The Thinks I Think

Getting slightly ahead of the every-two-days pace, here's...it seemed like a good idea when I started, and by the eighth or ninth clue I started really, really hating it. Here's hoping it's better than I think.

It seemed like for the entire first half of my cross-country drive, I couldn't get anything on the radio except very staticky station identification. At least I got some recommendations for the second half?

• "You're listening to...you're tuned in, you must think everyone should tune in! And if you're ever in Indiana, listen to our sister sta...at 101.1: music you crave, music you desire, musi..."
• "...top of the hour here a...the hits you want to hold onto! Whole lot more upbeat than my last j...ern Ohio...100.3, Sad Songs All Day. Real tearj..."
• "You're bringing it up a notch here on...rom the West Coast, while in Missouri, wh..."The Candle", 97.2, lighting up your ni..."
• "...your friendly DJ playing the gentle music you lo...mething gentle for your friends in Rhode Island on 97.2 "The Breeze"..."
• "Let's get a big ol' moooooo for your friends here in the stu...nnsylvania, where th...101.2, "The Vineyard", whic..."
• "Reignin' supreme here on...adio, just like our friends flying high at 89.3, Maine's favo..."
• "...keepin' it weird here o...ton's home for whatever you're into. And let's shout ou...100.1 in West Virginia, who're keeping one eye open at all times, if you know what I mean...."
• "When you're liste...s, you're as dear to us as our own kin! And spea...riends at 103.3...accompanying Illinois folks on their drive home, right by their sid..."
• "You know us, sly as little foxes here a...just like those funny g...101.3 in New Jersey, your station for 24-hour comed..."
• "....love 70s funk, which is why I'm thrilled to join The Gang here o...back home in Connecticut, where I...106.1, "like a warm blanket of music," we'd ca..."

We're giving away tickets to the first five callers, so get your answers ready and call 'em in!

Yup, averaging about a puzzle every two days. Sounds right.

Welcome, new hire! We're starting you out with an easy little cleanup job. Building's over there--just gather up the letters at the start, feel free to drop anything in the recycling bin before you enter, and just go through and clean up all of the stray letters in the rooms There's a bin in each one, where you can drop any letter you don't need, and it'll get upcycled into a brand-new letter.

Of course, you'll want to make sure when you enter a room that the word you're carrying fits that room's category. So don't try just running straight through and shoving everything into bins willy-nilly; you'll need to plot out a path.

I'll see you when you come out in the southeast corner, where you can drop whatever word you've got onto the blanks there. And keep it friendly; no room for negative emotions in this company.

(Click through for a larger image. Full text description: a grid of rooms, 5 across by 3 down, with openings connecting all adjacent rooms, and openings in the outer walls in the northwest and southeast. Outside the northeast room is the word START and a blank recycling bin; outside the southeast room are four blanks. In each room is a recycling bin with a number; a large letter; and a smaller word or phrase. Reading from left to right, top to bottom, they are in order: +1/C/Dessert; -5/K/Skill; -8/J/Fastener; +7/T/Hair; +11/A/Salt Source; -6/I/Security; +5/L/Athlete; +13/O/Card; -2/M/Chess Term; +12/E/Dynasty; -11/N/Salt Source; -7/K/Connector; +10/G/Quirk; +6/P/Drink; +0/H/Appetizer.)

When you're done with your answer, be sure to drop it in the answer checker for proper disposal.

I wanted to avoid just having lots of lists of clues. Need to get out of my comfort zone, right? Well, not today.

The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. How can we fix it?

1. Springtime joint


2. Taxi sheep


3. Policeman twitch


4. Pro sawbuck


5. Inmate dined


6. Updated apiece


7. Average lady


8. Specific mineral

Some centers: alternatives, container, drink, judge, orientation, saw, spring, support

Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the answer cannot hear the answer checker.

1. A serious enthusiast, sometimes verging on extremist [1]


2. Digestive liquid (or humour) found in the gallbladder [6]


3. D&D spellcaster, though only in the second edition [1]


4. Online invitation website [3]


5. Trig function used to measure vector similarity [2]


6. Apiece [7]


7. Sulked [6]


8. Structural part of a boat [3]


9. Hills of sand [8]


10. TV series with Billy Porter as an emcee in the New York ball culture [4]

• Arabic-derived name for Ptolemy's "Mathematical Treatise" (8)


• Assumed something to be true as a starting point (10)


• Band whose lead singer, Dan Smith, was born on July 14 (8)


• "Canvas" for a fresco (7)


• Colombia has two, separated by Panama (in contrast to Ecuador's one and Bolivia's zero) (10)


• Group in which Matthias replaced a missing member in the fifth book (8)


• Hovers without means of support (9)


• Like literature with elves and magic (or, per Jacques, like a musician's melancholy) (11)


• Showing no fear, like a Divergent faction (9)


• With nothing but bones remaining (8)

Mosaic 7,325,142 (Go here to solve online)

Hitori 3,536,106 (Go here to solve online)

Slant 1,602,243 (Go here to solve online)

Tapa 4,338,385 (Go here to solve online)

Kakurasu 3,004,550 (Go here to solve online)

Shakashaka 9,033,544 (Go here to solve online)

Heyawake 10,045,921 (Go here to solve online)

Renzoku 8,381,330 (Go here to solve online)

• Think of a bird, eight letters long. If you add a letter you get a word meaning "unexpected"; if instead you remove a letter, you get a word that might describe someone reacting to something unexpected. What is the bird?
• Think of a colonial-era American author, enumeration (4 7). Add a space to his first name and you could read the resulting three words a spider might use to explain that he's not from Boston. (Look, they can't all be gems.) Who is the author?
• Think of a compass with eight points. Number them clockwise from the top, and then use the numbers as indexes. What is the word?
• Think of a movie of the last twenty years that was nominated for Best Picture (and won three other Oscars), eight letters long. If you remove the first letter and add a space, you get two words for two different body parts. What is the movie?
• Think of a number, spelled out. Remove two palindromic sequences from the start and you'll be left with a letter. What number is it?
• Think of a piece of jewelry, enumeration (4 7). The first word can be anagrammed to make something that might be an annoyance, and the second can be anagrammed to make a word meaning "more annoyed". What is the jewelry?
• Think of a piece of sporting equipment, enumeration (4 5). Move the space to get two sequences of letters. If you swap the first and last letters of the first sequence, you get a word naming some magical items; the second sequence is the second word in the name of a village you might find those items. What is the sporting equipment?
• Think of a region that many people call home, enumeration (4 4). Ignoring the space, remove a word meaning "region"; you'll be left with a word meaning "home". What is the region?
• Think of a word meaning "component". Remove every component that's a vowel, and add new vowels in every other position to get a new word meaning "remove". What is the original word?

1. ...a word that's also a concept in mathematics.
2. Add a comparative suffix (even though it's not a comparative adjective) to get a time-loop movie.
3. Take the second half and add an E to the end to get a French word.
4. Translate that word into English. (Make a note of the third letter.)
5. Take the second half of this word, and put the word's second letter after it, to get a female figure from Greek mythology.
6. Write down their male counterpart.
7. Think of a bird that rhymes with him. (This is not your final anser.)
8. This bird was the nickname of a MLB pitcher who started his career with the Chicago White Sox. Take his first (given) name. (Make a note of the second letter.)
9. That name is also the first name in the possessive in the title of a BBC show (i.e., the first name in "[1] [2]'s ..."). Take the second word in the name.
10. Pick three letters from that name, rearranging them as necessary, to get a word that follows "tin" in a compound word.
11. Add a letter to that name to get a prominent feature of a great cat....
12. ...and take the name of that cat. (Starts with an L, but note its second and fourth letters.)
13. Take the collective noun for that cat. (Note the second letter, which will appear at the start of the final answer.)
14. Change a sound in that noun to get...

5713 8303 5431 1583 2519 5063 1867 9841 9763 9107 6673 6967 1181 
6487 1155 1494 6147 2263 7680 9352 4020 7061 2604 1080 5364 5279 
3353 8520 3685 5616 2833 5670 5441 1860 4493 2280 4907 2590 7957 
9703 8700 4656 9750 6839 7680 4182 6990 1679 4770 1185 5750 8101 
2773 9210 8041 5158 8215 3120 4973 3135 6701 3750 7139 2540 8161 
3173 6510 1829 4222 1361 3420 2071 4785 2533 9000 4392 8220 8081 
1639 5927 9043 5711 6893 5059 3461 1303 7211 7721 1759 4897 1249 

(601) 2x6-4287 [astronomy]
(205) 242-737x [babysitting]
(604) 776-865x [cheesemonger]
(502) 377-x687 [copyediting]
(303) 638-423x [drug rehab]
(504) 463-x742 [East Asian imports]
(405) 282-84x3 [estate sales]
(404) 467-7x59 [etiquette]
(203) 78x-9255 [gay rights advocacy]
(602) 325-2x77 [hunting animals]
(402) 226-8x73 [language classes]
(204) 39x-7283 [legal defense]
(304) 347-4x78 [lie detectors]
(305) 46x-2253 [machine repair]
(501) 26x-2837 [mediation]
(201) 468-375x [monopoly busting]
(202) 995-674x [percussion instruments]
(403) 338-35x7 [real estate building]
(605) 77x-8437 [real estate sales]
(302) 74x-8427 [recording equipment]
(505) 28x-6368 [restorative justice]
(401) 762-7x27 [scripted television]
(301) 722-55x7 [shellfish]
(603) 4x9-6666 [travel agency]
(503) 2x7-8642 [wagons]

This is probably one of the harder ones I've written. Hey, at least you get the words rather than another long list of clues!

If you want to insert a key into a lock, all you have to do is combine. But does it come with a bin?

Fourth locks: CATER - COCK - FATED - HEIST - HOLLY - JOEY - LOSE - OFFER - PACE - PESTER - POLIO - REACH - VARY

If your answer is a key, you can insert it into this lock (aka the answer checker).