DROPPING OUT
Credit: GAMES Magazine
October, 2001
Christopher McColl

Each clue on the left leads to a seven-letter word or phrase to be entered in the blank beside the clue.  If you drop one letter from that answer and re-arrange the remaining letters, you'll get a six-letter answer for the clue on the right. When you're finished, the dropout letters, read from top to bottom, will spell the name of a famous college dropout. The initial letters of the answers on the right will spell out what this person created after dropping out.

7-letter words        Dropout         6-letter words

Tummy _____   __  _____  Lamented loudly
Ill-fated liner _____  __  _____ Undamaged
Certain linemen _____  __  _____ Dracula's bed
Calcium, for one _____  __  _____ Stay
Out on a sail _____  __  _____Acquire
Earns big bucks: 2 wds. _____  __  _____ Type of pitch
Whooped about winning _____  __  _____ Over 70: 2 wds.
Wine jars _____  __  _____ Donnybrook
John Bartlett et al. _____  __  _____ Rotational force

Answers:

ABDOMEN    B     MOANED
TITANIC         I      INTACT
TACKLES       L     CASKET
MINERAL      L     REMAIN
BOATING      G     OBTAIN
RAKES IN     A      SINKER 
GLOATED     T      OLD AGE
CARAFES      E      FRACAS
QUOTERS     S      TORQUE   

Dropout:  BILL GATES 
What he created: MICROSOFT