Wordy Wednesday 339: Snake Crisscross 10

WORDY WEDNESDAY #337

ANACROSSWORD 20 (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 **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
Izak Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #338

PATHFINDER 19 (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 #339

SNAKE CRISSCROSS 10

(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
Item attached to an electric guitar, perhaps
Joan of ____
“The Wheels on the ___” (children’s song)
Young lady
“____ the Music Play” (Shannon song)
____ the Mark (newspaper comic)
Emulate Cardi B
4 LETTERS
“Woe!”
Liberal ____
Umbilical ____
Crazy
Input a phone number
One sixteenth of an ounce
A small biting fly
Sword handle
Adult female horse
What a color-changing ring is supposed to indicate
Hideous fairy tale creature that eats humans
Relatives of mice
____-esteem
Food for pigs
Mineral that’s a 1 on the Mohs Hardness Scale
To ____ the Truth (game show)
Gratuities, as for waitpersons
Ring, as a bell
A whole lot
Neat
5 LETTERS
____ Management (2003 movie)
Joint between the foot and the leg
Pleasant smell
Freight
Run away to wed in secret
Avarice
Dome-shaped Inuit dwelling
Wrathful
Andean wool animal
Cuban ballroom dance
Beverage brand originally known as Brad's Drink
Not relaxed
Capturing devices
6 LETTERS
Last section of a symphony, say
2007 game that introduced GLaDOS
Baseball referee
7 LETTERS
Earthworm, for example
____ shorts (knee-length shorts)
Item in a theater
Generally
Very old phonograph record material
8 LETTERS
Jerry Seinfeld, for one

SNAKE WORDS
5 LETTERS
Share an opinion
Ration
Grouchy person
Keaton of Annie Hall
Confessions of a Teenage ____ Queen (2004 movie)
1941 movie whence the song “Look Out for Mr. Stork”
Dreariness
Thunberg of “How dare you!” fame
Type of puzzle where pictures represent words
____ Catholic
m, in y=mx+b
Ill will
“____ Me Up” (Rolling Stones song)
Cliché in a work of fiction
6 LETTERS
Nook
One initiating a phone conversation
Big name in hotels
Xylophonist’s need
Some firearms
Seasoned sausage
Noise-making devices on police cars
7 LETTERS
Friendly
Far from luxurious
Odd
8 LETTERS
Flower related to the narcissus
12 LETTERS
The second First Lady to be born outside the USA (Louisa Catherine Adams being the first): 2 wds.
13 LETTERS
Certain quadrilateral

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "'____ and Nail' (Foreigner song)"?
* Patron Puzzle #71, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a crossword called "Party Time".

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

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

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:
The set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME: NEITHER
The set of all words with a prime number of letters: ONE
The set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters: BOTH

Week 1:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words that use one or more of J, Q, X, and Z: NEITHER
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length at most 10: BOTH
[Jason Boomer] The set of all words beginning with a letter on the home row of a QWERTY keyboard (ASDFGHJKL): ONE
[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter alphabetically between Q and Z inclusive: NEITHER
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words containing at least one of the letters U, V, W, X, Y, or Z: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words where the number of letters in the word is at least two greater than the number of distinct letters: NEITHER
[Roger Strain] The set of all words in which all instances of A, E, I, O, and U appear in alphabetical order (examples: ANIMUS, FED, FEED, RHYTHM): BOTH
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 7 or more: NEITHER

Week 2:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words composed only of letters (with possible repeats) from ETAOIN SHRDLU: NEITHER
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words where are least three of the letters are A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER
[Jason Boomer] The set of all words in which the second letter is A, E, I, O, or U: ONE
[John Bulten] The set of all words in which the second-to-last letter is A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words beginning with a letter in the word GHOST: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words which both start and end with consonants (letters other than A, E, I, O, or U): ONE
[Roger Strain] The set of all words containing at least one of "R", "S", "T", "L", "N" or "E": BOTH
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, or U: ONE
[Stephen Potter] The set of all words that start with A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER

Week 3:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words alphabetically after RANDOM: ONE
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words containing R or L: BOTH
[Jason Boomer] [private guess of a set of 9 words]: NEITHER
[John Bulten] The set of all words containing C or L: BOTH
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words beginning with a letter in the word MISBEHAVING: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words beginning with a letter in the word DAFT: NEITHER
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length exactly 4: ONE

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $36.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 338: Pathfinder 19

WORDY WEDNESDAY #336

SECTION SIX 33 (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 **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Izak Bulten **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #337

ANACROSSWORD 20 (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 #338

PATHFINDER 19

(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. 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, an 8-letter word.

1 Blue line with triangles on a weather map (4 5)
2 Pigpens (5)
3 Poem in which the first letter of each line spells something (8)
4 Bacterial disease in the small intestine (7)
5 Rough drawing (6)
6 Willy of Free Willy, for one (4)
7 Put up with (8)
8 Hairstyle associated with Bob Marley (10)
9 A detergent brand (4)
10 Tug-of-war need (4)
11 Wool grease (7)
12 The Red Sea, to the Indian Ocean (5)
13 Gives up (8)
14 Doglike (6)
15 Prejudicial ill will (6)
16 According to him, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I'm from the government and I'm here to help” (6 6)
17 ____ of the doubt (7)
18 “Tyrannosaurus ____” (Schoolhouse Rock! song about the money the U.S. government owes) (4)
18 A person’s head, slangily (4)
19 Alanis Morissette hit (6)
20 “Detroit Rock ____” (Kiss song) (4)
21 Robin, for one (6)
21 Navel-shaped stuffed pasta (10)
22 ____ hippopotamus (5)
23 Word following “magic” or “button” (8)
23 2002 sci-fi flick about a police unit that arrests future murderers (8 6)
24 Nursery ____ (5)
25 Drywall mineral (6)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Beverage brand originally known as Brad's Drink"?

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

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

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:
The set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME: NEITHER
The set of all words with a prime number of letters: ONE
The set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters: BOTH

Week 1:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words that use one or more of J, Q, X, and Z: NEITHER
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length at most 10: BOTH
[Jason Boomer] The set of all words beginning with a letter on the home row of a QWERTY keyboard (ASDFGHJKL): ONE
[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter alphabetically between Q and Z inclusive: NEITHER
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words containing at least one of the letters U, V, W, X, Y, or Z: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words where the number of letters in the word is at least two greater than the number of distinct letters: NEITHER
[Roger Strain] The set of all words in which all instances of A, E, I, O, and U appear in alphabetical order (examples: ANIMUS, FED, FEED, RHYTHM): BOTH
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 7 or more: NEITHER

Week 2:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words composed only of letters (with possible repeats) from ETAOIN SHRDLU: NEITHER
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words where are least three of the letters are A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER
[Jason Boomer] The set of all words in which the second letter is A, E, I, O, or U: ONE
[John Bulten] The set of all words in which the second-to-last letter is A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words beginning with a letter in the word GHOST: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words which both start and end with consonants (letters other than A, E, I, O, or U): ONE
[Roger Strain] The set of all words containing at least one of "R", "S", "T", "L", "N" or "E": BOTH
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words where exactly two of the letters are A, E, I, O, or U: ONE
[Stephen Potter] The set of all words that start with A, E, I, O, or U: NEITHER

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $39.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 337: Anacrossword 20

WORDY WEDNESDAY #334

PATHFINDER 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Gordon Glenn **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy *
Izak Bulten *
James Haddad **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #335

PENT WORDS 67 (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 **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy *
Izak Bulten *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #336

SECTION SIX 33 (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 #337

ANACROSSWORD 20

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron M. Sean Molley. 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!

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
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 97 98
Initial poker stake
Feature between the front seats of a car, often
Bathroom fixture that increased in popularity in 2020 after toilet paper became scarce
Pattern applied to military equipment to make it blend in with its surroundings
Clergy
Anal injection
Ranked structure
Ungulate feature
The ____ Letters (1942 C. S. Lewis work)
“Children should be ____ and not heard”
A religious belief
Melt
____ compactor
Cautionary statement that accompanies content that might disturb certain readers: 2 wds.
Marine vessel for towing things
Relieve one’s anger, perhaps
Jon Talbain of Darkstalkers, for one
Laughing cartoon bird created by Walter Lantz: 2 wds.

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 10-letter word for "Hairstyle associated with Bob Marley"?

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

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

For full rules, see here.

Week 0:
The set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME: NEITHER
The set of all words with a prime number of letters: ONE
The set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters: BOTH

Week 1:
[Bryce Herdt] The set of all words that use one or more of J, Q, X, and Z: NEITHER
[Daniel Levitin] The set of all words of length at most 10: BOTH
[Jason Boomer] The set of all words beginning with a letter on the home row of a QWERTY keyboard (ASDFGHJKL): ONE
[John Bulten] The set of all words ending with a letter alphabetically between Q and Z inclusive: NEITHER
[Kenneth Wilson] The set of all words containing at least one of the letters U, V, W, X, Y, or Z: ONE
[Kevin Orfield] The set of all words where the number of letters in the word is at least two greater than the number of distinct letters: NEITHER
[Roger Strain] The set of all words in which all instances of A, E, I, O, and U appear in alphabetical order (examples: ANIMUS, FED, FEED, RHYTHM): BOTH
[Sam Levitin] The set of all words of length 7 or more: NEITHER

The money pool for the Food Bank of West Central Texas is now $42.

Submit more guesses!

Wordy Wednesday 336: Section Six 33

WORDY WEDNESDAY #333

HEX 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Joe Bernard **
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
James Haddad **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Avanessian **
Patrick Jordan *
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #334

PATHFINDER 18 (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 #335

PENT WORDS 67 (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 #336

SECTION SIX 33

(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 Country in which the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, is located
2 "You ____ with Me" (Taylor Swift song)
3 Pig saved by Charlotte in Charlotte's Web
4 Home of the NFL's Broncos
5 Fox of the WWE
6 Absolutely anger

Ring 2
* Bob of This Old House
* Recoil in response to something truly awful
* Atmosphere
* Brother or sister
* Women's undergarment brand

Ring 3
* Pen points
* Dispute
* Big international cruise line
* City in Victoria, Australia that shares its name with a boxer

Ring 4
* An assertion that something is false
* The Himalayas, for one
* ____ Cane's (chicken restaurant chain)

Ring 5
* ____ alcohol (ethanol)
* ____ Jones and the Last Crusade

Ring 6
* One of 33 in the longest game in professional baseball history, played in 1981 between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What laughing cartoon bird was created by Walter Lantz?

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

Contest: Let's Guess Two Words!

I am thinking of two English words that are at least 2 letters long and no more than 15 letters long. Both words are valid in Scrabble according to https://scrabble.merriam.com/. Your goal is to guess them. Everyone who guesses the pair 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 NEITHER of my words, ONE of my words, or BOTH 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 pair of words (that is, submitted to me a set of exactly two words and gotten a result of BOTH), 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.

To encourage people to make public guesses rather than private guesses (and thereby hopefully finish the contest faster), this contest will also benefit the Food Bank of West Central Texas. The money pool which I will donate to them will start at $45, and then go down $3 for every weekly update that has gone by without someone guessing the pair of words. If the money pool would hit $0, I will instead withdraw the prize drawing (and note to myself for future reference to give you guys more time next time). 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 three guesses for you:

The set of all words starting with a letter in the word PRIME: NEITHER
The set of all words with a prime number of letters: ONE
The set of all words with a prime number of distinct letters: BOTH

Good luck, and yappy guessing!

Wordy Wednesday 334: Pathfinder 18 & Wordy Wednesday 335: Pent Words 67

WORDY WEDNESDAY #332

TOUCHWORD 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 **
Joe Bernard **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt *
Eric Maddy **
James Haddad **
Kevin Orfield **
Michael Avanessian *
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #333

HEX PATHFINDER 21 (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!

FIFTH WEDNESDAY OF THE MONTH = DOUBLE WORDY WEDNESDAYS!

WORDY WEDNESDAY #334

PATHFINDER 18

(click here for a PDF version)

In this puzzle, each answer starts in the correspondingly numbered square, goes in some direction, and makes one or more right-angled turns as it winds through the grid. 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, an 8-letter word.

1 Classic Bob Seger song in Forrest Gump (1994) (7 3 4)
2 Philosopher who’s the namesake of Pugsley's pet octopus in The Addams Family (9)
3 Multi-storied Asian temple (6)
3 Declined to bid, as in a card game (6)
4 “____ (Not Constantinople)” (1953 song by The Four Lads famously covered by They Might Be Giants) (8)
5 1984-1994 Ford compact car (5)
6 Athena, for one (7)
7 “____ Falls” (Chicago song) (7)
8 Carved pillars made by some Native Americans (5 5)
9 Step in a flight (5)
10 National song (6)
11 Reduced friction, in a way (5)
12 2000 Broadway play based loosely on Horton Hears a Who! (9)
13 Military pilot (6)
14 Make a choice (6)
15 Physicist Hall (5)
16 “Blue ____ Shoes” (5)
17 Structure on which religious offerings are made (5)
18 “____ Ways” (Journey song) (8)
19 County seat in New York’s Oneida County (5)
20 ____ Mack (2017-2019 Disney Channel show) (4)
21 2004-2007 Comedy Central series parodying reality television (5 8)
22 Fortune-telling deck (5)
23 Exchange ____ (4)
24 Away from the outside (6)
25 Obligation (4)
26 The main character in The Emoji Movie (2017) (4)
27 Curative (11)

WORDY WEDNESDAY #335

PENT WORDS 67

(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 Kissing to Be ____ (Culture Club album) / Yes, ____ (2000-2006 sitcom)
2 Toto song being played on infinite loop by a solar-powered speaker in the Namib Desert / "____ Sides, Now" (Joni Mitchell song)
3 Sega console also known as the Mega Drive / Tear
4 Certain Toyota sedan / ____ and for all
5 Prevent enactment of, as a bill / Uprights and grands
6 Dutch Renaissance figure / Juvenile newt
7 Ancient Greek harp / Actor Estevez
8 Olive Garden offering / Children's poet Michael often featured in YouTube Poop videos
9 Do again / Group of whales
10 Elect / "She Thinks My Tractor's ____" (Kenny Chesney song)
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Adhesive resin
* Word following "horse" or "common"
* Daub
* Mythical Greek hunter
* Devil
* American buffalo
* Baking need
* Auctioneer's item
* Buildings for storing grain
* Walking sticks
* Falstaff composer
* Battlefield ___ (2000 film starring John Travolta)
* Raised structure for sacrifices
* Certain narcotic
* Green sauce made with basil
* Narrow boat propelled by a paddle
* Greek Muse of love poetry
* ____ and Present Danger (1994 film)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Country in which the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal, is located"?
* Patron Puzzle #70, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is a diagramless crossword.

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

Wordy Wednesday 333: Hex Pathfinder 21

WORDY WEDNESDAY #331

CHESS WORDS 4 (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:
Adam Weaver **
Eric Maddy *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #332

TOUCHWORD 15 (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 #333

HEX PATHFINDER 21

(click here for a PDF version)

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.

1SW The science of designing things people use so people interact with them safely (10)
2E The opposite of “chaotic” in Dungeons & Dragons alignments (6)
3E ____ ale (6)
4SW Ingenious (6)
5E Fine-ground tobacco meant to be inhaled through the nose (5)
6SW On the ____ (undecided) (5)
7SE Puzzle in which you must connect the 1’s, the 2’s, the 3’s, and so on (10)
8NW What Ronald Reagan called for Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down (10, 2 wds.)
9SE Orange juice brand owned by PepsiCo (9)
10SE 2004 film starring Anne Hathaway as a girl who’s magically compelled to be obedient (13, 2 wds.)
11NE Michigan’s capital (7)
12SE Alvin, Simon, or Theodore (8)
13SW Rarely (6)
14SE State whose state quarter depicts a pair of maple trees with sap buckets (7)
15NW Sesame Street’s Count von Count wears one (7)
16SE One who takes pleasure in inflicting pain (6)
17E ____ Family (2009-2020 ABC sitcom) (6)
18NE Twist, as facts (7)
19NW Easily taught or led (6)
20W ____ and Bear It (1932-2015 comic strip) (4)
21NW Foam items found near swimming pools (7)
22SE Camper’s shelter (4)
23SE Bipartite (4)
24W Aim (6)
25SW Absolutely insistent on an opinion (7)
26SW Music to Be Murdered By rapper (6)
27W Word after “land” or “gold” (4)
28NW Cross at a point (9)
28SW Like some tea (4)
29NE ____: Escape 2 Africa (2008 film sequel) (10)
30SE Caribou, for one (4)
31NW Hardy’s comedic partner (6)
32SW Caribou feature (6)
33W Issued a kingly command, say (7)

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 9-letter word for "Philosopher who’s the namesake of Pugsley's pet octopus in The Addams Family"?
* What's a 5-letter word for "Battlefield ___ (2000 film starring John Travolta)"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 332: Touchword 15

WORDY WEDNESDAY #330

PENT WORDS 66 (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 **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #331

CHESS WORDS 4 (hint)

As of this writing, 5 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 #332

TOUCHWORD 15

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by James Haddad. 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!
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  It’s often played with a doubling cube / Big name in electronic keyboards
2  Place for serving alcoholic beverages / Soft leather shoe
3  Small donkey / Chau of the CW series Supernatural, or a character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet / Castrated rooster
4  Allocates funds / Talk show hostess Kelly / “Once ____ a time. . .”
5  Evade / Pie relative / Very poor person
6  Mafia leaders / Certain spans of geologic time / More irritable
7  Thick / Areas of erupted skin lesions / Hue
8  The Sixth ____ (1999 horror film) / Stamen part / Daily Planet reporter Clark
9  ____ York (1941 film about World War I hero Alvin York) / Most dismal
10 One thousand dollars, slangily / Enthusiastic / Take into custody
11 Croft of the Tomb Raider games / Compute a quotient / Complete garbage
12 ____ Lost (John Milton poem) / Subject of many a Jeff Foxworthy one-liner
13 Word following “couch” or “sweet” / Tom of Mystery Science Theater 3000 / Necessitate
14 Cuff often injured by baseball pitchers / Ate up greedily
15 Place littered with stones and greenery: 2 wds. / Bizarre cabinet item

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 6-letter word for "Music to Be Murdered By rapper"?

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

Wordy Wednesday 331: Chess Words 4

WORDY WEDNESDAY #329

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 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:
Cindy Heisler **
Mark Ballinger **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #330

PENT WORDS 66 (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 #331

CHESS WORDS 4

(click here for a PDF version)

Eight 8-letter words are scrambled on the chessboard. Each chess piece starts on the first letter of one of the words, and can be moved across the board via standard chess moves to spell the rest of the word. Every square is used exactly once. The chess pieces move as follows:
King: one space in any of the eight directions
Rook: any number of spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction
Bishop: any number of spaces in a diagonal direction
Queen: any number of spaces in any of the eight directions
Knight: two spaces in a horizontal or vertical direction and then one space in a perpendicular direction

Arrange the letters in the starred blanks to form the final answer, an 8-letter word.

         Queen: R  __ __ __ __ __ __ __          King: L  __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                d1                   **                e1                   **
Queen's Bishop: A  __ __ __ __ __ __ __ King's Bishop: S  __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                c1             **                      f1                   **
Queen's Knight: C  __ __ __ __ __ __ __ King's Knight: E  __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                b1                **                   g1             **      
  Queen's Rook: M  __ __ __ __ __ __ __   King's Rook: N  __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                a1                   **                h1             **   

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What is a subject of many a Jeff Foxworthy one-liner?

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

Wordy Wednesday 330: Pent Words 66

WORDY WEDNESDAY #328

CODEWORDS 11 (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:
Mark Ballinger **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter *

WORDY WEDNESDAY #329

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 6 (hint)

As of this writing, 6 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 #330

PENT WORDS 66

(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 Certain elastic clothing material / Not in good health
2 Detective ____ (2016 video game that became a 2019 movie) / Sheet used in making animated cartoons
3 ____ & Every (deodorant brand) / Japanese robe
4 High-energy snack for hikers / Writing that isn't prose
5 Possess / Yelled
6 You might get one at a spa / Lascivious look
7 Horton Hatches the ____ (Dr. Seuss book) / Place where records are preserved
8 Propel a boat with oars / Sharp U-turn in a road
9 Seashore bay / Road Runner's Death Valley ____ (1992 SNES game)
10 Approval / Word following "horned" or "night"
   
PENTOMINOES:
* HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* THE OTHER HALF OF THE FINAL ANSWER
* Williams of the Washington Redskins
* Christopher who played Jim Ignatowski in Taxi
* ____ We Dance (1937 film)
* It may be scenic
* Clickable graphics on a computer desktop
* Cricket's sound
* Permit
* Old record material
* Dog owned by the Pickles family in Rugrats
* Kung Fu ____ (2008 animated film)
* French painter Claude
* Spooky
* ____ squash
* Blubbery marine mammal
* Certain African mammal, briefly
* Errand-running employee
* ____ on Main St. (1972 Rolling Stones album)
* Common prop for Groucho Marx

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A Chess Words!

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

Wordy Wednesday 329: DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 6

WORDY WEDNESDAY #327

FLOWER POWER 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:
Cindy Heisler **
James Haddad **
Joe Bernard *
M. Sean Molley **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy **
Kevin Orfield **
Patrick Jordan **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #328

CODEWORDS 11 (hint)

As of this writing, 4 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 #329

DIV IDE DIN TOT RIP LES 6

(click here for a PDF version)

This puzzle contains a word suggested by patron Cindy Heisler. 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!
  __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __
          ^           ^        ^        ^           ^           ^
 ^__ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __    __ __ __ __
    ^        ^        ^              ^        ^        ^              ^        ^
  __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __
          ^           ^        ^           ^           ^        ^
  __ __ __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __ __    __ __ __ __    __ __’__
       ^        ^           ^        ^           ^           ^
  __ __ __ __ __ __ __?
    ^        ^
__ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __    __ __ __
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

Sports venue __ __ __ __ __
             01 48 19 38 04
Emmy, for one __ __ __ __ __
              08 81 35 44 75
Designate __ __ __ __ __ __
          57 16 87 71 36 45
Insect once thought to lay its eggs in sleeping humans’ brains __ __ __ __ __ __
                                                               22 12 09 27 49 62
Material for some shirts __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                         02 68 29 41 61 13 72
Stew with meat, vegetables, and paprika __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                        11 64 85 17 21 47 77
TV judge since 1999: 2 wds. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                            39 26 06 24 58 51 33 34 69 70
“Bubble ____” (Nickelodeon show) __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                 28 63 60 05 54 74 83
Poisonous plant associated with Socrates __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                         31 78 55 42 80 07 66
Concept __ __ __ __
        86 10 25 18
Brother of Moises Arias __ __ __ __ __
                        30 32 50 56 65
George of “Oh my” fame __ __ __ __ __
                       82 14 52 59 40
Comic character created by Georges Remi __ __ __ __ __ __
                                        03 37 23 76 46 20
Game played on a mat with large colored dots __ __ __ __ __ __ __
                                             79 84 43 67 73 53 15

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* What's a 5-letter word for "Christopher who played Jim Ignatowski in Taxi"?
* Patron Puzzle #69, which will be delivered exclusively to Patreon supporters ($5 or more per month), is Words Without Friends.

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

Wordy Wednesday 328: Codewords 11

WORDY WEDNESDAY #326

SECTION SIX 32 (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 **
Mark Ballinger **
Bryce Herdt **
Eric Maddy *
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #327

FLOWER POWER 3 (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 #328

CODEWORDS 11

(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 "Insect once thought to lay its eggs in sleeping humans’ brains"?

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

Contest: Let's Solve a Rebus! 2 (RESULTS!)

It's time for the results of this contest!

Contest: Let's Solve a Rebus! 2 (revelation 12 ‒ LAST DAY!)

For more contest info, click here. Head below the break for today's revelation.

Contest: Let's Solve a Rebus! 2 (revelation 11)

For more contest info, click here. Head below the break for today's revelation.

Contest: Let's Solve a Rebus! 2 (revelation 10)

For more contest info, click here. Head below the break for today's revelation.

Wordy Wednesday 327: Flower Power 3

WORDY WEDNESDAY #325

PENT WORDS 65 (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 **
Bryce Herdt **
Kevin Orfield **
Ryan Faley **
Sam Levitin **
Stephen Potter **

WORDY WEDNESDAY #326

SECTION SIX 32 (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 #327

FLOWER POWER

(click here for a PDF version)

The answers to this petaled puzzle will go in a curve from the number on the outside to the center of the flower. Each number in the flower will have two 5-letter answers, one going in a clockwise direction, and the other going in a counterclockwise direction. Clues 1, 7, and 13 in each direction are given, but you must determine where the other answers go.

The final answer is a 6-letter word spelled by six adjacent numbered spaces, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

CLOCKWISE
1 A brand of mints
7 Vampire’s teeth
13 Inventor Nikola
* Angry
* Boorish person
* Certain Volkswagen
* Church offering
* City on the Aire River
* Complains
* Get a point
* Hand-printed fabric
* Locale
* ____ mix
* Poet’s concern
* Sitcom set at Mel's Diner
* Subsequently
* Talks up
* Underwear brand
COUNTERCLOCKWISE
1 Shipping box
7 Level of a building
13 Book before Philemon
* 1983 film about a Jewish girl disguising herself as a boy
* Actress Midler
* Ancient region in Anatolia
* Appeases fully
* Army vehicles
* Brink
* Egypt’s capital
* Hurts
* Knight’s jousting weapon
* Malia Obama’s sister
* Pick-up, for one
* Scientist Curie
* Serves
* Sir, for one
* Warms up

COMING NEXT WEEK. . .

* A Codewords!

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