Bracket City Answers – September 17, 2026

The telephone jack is a socket, while a jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin. Both meanings point to Jack. This answer fills the blank between telephone and o'-lantern, giving Jack Ruby in the larger phrase about the man who killed Harvey Oswald.

The simile ___ as a fiddle means healthy, and the missing word is fit. Placing fit inside the surrounding letters graf- and -i produces graffiti. That completed word then supports the clue about a graffiti artist's signature.

A graffiti artist's signature is a tag. The answer tag fits between graf- and -ious, completing contagious. This resolves the nested clue about a contagious eye color and prepares the next inner answer.

Pink eye is a contagious eye condition, so the contagious eye color is pink. The answer pink then combines with the next answer to form pink slip, a phrase meaning walking papers or dismissal notice.

A pink slip is a dismissal notice, also called walking papers. The answer slip joins pink to make that phrase. It also combines with pers to form slippers, matching the clue about footwear stolen from a dead woman's feet.

The ruby slippers are the famous shoes taken from the dead Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. The answer Ruby completes that cultural reference. Ruby then joins Jack to form Jack Ruby, the man who killed Harvey Oswald.

Harvey Oswald, killed by Jack Ruby, was Lee Harvey Oswald. The answer Lee supplies the missing part of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. This completes the scientist's name and leaves the nested phrase about animalcules to resolve.

The short hand? is the hour hand on a clock, so the answer is hour. The hourglass emoji reinforces time. This answer fills the blank in one might be of the hour, which then combines with the next answer to form Man.

A man of the hour is a person receiving attention, and a man of the cloth is a clergy member. The answer Man fits both phrases. It then joins uel to form Manuel, completing the name Manuel-Miranda.

Jeremy Lin is a basketball player, and Lin-Manuel Miranda is a theater creator. The shared fragment lin supplies the answer. It joins e to form line, giving the phrase line voted by a loyal member, which points to party.

A party line is a shared telephone line, and a loyal member votes along party lines. The answer party completes that phrase. It then combines with animal to form animal party, a group of creatures, before the final outer answer.

A party one tends to stay up late, with a lion emoji, points to animal. The answer animal joins cules to form animalcules. The completed sentence is Antonie van Leeuwenhoek describes "animalcules". The supplied completion text is September 17, 1683:.