PUZZLE #487 MASQUERADE PARTY 3 Below are rows of blanks that each need to be filled in with a 6- or 7-letter word; these words are clued in no particular order. However, one letter in each word is "in disguise" as another word. The locations of the disguised letters are indicated by symbols and the disguises themselves are clued next to those symbols below. Replace each symbol/disguised letter with its corresponding word to form a longer word. Once everything has been correctly filled out, the letters that have been replaced by symbols will spell out the FINAL ANSWER: a movie that has been n ..read more

It's been almost two weeks since "Insiders 3" was posted on this blog, and a whopping nineteen people have solved it since then, as you can see in the following list: Grant Fikes Cindy Heisler Joe Bernard Pavel Curtis Kevin Orfield Mike Armstrong Sam Levitin Chris Kochmanski Josie Giles Tower Wendy Walker Michael Lebowitz Patrick Jordan Mom Tamara Brenner Lynn Sweeney KeoFam Bart Gold Steve Gunter Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comment! ROWS: 1) Photo/Kenny, 2) Twinkle/Rob, 3) Accost/Arco, 4) Proven/Iced, 5) Uni-/Collect, 6) Thai/Cement, 7) Blimp/Endow, 8 ..read more

PUZZLE #486 SLIDE SHOW: DOUBLE FEATURE 6 In each of the two puzzles below, slide the 18 letters surrounding each grid into the empty squares so that four words are made reading across and five words are formed reading down. Letters above and below the grids slide vertically to any position without changing columns, and letters to the left and right slide horizontally without changing rows. All of the exterior letters are used only once, and as a help, each grid has two letters already placed inside. Once both grids have been filled in, pick out one word from each and combine them to get the ..read more

It's been almost two weeks since my tenth "Section Six" puzzle was posted on this blog, and seventeen people have solved it since then: Grant Fikes Cindy Heisler Joe Bernard Pavel Curtis Kevin Orfield Michael Lebowitz Josie Giles Mike Armstrong Chris Kochmanski Tamara Brenner Mom Sam Levitin Wendy Walker KeoFam Tower Lynn Sweeney Steve Gunter Now head below the break for the answers as well as a solver's comment! And here are the answers in text format, in case you can't read what's in the grid: RING 1: SPIN, SKATEPARK, ICED, LAVAGIRL, THEORY, SHREK RING 2: GARLIC, VADER ..read more

PUZZLE #485 INSIDERS 3 Happy April 1st, everyone! Sadly, I don't have any sort of prank or wacky word puzzle variant (such as "Anacrossword 3" from five years ago) to offer this year, but the FINAL ANSWER to this puzzle is April Fools'-adjacent! Read on for more details on that! Each row in this puzzle consists of two answers, clued in the order in which they appear. Going across both of these answers is a third word, known as an "Inner Word". For example, if a row's two answers were JETSAM and PLEA, then the Inner Word for that string of letters would be SAMPLE (like so: JETSAMPLEA). The In ..read more

It's been about two weeks since "Moving Staircases 14" was posted on this blog, and eighteen people have solved it since then, as you can see in the list below: Grant Fikes Joe Bernard Kevin Orfield Bart Gold Michael Lebowitz Mike Armstrong Josie Giles Chris Kochmanski Tamara Brenner Wendy Walker Tower KeoFam Sam Levitin Patrick Jordan Mom Lynn Sweeney SquishmallowsUnited Steve Gunter Now head below the break for the answers! The Final Answer, highlighted above in magenta, is SUCKER PUNCH ..read more

PUZZLE #484 SECTION SIX 10 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 outermost 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, and each answer’s starting points are marked with a dot [•]. However, which direction they proceed in is for you to figure out. The sections (separated by the heavy lines radi ..read more

It's been nearly two weeks since "Compound Crosswords 10" was posted on this blog, and a whopping nineteen people have solved it since then: Grant Fikes Cindy Heisler M. Sean Molley Joe Bernard Pavel Curtis Kevin Orfield Michael Lebowitz Mike Armstrong Wendy Walker Chris Kochmanski Tamara Brenner Tower Mom Sam Levitin Patrick Jordan Josie Giles Steve Gunter Lynn Sweeney KeoFam Now head below the break for the answers! The pink squares, when read in numerical order, spell out CLICKBAIT The clue for DAISY contains the seed word PRINCESS, suggested by Patron M. Sean Molley ..read more

PUZZLE #483 MOVING STAIRCASES 14 The two staircase-shaped halves of a "Moving Staircases" puzzle are designed to be pushed together in two different ways, horizontally and vertically. A horizontal push creates shorter words ("Shorts"), while a vertical push creates longer words ("Longs"). The example above shows a completed grid and the grids that result from pushing it both ways. The lists of clues given for the Shorts and Longs are not in order; it's up to you to determine where the answers go by working back and forth between the two lists. Once you've completely filled out the grid, th ..read more

Roughly two weeks have gone by since "Sudokurostic 4" was posted on this blog, and quite a few people have solved it since then: Grant Fikes Cindy Heisler Pavel Curtis Kevin Orfield Mike Armstrong Tamara Brenner Michael Lebowitz Sam Levitin Steve Gunter Patrick Jordan Mom Josie Giles Wendy Walker Lynn Sweeney Tower Chris Kochmanski Now head below the break for the answers and a solver's comment! ANSWERS (In the order of the clues given): CLAVICLE, ARTISTS, SERVICE, TALLEST, SCARLET The blue letters are filled in through the answers to the anacrostic clues The hidden word, h ..read more