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By Dan Katz
Answer: LLOYD GEORGE

Each of the strings of letters is a clue in which a transformation has been applied to the words and the spaces have been removed. It is natural to apply that same transformation to the answer to each clue; in other puzzles with modified clues like this, the modified answers often fit into a category, but in this puzzle the resulting strings are not recognizable as words.

  • ADAM’S BONE THAT TURNED INTO EVE: RIB becomes RIIBB [second and third letters are doubled]
  • RAPPER WHO RECORDED THE SONG PHOTO COPIED: FUTURE becomes UTURE [first letters are removed]
  • CAPITAL CITY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON becomes LONDO [last letters are removed]
  • CORPORATION ADVERTISED AS THE SUPERSTAR IN RENTACAR: HERTZ becomes HEBETZ [all R’s are replaced by BE]
  • FOOTBALL PLAYER WHO SHARES HIS HOME STADIUM WITH THE ATHLETICS: RAIDER becomes OAIDER [first letters are shifted three positions earlier in the alphabet]
  • PERFORMER WHO DOESN’T SPEAK SUCH AS MARCEL MARCEAU: MIME becomes IIME [first letters are replaced by second letters]
  • FLOUR BASED BAKED GOOD OR SLANG TERM FOR MONEY: BREAD becomes BNREAD [N’s are added after the first letters]
  • FINAL WORD IN THE TITLE OF THE FIFTH BOND FILM: TWICE becomes TWUCE [all I’s are changed to U’s]
  • INDONESIAN SOY PRODUCT TRADITIONALLY WRAPPED WITH BANANA LEAVES: TEMPEH becomes TEUPEH [third letters are replaced by U’s]
  • JEMAINE’S PARTNER IN FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS: BRET becomes BREEET [all vowels are tripled]
  • ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILM THAT WON BEST PICTURE: REBECCA becomes EBECC [first and last letters are removed]
  • PROFESSIONAL GRAPPLER MARTY WHO BEAT DRAGON LEE AND WILL OSPREAY AT FINAL BATTLE: SCURLL becomes SCURAL [first halves of double letters are replaced by A’s]
  • FRIDAY NIGHT BLOCK ON ABC IN THE NINETIES: TGIF becomes RTGIFI [R’s and I’s added at the beginning and end respectively]
  • SQUIRREL WHO STARRED IN HIS OWN ADULT ORIENTED VIDEO GAME: CONKER becomes CONKIR [penultimate letters are replaced by I’s]
  • STICK EMPLOYED BY AN ORCHESTRA CONDUCTOR: BATON becomes BATTN [all O’s are deleted, all T’s are doubled]
  • MEAT THAT IS WHAT’S FOR DINNER ACCORDING TO AN AD CAMPAIGN: BEEF becomes FEEB [order of letters is reversed]
  • TELEVISION SITCOM FEATURING LATKA GRAVAS: TAXI becomes TAYYIJ [third letters become the letters following them in the alphabet doubled, letters following the last letters in the alphabet are added at the end]
  • THREE WHEELED CONVEYANCES FOR CHILDREN FOR SHORT: TRIKES becomes TRKES [third letters are removed]
  • TITLE INDIANA CITY WHERE MARSHALL TELLER LIVES: EERIE becomes EEIIE [third letters are replaced by fourth letters]
  • THE JOINT WHERE A HUMAN TYPICALLY WEARS A WATCH: WRIST becomes WRLST [middle letters are replaced by L’s]
  • UBER COMPETITOR KNOWN FOR CARS WITH PINK MUSTACHES: LYFT becomes LYFXI [last letters are replaced by Roman numerals for alphabet positions of first letters, minus one]

Each of the modified answers fits into exactly one of the columns so that the given letter is correct. This creates a dropquote, a puzzle in which the solver must rearrange the letters into the white squares below to create words reading across. In this case, the “words” are all brands of chewing gum, though each is missing one letter.

The gums are as follows:

  • OR(B)IT
  • EXT(R)A
  • N(I)CORETTE
  • DENTY(N)E
  • BIGLEA(G)UECHEW
  • B(U)BBLEYUM
  • FRUIT(S)TRIPE
  • BI(G)RED
  • JUICYFR(U)IT
  • DOUBLE(M)INT
  • STRI(D)E
  • ICEB(R)EAKERS
  • BAZO(O)KA
  • ECLI(P)SE
  • WINTERFRE(S)H

The missing letters, in order, spell BRING US GUM DROPS. When a team does so, they are given a handout with the dropquote shown below:

This is a standard dropquote with no gimmicks, yielding the solution below:

The message reads “FIRST NAMES OF FOURTH AND SECOND CHARACTERS TO SPEAK IN THEMATIC EPISODE OF SEINFELD.” The Seinfeld episode relevant to this puzzle’s theme is “The Gum,” in which the fourth and second characters to speak are Lloyd Braun and George Costanza respectively. The answer to this puzzle is LLOYD GEORGE.