Wordy Wednesday 576: Section Six 57

WORDY WEDNESDAY #574
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 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 **
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Derek Allen **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Michael Lebowitz **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
SquishmallowsUnited *
Tower **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #575
PENT WORDS 115 (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 #576
SECTION SIX 57
(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 Vitamin B3
2 Candy bar brand made from toffee, almonds, and chocolate
3 Spacey term for a guiding principle
4 Honking birds
5 Its flag depicts the Ashoka Chakra
6 Discard: 2 wds.

Ring 2
* Neap ____
* Department store associated with a catalog
* Another name for the game Chinese whispers
* Type of cake named after a lightweight fabric
* The Binding of _____ (2011 roguelike video game)

Ring 3
* Yearn (for)
* Seize with legal authority
* Leave in the lurch
* Sandal or sneaker

Ring 4
* Recess for a statue
* Ironed
* Place for baccarat and blackjack

Ring 5
* Caesar shift, for one
* Open ____ (2006 animated film about a grizzly bear named Boog)

Ring 6
* Actor Wesley of Passenger 57 (1992)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* Can you decode gibberish?

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

Wordy Wednesday 575: Pent Words 115

WORDY WEDNESDAY #573
SPICY GERMAN SAUSAGE 6 (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 **
Derek Allen **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard **
Michael Lebowitz **
Randy Rogers *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
SquishmallowsUnited **
Tower **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #574
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 26 (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 #575
PENT WORDS 115
(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 Small bend a cheater might make in a card / Lute relatives
2 Blunder / Reagan’s veep
3 Granted temporary use of / Glide
4 Maxims / Item at a birthday party or wedding, often
5 Revolve rapidly / NFL mascot Poe, for example
6 Sailor’s greeting / Erase, as computer files
7 Child-eating monsters / Rubbery glove material
8 Non-human Twitter user, for example / Obsolete
9 Wildebeest / “____ to Watch Over Me” (song from the Gershwin musical Oh, Kay!)
10 2005 horror film about three backpackers in Europe / Vessel for soup, often
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Bit of bread
* Certain mackerel
* Casper is a friendly one
* Food derived from milk, collectively
* A dark shade of grey
* ____ horizon
* Garbo of Ninotchka (1939)
* Juliet’s lover
* “Hello” singer
* Pictorial word puzzle
* Money paid in addition to one’s usual wages
* Subtly suggest
* Arm joint
* Parade sighting
* Word before “letter” or “reaction”
* Be the best
* City in West Yorkshire, England
* Grouchy Muppet

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Actor Wesley of Passenger 57 (1992)"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 574: Snake Crisscross 26

WORDY WEDNESDAY #572
FOXGERYPTICS 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 **
Cole Kendall **
Derek Allen **
James Haddad **
M. Sean Molley **
Michael Lebowitz **
Randy Rogers **
Kevin Orfield **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
SquishmallowsUnited **
Tower **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #573
SPICY GERMAN SAUSAGE 6 (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 #574
SNAKE CRISSCROSS 26
(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Bonnie Veenschoten. 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!
This puzzle’s crisscross grid contains entries which read across and down as normal; these are defined in alphabetical order by length under the heading “Crisscross Words”. The grid also needs to be divided into a number of areas which follow a single clear path, called “snakes”. Each of these snakes contains an entry reading from one end of the path to the other; these are defined in alphabetical order by length under the heading “Snake Words”. You must determine how the grid is divided into snakes and which entry corresponds to each snake.

Arrange the letters in the highlighted cells to form the final answer, a Scrabble-legal (unhyphenated, uncapitalized, etc.) 8-letter word.

CRISSCROSS WORDS
3 LETTERS
Kindergarten ____ (1990 film)
Conger ____
The day before Christmas, for example
Soviet soccer great Yashin
Droop
“Fortunate ____” (Creedence Clearwater Revival song)
4 LETTERS
Our ____ (short film series also known as The Little Rascals)
Shrek is one
Pasta sauce brand
Wise
Settee
Waterproof covering
5 LETTERS
When a Stranger ____ (2006 horror film)
Utter confusion
Loon relative
Very big
The stomach, for one
Pascal of The Mandalorian
Fumed
The Day the Earth ____ Still (2008 sci-fi film)
6 LETTERS
Esoteric
Wood sold at Lowe’s
Gratify
The Merchant of ____
7 LETTERS
Resign
Toy made from spare scraps of cloth: 2 wds.
Beverage from which Patrick Curtis’s nickname in The Outsiders is derived: 2 wds.
Type of paint made from egg yolk
8 LETTERS
Tavern
SNAKE WORDS
5 LETTERS
Spiral-shelled mollusk
Got by
Up till now: 2 wds.
Lords of ____ (board game designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker)
6 LETTERS
Australian currency unit
Datum on a medicine label
Ocean’s ____ (2001 film)
1998 Winter Olympics city
7 LETTERS
Smash Mouth song that was used in Shrek: 2 wds.
Like ____ lightning (very fast)
The tip of the ____
Professional with a wrench, possibly
8 LETTERS
Certain figure of speech
9 LETTERS
Sweetener made from a bamboo-like plant: 2 wds.
Melodramatic daytime television serial: 2 wds.
10 LETTERS
It might be operated via a remote control in your car: 2 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Garbo of Ninotchka (1939)"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 573: Spicy German Sausage 6

WORDY WEDNESDAY #571
DIVIDED INTO COLUMNS 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:
Bonnie Veenschoten **
Cathy Bowen **
Cindy Heisler **
Cole Kendall **
Derek Allen **
Michael Lebowitz **
Randy Rogers **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley *
Sam Levitin **
SquishmallowsUnited **
Tower **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #572
FOXGERYPTICS 18 (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 #573
SPICY GERMAN SAUSAGE 6
(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 a German Sausage, a type of puzzle originating from the National Puzzlers League, when you take the indicated pairs of answers to the clues from the first list, combine their letters, and anagram them, you get the answers to the clues from the second list. (For example, if the answers to clues 1 and 2 were ANAGRAM and SEGUES, then the answer to clue 1+2 could be GERMAN SAUSAGE.) However, in this variation, you must add an extra letter to each pair of answers to make the longer answer (for example, you might make GERMAN SAUSAGE from ANAGRAM and GUESS plus an extra E).

Rearrange the added letters in (parentheses) to make a 6-letter word, and rearrange the added letters in [square brackets] to make a 6-letter word. Write these words in the final set of blanks, and rearrange the letters in {curly braces} to make a 6-letter word, the final answer. (These three words are all Scrabble-legal, meaning they are unhyphenated, uncapitalized, etc.)

1. Sorrow
2. Frame used for setting up pool balls
3. Dutch ____ disease
4. Mexican lager brand
5. Act of crowd violence
6. City with 71 streets named “Peachtree”
7. More frigid
8. Lucille of I Love Lucy
9. Daiquiri ingredient
10. ____ Lake City, Utah
11. Golfer’s need
12. One who shoots from a concealed vantage point

1+2+(__). Pots and pans, collectively
2+3+[__]. “Holy” fish?
3+4+(__). Gambling haven on the French Riviera: 2 wds.
4+5+[__]. Business that is legally considered a separate entity from its owners
5+6+(__). Like a government that has complete control over its people
6+7+[__]. Like much hand soap
7+8+(__). Luster
8+9+[__]. Beachgoer’s item
9+10+(__). Philanthropy
10+11+[__]. Car safety feature: 2 wds.
11+12+(__). Captain Kirk’s starship
12+1+[__]. They hang between transmission towers: 2 wds.

(Parentheses): {__} __ {__} __ {__} __
[Square brackets]: {__} {__} __ __ __ {__}
{Curly braces}: __ __ __ __ __ __

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Lords of ____ (board game designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker)"?
* Patron Puzzle #115, which will be delivered on December 8, 2023, exclusively to Patreon supporters at the Super Fan level and up ($5 or more per month), is a pair of Codewords.

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

Outside the Fox Puzzles: Year 1! Also, Fox & Badger Magazine #7

OUTSIDE THE FOX PUZZLES: YEAR 1

This is the official announcement for Outside the Fox Puzzles, a new puzzle subscription service in the style of Joon Pahk's Outside the Box Puzzles (spelled with a B, not an F). I am in a long-standing professional relationship with Joon, who has published quite a few of my puzzles in Outside the Box Puzzles and thus helped me expand my audience. Joon forwarded me an unnamed subscriber's suggestion that I start a similar service for my invention Touchword, and Outside the Fox Puzzles is exactly that. It is also the world's only puzzle subscription service to guarantee that none of the puzzles have been eaten by a fox (very few people want to solve puzzles with fox bite marks or slobber on them).

Outside the Fox Puzzles uses a "pay what you want" model; the minimum price for one year of puzzles is US$10, but polling suggests that some folks are definitely willing to spend more than that, and I aim to please. Every Tuesday for 50 weeks (January 2 through December 10, 2024), at 8:00 AM Central Time, I will release three new puzzles:

* A Touchword. This is a crossword variation of my own invention, featuring words which touch instead of crossing. These alternate between 11x11 (mini) and 15x15 (standard) puzzles each week.
* A gridded logic puzzle. Any logic puzzle genre which is playable on puzz.link is fair game.
* A variety word puzzle. It could be a meaty 15x15 Pathfinder, it could be a brief one-liner like you'd hear Will Shortz give on NPR, it could be anywhere in between. The only guarantee is that your wordplay abilities will be tested, and hopefully rewarded to some extent.

You will get three PDF's each week: one for the puzzles, one for the hints, and one for the solutions. You will also get two PUZ files for each Touchword (one for the normal version and one for the easy version), plus PUZ files for any variety word puzzles which I can offer in that format. Becoming a subscriber to Outside the Fox Puzzles is a simple 4-step process:

Step 1: Add outsidethefoxpuzzles@gmail.com to your address book or whitelist to ensure smooth email delivery.

Step 2: Send me a payment of at least US$10. You may skip this step if you were a Patreon user at the $20/month Ultra Fan level at any point during 2023 or 2024. Otherwise, go to https://paypal.me/mathgrant. ABSOLUTELY IMPORTANT: Mention “Outside the Fox Puzzles year 1” and the email address with which you want to subscribe!

Step 3: Request to join the Google group at https://groups.google.com/g/outside-the-fox-puzzles-year-1/. (This step is mostly optional, since I can usually invite you to the group or even add you directly if you gave me an email address with which to do so during step 2, but it does help. If you do this step, chances are the email address that Google will use is the Gmail address with which you were signed in; if that's different from the email address that you mentioned to me, then I will assume that the latter is the one you actually want.)
 

Step 4: Wait for me to manually vet your request and add you. You are now a member of the group and will receive a weekly dose of puzzle fun via email! If you joined after January 2, 2024, you may also dive into the archive of puzzles you missed while you wait for the next weekly email! Yappy solving! (Reach out to me via email at glmathgrant@gmail.com or outsidethefoxpuzzles@gmail.com if you have any issues.)

FOX & BADGER MAGAZINE ISSUE #7

As my gift to all of my Patreon supporters at all dollar levels, the seventh (and possibly final, if Outside the Fox Puzzles goes well) edition of my digital magazine Fox & Badger Magazine was sent out! This edition features an 18-puzzle meta titled "The Kevin's Puzzles at Home Cinematic Universe", plus a bevy of miscellaneous puzzles in the Odds & Ends section. If you currently support me on Patreon, I hope you have enjoyed this so far! If you don't currently support me on Patreon, send me US$3 or more via paypal.me/mathgrant, and mention that you want Fox & Badger Magazine issue #7. It will probably also be part of the next Patron Puzzles for Philanthropy pack when it releases late next year.

 

Although I am discontinuing Fox & Badger Magazine (either for the time being or forever, depending on how things go), I intend for its legacy to be carried on by the Kevin's Puzzles at Home series and by Outside the Fox Puzzles. Wordy Wednesday will continue as usual, but the tradition of posting two Wordy Wednesday puzzles on the last Wednesday of the month has ceased, slightly reducing my output in that regard (but drastically simplifying my blogging workflow). Monthly Patron Puzzles will be unaffected. My combined puzzle output for this blog, Patreon, and Outside the Fox Puzzles will still nonetheless need to be greater than it was before, but I intend to rise to this challenge and continue giving my followers the same quality of puzzles that they are accustomed to, whether they're paying me or not!