The Five Letter Puzzle

In the New York Times Magazine for Sunday, 18 June 2005, Will Shortz published the following puzzle, which involved a grid of letters:

  R---E---M
 /|  /|  /|
D---T---Y |
| | | | | |
| O-|-P-|-A
|/| |/| |/|
A---S---E |
| | | | | |
| H-|-I-|-L
|/  |/  |/
C---T---L
      

Starting at any letter, you are allowed to move to a neighboring letter. Proceeding in this way, you can spell out words. Thus, in particular, the nonsense word "ASTIL" could be spelled. Shortz stipulated that you were not allowed to get a double letter simply by staying at a letter for two turns. Thus, "ASTTC" is not legal, but "ASTLL" is, because there happen to be two adjacent L's.

Of course, Will Shortz wasn't interested in nonsense words. He asked how many acceptable five letter words could be found in this grid, with plurals allowed, but not proper names.

(Will says he has found 48 words!)

In the New York Times for Saturday, 12 December 2009, Will Shortz published another version of the puzzle, "3-D Word Hunt":

  C---K---Y
 /|  /|  /|
O---S---T |
| | | | | |
| A-|-P-|-P
|/| |/| |/|
R---E---T |
| | | | | |
| T-|-A-|-M
|/  |/  |/
C---H---U
      

"3-D Word Hunt" in the New York Times Magazine for Sunday, 05 February 2011:

  M---A---T
 /|  /|  /|
P---C---S |
| | | | | |
| E-|-N-|-I
|/| |/| |/|
A---D---B |
| | | | | |
| L-|-G-|-O
|/  |/  |/
R---E---P
      

Will Shortz found 31 relatively familiar words, and 11 unusual ones.

In the New York Times Magazine for Sunday, 8 January 2012, Will Shortz published another version of the puzzle:

  I---T---O
 /|  /|  /|
M---S---P |
| | | | | |
| L-|-E-|-R
|/| |/| |/|
B---S---U |
| | | | | |
| O-|-C-|-K
|/  |/  |/
L---A---N
      

Will Shortz said he found 51 relatively familiar words, 15 unusual ones, and three common words that were not in the dictionary.

Another puzzle:

  O---A---C
 /|  /|  /|
S---T---I |
| | | | | |
| C-|-R-|-O
|/| |/| |/|
S---E---D |
| | | | | |
| W-|-I-|-P
|/  |/  |/
G---N---A
      

I give up, show me the solution.