Games World of Puzzles June 2019

Welcome to the June issue of GAMES WORLD OF PUZZLES! Soon we’ll be enjoying the longest days of the year. What better pastime to fill those extra hours with than puzzlesolving? Fortunately, you’ll find more than enough brainteasers, crosswords, and other diversions in these pages to keep you entertained. As you probably know by now, we’re almost at the end of our “Moving Forward, Looking Back” series by Andrew Parr, this magazine’s “unofficial historian.” In the eighth installment of the ninepart series, he provides an entertaining look at the so-called “armchair treasure hunt” craze that grew out of the now-famous 1979 book Masquerade, by Kit Williams. Parr’s article is an enjoyable, nostalgic read; turn to page 34 for a stroll down memory lane. What you may not know is that Parr recently…

Each answer word in this crossword variation has two clues leading to it, using different meanings of the word. The clues are separated into Across and Down, but are otherwise ordered randomly. When you find two Across clues or two Down clues that seem to have the same answer, add up their clue numbers to determine the place in the grid at which the answer should be entered. For example, if the clue for 1-Across were “Metallic element” and the clue for 17-Across read “Starring role,” the answer would be “lead,” which would go in 18-Across (1 + 17). Note: Tags such as “Hyph.” and “2 wds.” have been omitted. ACROSS 1 Left in a hurry 2 Facebook connections 3 Exceed the allotted time 4 Visual aid 5 Move forward 6 Pop the question 7 Fence parts 8 Payment given…

There is one place for each letter of the alphabet in the 26 empty squares of each blank column in the diagram below. Fill in each letter so that a word of at least five letters is formed reading across only. Not all of the letters to the left and right of the empty box are used; it’s up to you to determine which ones are needed to complete familiar words. Some letters may fit in more than one of the empty squares to complete words, but we only came up with one arrangement that would complete a word in each row. Maybe you’ll find a better solution. Proper names are not allowed. ANSWERS…

ACROSS 1 Zodiac feline 4 Cather heroine 11 NFL gains 14 List-shortening abbr. 15 Vice and Bohemian Rhapsody, for two 16 River islet 17 TV drama in which Scully and Mulder investigate weird happenings involving film critic Reed?: 3 wds. 19 The Jungle Booksnake 20 Actress Kunis 21 Stocking stuffers 22 Portrayer of Oleanna Tyrell 23 Environmental destruction 26 How ballerinas dance: 2 wds. 27 Animated TV comedy in which O.J., Jessica, and Wallis share a house in Springfield?:2 wds. 31 Suffix for velvet 32 Horse gait 33 Actress Issa of Insecure 34 Get-out-of-jail money 37 Popular font 39 Gold-coated 40 Abet’s partner 41 Panache 42 Grow older 44 TV drama in which Walter and Jesse cook dinner and then eat together?:2 wds. 48 Cognizant 49 Springsteen’s ___Band: 2 wds. 52 Coyote cousin 53 Squawk Box airer 56 One of 100 in a Scrabble box 57 “Who ___ to judge?”:2 wds. 58 TV comedy in which Shrek returns to his swamp…

BATTLESHIPS JUNIOR Attention kids (and Battleships novices): The six puzzles on this page are kid-level solitaire versions of the classic paperand- pencil game of Battleships. Here’s how to play: Imagine that each grid is a section of ocean in which a fleet of six ships is hiding. In the first four puzzles, this fleet consists of one cruiser (three grid cells long), two destroyers (two cells each), and three submarines (one cell each). The last two puzzles have one battleship (four cells), two cruisers, three destroyers, and four submarines. The ships may be positioned either horizontally or vertically, and no two ships can occupy adjacent grid cells, not even diagonally. The numbers along the outside of the grid tell you how many cells in the corresponding rows and columns are occupied…

FROM THE GAMES LIBRARY You don‘t have to be a glutton for punishment to give this puzzle a try. We’ve taken 20 common phrases or titles containing the word BIG and replaced it with PIG. All the new phrases are illustrated below; for example, a picture of a pig with wings and feathers would represent BIG BIRD (PIG BIRD). Can you go whole hog and identify all 20? ANSWERS PIGS ON THE LEFT: Pig top, Pig Ben, The Pig Chill, pig spender, pig man on campus, pig cheese, pig deal, Pig Blue. PIGS ON THE RIGHT: Pig Board, pig band, pig picture, pig brother, pig league, Pig Mac (or Pig Apple), pigwig, pig shot, The Pig Sleep, Little Pig Man, pig wheel, pig time.…