feat in horseshoes / Threat-ending word
3 Prayer-ending word / Freezing point?
4 Character played by Dean Winters in Allstate ads / “Hit the ____ Jack” (Ray Charles hit)
5 ____ of War (Epic Games franchise) / Gather
6 Nut of an oak tree / Screw up
7 Ditch around a castle / ____ on Infinite Earths (1985-1986 comic book series)
8 “You’re the ____” (song from The Karate Kid) / ____ effect
9 Thin nail / Be excessive in, as an activity
10 ____ of the ball / Declare void, as a marriage
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Heard who played Mera in Aquaman (2018)
* “Cliffs of ____” (Eric Johnson instrumental)
* Recess for a statue
* “Blue” singer Rimes
* Cookie ____ (breakfast cereal)
* Möbius ____
* Big name in electric vehicles
* Skedaddle
* Zagreb resident
* “This little piggy had ____ beef. . .”
* Mars ____ Moms (2011 film)
* Picture
* Cuban ballroom dance
* South Korea’s capital
* Not small
* Genesis tower site
* Item from the past
* The criminal burning of property

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 7-letter word for "____ Roll (chocolate-flavored candy)"?
* What's a 6-letter word for "Calamity of Tiny Toon Adventures is one"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Kevin's Puzzles at Home, Part 3: Side Effects May Include Disney-ness

PREVIOUS ENTRIES

Introduction (what these puzzles are and why they're called "Kevin's Puzzles at Home"): click here

Part 1 (See Monsters): puzzle PDF, hint PDF

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece; 3 people solved it later for 25 points.

Part 2 (The Joy of Paintings): puzzle PDF, hint PDF (new!)

* 17 people solved this within the first week for 50 points apiece.

The total number of points scored is 1775. Thus, the current money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is $17.75. If you haven't already, you may solve the above puzzles for 25 points each, possibly with the aid of the hints.

KEVIN’S PUZZLES AT HOME, PART 3:

SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE DISNEY-NESS

(click here for a PDF version)

Ever since Kevin was gifted a Disney+ subscription, he always finds a way to fit the movies with his favorite characters into his schedule.

4 LETTERS

Dr. Calico

5 LETTERS

Thumper

Timothy Q. Mouse

Maui

Mushu

6 LETTERS

Olaf

Sabor

7 LETTERS

Jafar

Alma Madrigal

Pascal

8 LETTERS

Philoctetes

Tinker Bell

Nick Wilde

9 LETTERS

Sir Hiss

10 LETTERS

Jaq

Meeko

11 LETTERS

Tanana

Timon

12 LETTERS

Vanellope von Schweetz

13 LETTERS

Roquefort

Bagheera

16 LETTERS

Princess Eilonwy

17 LETTERS

Lumiere

---

(This illustration by Tintinabar is not part of the puzzle.)

Submit your answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com for 50 points, and stay tuned next week for Part 3's hint and Part 4's puzzle. Good luck!

Wordy Wednesday 474: Hex Pathfinder 29

WORDY WEDNESDAY #471
CODEWORDS 18 (answer)

Here is the answer to this puzzle. If you still wish to solve it yourself, please go here for the normal version of the puzzle, or here for the easier version of the puzzle. Here's a list of people who solved it:
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Karen Spencer **
Michael Lebowitz **
Tyler Hinman **
Damon French **
Kevin Orfield *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #472
HEX PATHFINDER 28 (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 **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Michael Lebowitz **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Damon French **
Kevin Orfield **
Mary Maynard **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #473
CODEWORDS 19 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #474
HEX PATHFINDER 29
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Cathy Bowen. Support me on Patreon at the Super Fan level ($5/month) and solve the monthly Patron Puzzle for a chance to suggest a seed word for a future puzzle, or at the Ultra Fan level ($20/month) to suggest one seed word every month!

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered hexagon and winds through the grid, starting in the indicated direction. When you have finished, every letter will be used in exactly two entries.

Rearrange the letters in the shaded spaces to get the final answer, a 7-letter word.

1E Dish of cheese-topped tortilla chips (6)

2W Like some gases (5)

3E Stronghold (7)

4SE Gymnastic feat (10)

5W Garbage receptacle (8, 2 wds.)

6SW Legally bar (5)

7E Title character in a series of children’s books that all end, “That’s all there is, there isn’t any more” (8)

8SE French painter Pierre-Auguste ____ (6)

9SW Sport played with a flying disc (8)

10SE Fissure (4)

11NW Wandering (7)

12SW ____ monster (venomous lizard) (4)

13E Jungle 2 Jungle star (8, 2 wds.)

14SE Constellation with Polaris (9, 2 wds.)

15NE Billy Joel song that begins, “Call me a joker, call me a fool” (13, 4 wds.)

16E “Anti-”, grammatically (6)

17NW The tendency to favor evidence for one’s preconceptions over evidence against them (16, 2 wds.)

18NW River famously crossed by Julius Caesar (7)

19SW Some ankle bones (4)

20SE ____ Masters (2022 series where teams compete to set up chain reactions of falling tiles) (6)

21W 2004 title role for Jude Law (5)

22NW Two-speaker sound system (6)

23E Common allergen (6)

24W ____-of-service attack (6)

24SE Direct the course of, as a vehicle (5)

25E Car modified for speed and acceleration (6, 2 wds.)

26SW Rosie the ____ (1944 film) (7)

27NE Charles, Harry, and William, for three (7)

27NE Uncorrupted (8)

28NE Composer whose works are played in a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland (6)

29E For a New Hampshire or Vermont governor, it’s two years long (4)

30NE Where military personnel eat (8, 2 wds.)

31E Certain onion (7)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Heard who played Mera in Aquaman (2018)"?

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy: Anacrossword Twenty-Pack Two

This update to the Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy initiative is to announce the Anacrossword Twenty-Pack Two!

Artwork by Tintinabar

This pack contains 20 Anacrossword puzzles for the price of US$10, and is, as the title suggests, a sequel to the Anacrossword Twenty-Pack. Anacrosswords are a recurring puzzle on this blog, inspired by a concept seen in Games magazine eons ago. Combining crosswords and acrostic puzzles, when the letters in the crossword are transferred to the correspondingly-numbered blanks, each of these puzzles yields a quote followed by its author (as opposed to the ones on this blog which yield a clue to a final answer). Each puzzle comes in a hard version (in which the solver must determine where each answer goes, as well as where spaces and punctuation belong in the quote) and an easy version (in which these things are given to the solver). Puzzles vary in size from 51 blanks in the smallest puzzle to 168 blanks in the largest puzzle.

As a reminder, this is a charity initiative. Please e-mail me (glmathgrantATgmailDOTcom) a copy of your charitable receipt to my local food bank, the Food Bank of West Central Texas, to receive this puzzle pack. (It must be a new donation, dated no earlier than one day before you email me.) Click here for a list of all of the puzzle packs in this initiative. Happy solving!

Wordy Wednesday 473: Codewords 19

WORDY WEDNESDAY #470
PENT WORDS 94 (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 **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Joe Bernard **
Karen Spencer **
Michael Lebowitz **
Stephen Potter **
Tyler Hinman **
Edwin Chen **
Kevin Orfield **
Peter Vickers **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #471
CODEWORDS 18 (hint)

As of this writing, 8 people have solved this puzzle. Haven't solved it yet? Here's an easier version. Send your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com within the next week to appear on the solvers list and be recognized for your puzzle prowess. Good luck, solvers!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #472
HEX PATHFINDER 29 (hint)

As of this writing, 13 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 #473
CODEWORDS 19
(click here for a PDF version)

In the crossword puzzle above, every letter is represented by an integer from 1 through 26. You must decipher the code to reveal the words.

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

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Composer whose works are played in a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland"?
* Patron Puzzle #96, which will be delivered on May 8, 2022, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is a Mini-Puzzle Fun Pack.

Submit your answers to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com. Until next time, happy solving!

Kevin's Puzzles at Home, Part 1: See Monsters

INTRODUCTION

This series is inspired by the website Kevin's Puzzles, on which Kevin Orfield, who is a regular reader of this blog, posts a puzzle-hunt-style puzzle every Monday. Kevin Orfield's puzzles usually lean towards the easy side of this genre in order to target a less experienced and/or younger audience, yet I have still found them amusing enough to solve on a regular basis. Kevin's Puzzles at Home is my markedly inferior knockoff of Kevin's Puzzles, so called because of the "we have X at home" meme:

The puzzles in Kevin's Puzzles at Home will be easier than my Wordy Wednesday posts, and hopefully at least 80% as entertaining as the real Kevin's Puzzles. Kevin's Puzzles at Home will be presented by my "we have X at home" version of Kevin:

(This illustration by Tintinabar is not part of any puzzle. Any resemblance between this Kevin and the real Kevin, or any real Kevin, is entirely coincidental.)

Kevin Edmund Kepler, the colorful and prodigious wolf depicted above with a solved 7x7x7 Awoo-bik's Cube in his paw, hopes that you enjoy the puzzles that he will be offering you over the course of these coming months!

Every Monday during May and June 2022, a new Kevin's Puzzles at Home puzzle will be posted at 12:01 AM (Central); as with the real Kevin's Puzzles, the final answer will be a word or phrase. Email me (at glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com) the correct solution to this puzzle within the next week to score 50 points. Each puzzle will also have a hint posted for it one week later; solving the puzzle while the hint is up will be worth 25 points. Part 9, which will be posted on June 27, is a meta puzzle which requires the answers to all of the previous puzzles in order to be solved; this puzzle will be worth double (100 points before the hint, 50 points after). The highest possible score a solver can attain will thus be 500 points, by solving each puzzle during its first week. For every point scored by my readers by 11:59 PM (Central) on July 10, I will donate 1¢ to the Food Bank of West Central Texas, up to a maximum of $100. (Thus, each solver can contribute a maximum of $5 to this pool.)

Unlike the real Kevin's Puzzles, which posts each puzzle's solution one week after its hint is posted, all puzzle solutions will be posted simultaneously on July 11. This will make the meta slightly harder, since you can't just look up the solutions to the previous puzzles to start solving it, but will also permit latecomers to score more points (and thus raise more money) than otherwise possible.

Have fun, and remember to check out the real Kevin's creations if these fake ones are up your alley!

KEVIN’S PUZZLES AT HOME, PART 1:

SEE MONSTERS

(click here for a PDF version)

Kevin is scared – he heard a rumor that there are monsters hiding in this puzzle!

---

(This illustration by Tintinabar is not part of the puzzle.)

Submit your answer to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com for 50 points, and stay tuned next week for Part 1's hint and Part 2's puzzle. Good luck!