M Puzzle: Twists and Turns

by Francis Heaney

The Across answers in the puzzle are entered normally. The Winding answers, however, will not fit in the grid unless a letter is removed from each one:

1. droppe[r]
2. ac[i]d rain
3. Tar[z]an
4. Li[z] Phair
5. Mement[o]
6. en[t]ame
7. [e]vade
8. va[m]ooses
9. [P]abst
10. hobnai[l]
11. h[e]al up
12. bracke[t]
13. s[o]prani
14. mour[n]
15. d[o]yenne
16. Had[r]ian
17. [s]ourball
18. [p]ast tense
19. Alice Wa[l]ker
20. a[i]rspace
21. Ma[n]ila
22. Bakeli[t]e
23. sw[e]ater
24. B[r]est

Those deleted letters spell "RIZZO, TEMPLETON, OR SPLINTER," all of whom are rats (from "The Muppet Show," Charlotte's Web, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, respectively), so the answer is RAT.

Training:

Well, actually, no, it's not. The "non-PC" reference in the flavor text indicates that this puzzle requires the "Windows" training puzzle to complete it. As you may recall, that puzzle gave you a grid overlay and told you to "add letters in square holes." Well, using the grid overlay and looking through the square holes gives you these letters:

If you start in the same place that the Winding answers start, traveling in the same direction as the Winding answers, and take those letters in the order you pass them, you get PAPEHERS. Interweaving those letters with the letters in RAT (without changing the order of either set of letters - since we don't believe in random anagramming) gives you the final answer, PAPER HEARTS.