Double Trouble

Okay! It's puzzle time! I spent most of last night watching old Columbo episodes and working on a new puzzle. I think Peter Falk makes me smarter. Anyway, I've decided the nice thing about having a blog is that I can publish things I can't anywhere else. For instance, I've been publishing these crosswords, but the website only allows for regular 15 x 15 crosswords and that's it. Last night, I came up with an idea for a word search and now that I have this blog I can share my work with my adoring fans, all one of you. So without further ado:

Double Trouble

You solve this puzzle much like a regular word search, except for every space where one letter would be in an ordinary word search, in this one there are two. Whenever you find a word, regardless of which direction it's reading, you read the two letters clumped together from left to right. Also, instead of giving you a list of words to find, I'm instead giving you a series of clues, the answers to which are located somewhere in the grid. To assist you on that count, the clues are listed in the alphabetical order of their answer. Furthermore, after each clue, a number in parenthesis will tell you exactly how many letters the answer will be. But be careful, some answers may consist of compound words. One more solving aid: when you solve the puzzle, every two-letter square in the grid will have been circled as part of a larger word at least once. Here's a small sample to give you an idea:

Clues:

Witticism (8)

Sepulcher (6)

More macabre (6)

IHOP order (8)

What some sculptures start out as (8)

Feral canine (6)

Hypnotic (8)

Aaaaand... Here's the solution:

The words were:

Aphorism

Burial

Eerier

Flapjack

Iceblock

Jackal

Mesmeric

Okay, not too hard, right? What about this bigger one?

Mathematical procedures (10)

Mistakes in period pieces (12)

Like an insole (6)

Choir member (8)

Like some seminary studies (8)

Where some fliers splash (8)

Fair prize (10)

Failed, as a comic (6)

Saved, as a website (10)

Some whiskeys (8)

Common childhood malady (10)

Like a hung jury (10)

Casino employee (6)

Stubborn (10)

Creature named for its flat feet (18)

Dragons partner (8)

Garden shelter (6)

Nasty creature (6)

Wrestling hold (10)

"Catwoman" star (10)

First line of a famous rhyme (18)

Portable cooker (8)

Coughdrops (8)

Learn verbatim (8)

Loyal (8)

Traditional (8)

Persona non grata (6)

Protected from imitators (8)

Belonging to a particular sect (12)

Vegas athlete (12)

Type of boa (6)

Tupperware rival (10)

Honking time (8)

Woodworker's worry (8)

Wine bar choice (8)

Chinese discipline (6)

Runway material (6)

Cartoon Sam, e.g. (6)

Pop open (6)

Opposite of hyperbole (14)

Well, there you have it. I'm sorry I didn't post an "interactive" version, but I do not have the "mad skillz" required to post something like that. If anyone has some tips, let me know. I'll post the solution next week.