Wordy Wednesday 566: Section Six 56

WORDY WEDNESDAY #564
CODEWORDS 26 (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 **
Derek Allen **
Michael Lebowitz **
Randy Rogers **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Tower **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #565
PENT WORDS 113 (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 #566
SECTION SIX 56
(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 starred spaces to form the final answer, a Scrabble-legal (unhyphenated, uncapitalized, etc.) 6-letter word.

Ring 1
1 “____ Through the Tulips”
2 Marshmallow ingredient
3 Poem that may be Petrarchan
4 Thinly-sliced cured meat used in some sandwiches
5 Grizzly ____
6 Best possible

Ring 2
* Jae’Sean of the Houston Rockets
* Be a braggart
* Upper bound, as of poker bets
* Term for a government body or for a group of owls
* Spring or summer

Ring 3
* Eurasian ermine
* ____ tender
* Diminish the abilities of
* Estrange

Ring 4
* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s ____
* Commonly consumed freshwater fish
* Hammer with a head shaped like a barrel

Ring 5
* Name shared by a bird and a shade of blue
* Type of tree seen on South Carolina’s state flag

Ring 6
* Child actress Shirley whose mother ensured that she always had exactly 56 curls in her hair

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Dallas suburb in which Frito-Lay is headquartered"?

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