Weekly Crossword Contest – Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

“The butler did it!” last week at MGWCC. That standard result in English mysteries arose because the butler was always present yet never noticed, simultaneously indispensible and invisible, the last person you’d suspect.

The butlers of crossword puzzles are those little tags we use at the end of clues: “Abbr.” for abbreviation, “e.g.” for for example, etc. (hey, there’s another one!). They’re so inconspicuous that I thought it’d be devious to base a meta on them, and that’s what we had here. The five theme entries were:

17-a [The house's money, in portfolio manager jargon] = VALUE AT RISK. Though Pete Muller of Muller Monthly Music Meta fame writes to tell me that this clue is not accurate. Full explanation of the concept here (which after reading I still don’t fully comprehend). But yeah, if you’re not doing his music meta give it a shot — it was one of the cruciverbal highlights of 2012, and 2013 is off to a grand start.

26-a [Standard movie madman] = EVIL GENIUS.

39-a [What crabs from the Chesapeake are traditionally steamed with] = OLD BAY SEASONING. Off-topic: I had a puzzle rejected by the NYT in the mid-1990s because Will Shortz hadn’t heard of my 6-letter entry OLD BAY. Semi-ironic since I first met him in 1988 at a crossword tournament in Baltimore, which is Old Bay country indeed. OK, maybe not even semi-ironic. Let’s move on.

50-a [Performs some act frequently] = DOES IT A LOT. Rather on the contrived side.

62-a [Phrase in kitchen gadget infomercials] = EASY TO CLEAN.

Looks like a disparate set, but check out the initials: VAR, EG, OBS, DIAL and ETC. Those are all crossword tags, and each appears in exactly one clue in the grid:

57-a [Wrote song lyrics, perhaps: var.]

11-a [Dr. Dolittle, e.g.]

19-a [Steal: obs.]

34-a [In favor of: dial.]

13-a ["War and Peace," "Foucault's Pendulum," etc.]

So what’s the meta answer? Instructions asked for a well-known newspaper, and lookie here: there’s a sixth tag in the clues, at 9-d, where RES is clued as [Thing: Lat.]. That unaccounted-for Lat. tag leads us to meta answer the LOS ANGELES TIMES, found by 252 solvers from a total of 313 entries.

Two sneaky things that made this one tougher:

1) I originally had this puzzle slated to run last month, but test solvers felt the “obs.” “var.” and “dial.” tags stuck out a bit much. So I pushed it off until this month and seeded the intervening puzzles with fill requiring those tags (like TRIBORO last week, which took a “var.,” and YON with its “obs.” tag in the SW corner of the knights puzzle). That way the tags wouldn’t be so noteworthy when they showed up en masse in this puzzle.

2) I placed VALUE AT RISK and EVIL GENIUS first in the grid since VAR and EG look much more like jibberish than DIAL and ETC do, so anyone following that line of thought — the correct line, it turned out — would hopefully be dissuaded from it after seeing the unpromising VAR and EG.

It worked (for a while) on Wobbith:

Killer! Wrote VAR EG OBS DIAL ETC in the margin immediately after (finally!) solving the grid. Then spent an hour seeing nada before I saw the trick.

Simon McA saw through it eventually, too:

Nice one. I kept scanning the clues, since a lot of the theme answers had a word used in a different clue, but I couldn’t find a match for a couple of them. And as I kept scanning the clues, I said to myself “boy, there are a lot more awkward Obsoletes and Variants than you usually get in a Matt Gaffney puzzle….oh!”

DIS got the L.A. Times, but also suggested:

Or the fictional L.A. Tribune, from Lou Grant.

Stabby says:

Tried anagramming RIMED VET NIM FER TOMES for the longest time…

Ember had the same idea:

Wasted far too much time trying to get the Vetmed Times-Informer to turn itself into a real thing.

And finally, DebbieK thought the puzzle was:

A Bracing Brilliant Romp!

It pained me to not find anything for ABBR in the grid, but my DIAL solution was enough of a stretch as it was.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 252 correct entries received, is Nick Weprich of Minneapolis, Minn. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Nick will also receive a copy of Patrick Berry‘s new Kickstarter campaign, The Crypt.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is one of the currencies replaced by the euro. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

165 correct entries came in on MGWCC #247. High for a Week 4, and I didn’t manage to peel off any of the 13 perfect scores, either. We’ll fix that later on this month, which has five Fridays.

Six long theme entries last week, plus a mysteriously asterisked entry at the central down:

22-a [Summary of Honolulu's economic woes?] = HAWAII OWES MONEY. What state doesn’t? I think only North Dakota doesn’t have any debt.

7-d [Club made out of green vegetables?] = SNOW PEAS PUTTER

15-d [Headline about a coup d'etat in northern Finland?] = LAPPS SEIZE CONTROL

30-d [Nickname for a poet who was always getting weepy?] = WATERY EYES KHAYYAM

55-d [Driving hazard?] = WOBBLY GOLF TEES

114-a [What baby hive members do during story time?] = OCCUPY BEES KNEES

And then that solitary starred clue at 46-d: [They should be heeded*] for WISE WORDS.

What’s going on here? The six long theme entries consist of a word with a double letter (like PUTTER or LAPPS), plus a homophone for a plural letter (like SEIZE for C’s, or TEES for T’s), plus — here’s the tricky part — a word suggesting a double-letter word in another entry. So in LAPPS SEIZE CONTROL we have a double-letter word (LAPPS), plus the letters homophone (SEIZE), plus a word suggesting another double-letter word in another entry (CONTROL, which suggests the double-C word OCCUPY).

Intricate, so let’s do another one: in WOBBLY GOLF TEES, WOBBLY suggest KNEES, while GOLF TEES suggests PUTTER, a golf term with double T’s. Still confused? The color-coded solution diagram above should help.

Instructions asked for one of the currencies replaced by the euro. WISE WORDS suggestes a YY word relating to words, and there’s poetic wordsmith Omar KHAYYAM at 30-d. Which means we’ve got one set still unmatched: OWES MONEY needs a money word with a double-O in it, and the only euro-replaced currency satisfying that requirement is the Estonian KROON, making that money our meta answer.

Off-topic: The kroon might seem an obscure and random currency, but to chessplayers it was beloved since the 5-kroon note bore the visage of chess great Paul Keres (1916-75; see image at top of post). Keres is widely considered one of the strongest players never to become world champion; though he never made it to the peak himself, he notched victories against every world champion from Capablanca to Fischer.

Munch fell for a vicious (and unintentional) red herring:

C- Seize,Y-Wise,P-Peas,R?,I-eyes,O – Owes,T-Tees and B-Bees left over. Feeling like I was building something and had both parts missing and extra.

I kept getting CYPRIOT POUND entries but didn’t know why until a solver finally explained: just take those double letters and you get CYPBIOT. So close, so it surely had to be the correct path, right? But no. 22 solvers in total guessed it, though.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 165 correct entries received, is Jack Martin of Medford, Mass. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Jack will also receive a copy of Patrick Berry‘s forthcoming cryptic suite. Just 5 days left in its Kickstarter campaign, so do it soon if you’re gonna.

MONTHLY PRIZES:

127 (!) solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of February’s challenges (ZEBRA, IRON HUBBARD, LOS ANGELES TIMES, ESTONIAN KROON). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly by computer from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Ed Brody — Cambridge, Mass.

Phil Chow — Elmhurst, N.Y.

Russ Cooper — Phoenix, Ariz.

Gene Faba — New York City, N.Y.

Roger Friedman — Annandale, Va.

Charlie Haley — Durham, N. Car.

Brandon Hensley — Princeton, N.J.

Don Lloyd — Point Reyes Station, Calif.

David Stein — Silver Spring, Md.

J.T. Williams — Pasadena, Calif.

Congratulations to our 10 winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in February.

YOU LIKE ME, YOU REALLY, REALLY LIKE ME:

Well this is cool: I won the Orca for 2012 Constructor of the Year on Sunday!

Other honorees included Ben Tausig for Puzzle of the Year, Brendan Quigley for Best Freestyle Puzzle, Merl Reagle for Best Sunday-Sized Puzzle, Patrick Berry for Best Gimmick Puzzle, Jeff Chen for Best Easy Puzzle, and Bob Klahn for Lifetime Achievement. Read about all the nominees and winners here.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a farm animal. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not let astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

646 solvers found the PIG for last week’s meta, a new record. And nobody missed it!

The last word of each theme entry suggests that delicious creature in some way:

17-a [Beyond thrilled] = TICKLED PINK

26-a [Utterly confusing] = CLEAR AS MUD

39-a [The true author of Shakespeare's plays, some claim] = SIR FRANCIS BACON

50-d [Modern store checkout tool] = DIGITAL PEN

63-a [Signature tune for Sonny & Cher] = I GOT YOU, BABE

What farm animal do PINK, MUD, BACON, PEN and BABE suggest? Oink! It’s a PIG.

danchall writes:

Very easy but never a boar.

ERRATUM:

Many solvers (Joshua Kosman was first) pointed out that at 61-a, Mad Magazine’s mascot is Alfred E. Neuman, not Alfred T. Neuman.

What, me worry?

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 646 correct entries received, is Christian Griset of Bala Cynwyd, Penna. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Christian will also receive a copy of…

SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:

Neville Fogarty, who posts clever puzzles here every Friday, has a new puzzle suite coming out called “The Games People Play.” MGWCC winners this week and next will receive a copy of it; here’s the KS page (already fully funded and then some — way to go, Neville!).

IN THE NEWS:

The Staunton News-Leader ran a little article about me this week.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a word beginning with P. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by WEDNESDAY at noon ET. Note the extra day given because the ACPT is this weekend, and good luck to those of you competing! Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on WEDNESDAY.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

531 solvers found PHYSICS as last week’s meta answer. I self-blogged this puzzle at Fiend on Tuesday, so read the review there today instead of here!

http://www.crosswordfiend.com/blog/2013/03/13/mgwcc-249-matts-self-review/

Jason T opines:

This puzzle was dynamite!

Mean Old Lady says:

Physicist daughter would be ashamed did I not get this. Wanted to spell it Fizzicks just to mess with you.

smwcross writes:

39-Across. 40-Across, 41-Across!

And finally, Lee Sammons ran into some trouble:

I did yours and Fireball today and forgot which was which, so I spent a lot of time looking for your meta in the Fireball puzzle. Bah!

Now there’s an idea for a tough meta!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 531 correct entries received, is Dan White of Manhattan Beach, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Dan will also receive a copy of Neville Fogarty’s forthcoming puzzle suite (which you can Kickstart here). Next week’s winner will receive the same.

WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEYER HIMSELF:

Bravissimo to Dan Feyer for convincingly winning his fourth consecutive ACPT last weekend. His finals-mates, yet again, were Anne Erdmann, who took second place (on her birthday!), and 5-time champ Tyler Hinman, one of the extremely small number of people who is disappointed by a third-place finish in Brooklyn.

This is starting to feel like the Federer/Nadal/Djokovic/Murray lock on grand slam finals over the past 8 years! When are you three going to let someone else on that stage? (Answer: never!)

ONO SHE DIDN’T!

Yoko Ono answers her favorite 10 Twitter questions each Friday at her website. Last week I tweeted her:

Matt Gaffney @metabymatt
Hi Yoko, your first and last names each appear all the time in crosswords. What’s the best clue you’ve ever seen for yourself?

Her response:

They just use my name for a filler. I like that. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We’re totally busted! Also, I was sure she would say her favorite clue was [Lennon's love].

BIG SHOES TO FILL:

This week I’ve taken over crossword duties at The Week from the great Peter Gordon, who ends his brilliant four-year run there.

These will be current events-themed, similar to the weekly Slate puzzles I wrote from 1999-2003. First one is here (PDF only for now).

QUARTER NOTES:

MGWCC #250? Already? That means the contest is one-quarter done as of today. MGWCC #1000, which will end this series, runs on Friday, August 6th, 2027.

250 down, 750 to go. First quarter ends today; second quarter starts next week. Game on!

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is the answer to a hidden trivia question. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

[UPDATE, 3/16/13/, 11:40 AM ET: in the clue for 50-across I've confused my college basketball tournaments. The clue should reference not the NIT but the NCAA Men's Division I Championship. This was just a mistake and has nothing to do with the meta.]

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

“First-Quarter Action” was last week’s puzzle title, and you had to parse that twice to succeed. First, the four numbers in theme entries had to be quartered (i.e. multiplied by .25); then you needed to take the first quarter of the resulting clue numbers to spell out a trivia question:

17-a [It mentions the Isle of Wight (first, quarter; then first quarter)] = WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR (16)

28-a [Part of the Dead Man's Hand (first, quarter; then first quarter)] = EIGHT OF CLUBS (2)

50-a [NIT teams who've won their first two games, collectively (first, quarter; then first quarter)] = SWEET SIXTEEN (4) (Inaccurate clue — see correction on last week’s post)

66-a [Duration of solitude, in a literary title (first, quarter; then first quarter)] = ONE HUNDRED YEARS (25)

Now let’s look at those clue numbers in parentheses above, and take the first quarter of them — if they’re four words long we’ll take the first word, if they’re eight words long we’ll take the first two words, etc.

16-a ["What is it, caller?"]

2-d [State quarter with this island's outline? It's Hawaii]

4-d [Features a gym is very likely to have]

25-a [Piece of fruit that also just happens to be a common color]

What state quarter features a piece of fruit? Why it’s GEORGIA, the fourth state (appropriately for a puzzle about quarters).

DIS got it, but also added:

Or “Georgia On My Mind”, if I have to give an answer you can take the first quarter of.

Also thinking musically, Dary Merckens:

I wish I had done this on a midnight train.

Dan Katz relates:

When I worked in the MIT Coffeehouse, there was a run where I was getting about three times as many Georgia peach quarters as any other kind. Still better than the $2 bills some of the alums stuck me with to amuse themselves.

Jeff writes:

My southern belle wife is disappointed I had to Google search to answer the question.

And finally, Amy Reynaldo shares:

The hospitality gift for out-of-town guests at [Crossword Fiend writer] Sam Donaldson’s wedding included Georgia peaches. OMFG! The sweetest and juiciest peaches ever.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 299 correct entries received, is Jon Delfin of New York City, N.Y. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Jon will also receive a copy of Neville Fogarty’s forthcoming puzzle suite (which you can Kickstart here).

SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:

In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, winners this week and next will also receive a copy of editor Ben Tausig‘s fascinating “Twenty under Thirty” project. Constructor surnames you may recognize include Hinman, Madison, Livengood, Wentz and Knapp; you can buy it at the link for $5.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a recent pope. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Which recent pope concealed himself in last week’s puzzle? Nine clues in the grid got stars:

1-a [Gray Jay*] = LENO

19-a [Major "cougar cage"*] = PICK-UP JOINT

49-a [King legend Wayne ___*] = GRETZKY

76-a [Denver waters*] = SOUTH PLATTE

87-a [Carpenter hurt*] = OWIE

9-d [Darling brown doe*] = AUNT ENA

13-d [Woo "candy"*] = SWEET NOTHINGS

28-d ["Bull!" (Henry Ford)*] = HISTORY IS BUNK

58-d [Harvard Law Kennedy*] = ANTHONY

What do those entries have in common? Only that they can be clued using the surnames of famous people named John. For example, at 1-a we have [Gray Jay] for LENO, referencing touchy-feely author John Gray and Founding Father John Jay. Should any of the other 21 Johns be unfamiliar, click on their name above for their Wikipedia article.

Which recent pope does this point to? 23 Johns must mean JOHN XXIII (1958-63), found by 264 entrants. I put the “recent” in there to guard against answers of John I or John IX (him since there are nine John clues).

Golem writes:

Good man!

Cyrano says:

Or Papa Giovanni XXIII as he is known here in Italy where I happen to be for six weeks (completely unrelated to the recent conclave I assure you).

Jon Delfin says:

Bravo!

He means this. As you can probably tell from the awkward syntax used, it was tough to come up with 23 Johns who could form passable crossword clues. So at one point in the themestorming process I considered opening the field to those named Jon, Johnny, Johnnie, etc. Wasn’t sure how legit this was, so I sought the counsel of a puzzle guru, who strongly advised against. He was right, and I stuck to Johns only (no offense, Delfin!).

Charlie Haley writes:

Props to anyone that got this without filling the crossword at all.

Solvers do gripe a bit when there’s a meta where you don’t actually have to solve the puzzle, but nobody ever actually does that! Oh, wait…Maggie W.:

I did get this meta about 3 minutes after you sent out the puzzle, but I wanted to do the puzzle just to be sure (and to have fun doing the puzzle).

And finally, Tyler Hinman suggests:

not sure the stars were necessary, since several of the clues sounded bizarre.

I considered this for a few seconds while writing the puzzle, but rejected it because I thought it’d be too difficult for a Week 4/5. In retrospect, he’s right; the relevant entries did sound stilted enough to stick out, and leaving the stars on would have probably put us in the 125-175 right entries range I was aiming for.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 264 correct entries received, is Brent Holman of San Francisco, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Brent will also receive a copy of editor Ben Tausig‘s new “Twenty under Thirty” project. Constructor surnames you may recognize include Bain, Broda, Wheeler, Vigeland and Last; you can buy it at the link for $5.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a European capital. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Week 5 means tough! Solvers were tasked with finding a European capital, and the theme entries’ identities weren’t totally clear. The 9 and 10 pairs of the pinwheel looked like theme, but what about the two 8s in the middle? Turns out all six were:

17-a [Doesn't just sting] = HURTS SO BAD

27-a [Pac-12 squad] = UTAH UTES

46-a [Kid kin] = YOUNG ‘UNS

59-a [It's on the flag of the proposed nation of Cascadia] = DOUGLAS FIR

11-d [Text about sex (and other things, too)] = KAMA SUTRA

34-d [LOLcat sound] = NOM NOM NOM

What’s going on here? The trick is straightforward, but well-concealed: each of the six theme entries contains a word that anagrams to a day of the week minus -DAY. So UNS yields SUNday, NOM yields MONday, UTES yields TUESday, HURTS yields THURSday, FIR yields FRIday, and SUTRA yields SATURday. What’s missing is WEDNESday, which yields our meta-answer, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN.

THE PETER PRINCIPLE:

I based this meta on Peter Gordon‘s recent Fireball contest puzzle, “Capital Capital” (can’t link to it since it’s subscription-only, but my Fiend writeup is here). Spoilers to follow, so if you plan to solve it skip the next couple of paragraphs.

Only 9 people solved that meta, which amazed me since I’d gotten it in about two minutes. True, I had a head start since I’d messed around with the same theme idea before (though never published it). But still, the idea there (anagramming words from theme phrases to get Greek letters, like OMICRON from the first word of MORONIC INFERNO) did not seem very hidden or difficult or novel. Since I’d always envisioned Week 5-difficulty metas as necessarily intricate, it intrigued me that a meta so straightforward could be so brutal.

The three key tougheners of Peter’s meta are replicated here: 1) title that is unhelpful until after you’ve already gotten the idea (some didn’t care for my title, though; see discussion in comments here); 2) anagrams to a familiar but still slightly unusual set (my set was unusual because you were anagramming to parts of words, not full words; Peter’s was unusual because many of the anagrams were only two or three letters, like EAT for ETA and U.N. for NU); and 3) the big one, making it unclear exactly what was theme and what wasn’t. A minor quibble I had with Peter’s puzzle was that there was fill longer than theme, so here I made the longest fill in the grid 7 letters so it wouldn’t step on the toes of UTAH UTES and YOUNG ‘UNS.

Well, it worked, since just 29 solvers found STOCKHOLM (and 3-4 of those were Hail Marys, which count both in football and here at MGWCC).

Tahnan nailed it quickly:

It’s nice to finish on a Firday and not have it drag out until Unsday or Nomday.

As did Projectyl, who had a fascinating head start:

Got memories of Encyclopedia Brown to thank for this one – the words “NOM UTES SWEDEN HURTS” have been rattling around in my head since I was a kid.

Here’s the full Encyclopedia Brown story, which I don’t have an active memory of but which I’m sure I read as a kid.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 29 correct entries received, is Walt Blue of Saint Paul, Minn. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Walt will also receive a copy of editor Ben Tausig‘s new “Twenty under Thirty” project.

MONTHLY WINNERS:

27 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all five of March’s challenges (PIG, PHYSICS, GEORGIA, POPE JOHN XXIII, STOCKHOLM). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Joe DeVincentis — Salem, Mass.

Peter Gordon — Great Neck, N.Y.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Pete Mitchell — Bow, N.H.

Eric Prestemon — Woodside, Calif.

Dave Sullivan — Woodstock, Vt.

Mike Sylvia — Seattle, Wash.

Jason Taniguchi — Toronto, Ont.

Peter Washington — Chico, Calif.

Steve Williams — Holbrook, Mass.

MULLER MONTHLY MUSIC META FOR APRIL:

Is up. Puzzle took me 8:21 and the meta 5 minutes.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a well-known American novel. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Well, that was easy (assuming you avoided one trap). 580 solvers found LITTLE WOMEN as last week’s famous American novel. The four main characters of the book, sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, begin the four theme entries (oldest to youngest):

17-a MEGALOMANIA

29-a JOYRIDING

43-a BE THE BEST

57-a AMYL NITRITE

So LITTLE WOMEN it was, but what about that one trap? 13 entrants submitted Amy Tan’s 1989 novel THE JOY LUCK CLUB, due to a non-trivial number of references to it in the puzzle: 1) the title “Book Club”; 2) JOY in JOYRIDING; 3) AMY in AMYL NITRITE; and 4) LUCKY at 18-d. True, that leaves two of the four theme entries unexplained and LUCKY in random fill is arbitrary, but it was enough to make it look plausible for a Week 1. Tricky, but totally unintended by me (and unnoticed until entries started coming in).

PatXC recalls:

My favorite book from childhood! Thanks for the memories.

My wife’s favorite childhood book as well.

cybergoober writes:

I am Alcott up after March’s 4-for-5.

jimakin writes:

March madness once again extends into April.

DIS says:

Going from week 5 to week 1 almost hurts, like trying to throw a wiffle ball really fast.

marpocky remembered one way to make Week 1 tougher, if it’s a challenge you seek:

Every week 1 I try to do the puzzle using only the across clues. I didn’t quite finish it this time, but I got enough to get the meta. Yay!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 580 correct entries received, is A.A.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a group of people skilled in language. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Who were the mysterious group of people skilled in language hidden in last week’s puzzle? Twelve languages concealed themselves one letter off in the six theme entries:

CHAI BISQUE –> THAI BASQUE

SATIN GREED –> LATIN GREEK

HIND’S FINFISH –> HINDI FINNISH

HERMAN REBREW –> GERMAN HEBREW

GARLIC MAYO –> GAELIC MAYA

BUTCH WELCH –> DUTCH WELSH

The twelve replacement letters spell out meta answer TALKING HEADS. I was referencing the TV pundits there, but many interpreted the answer to mean the great band, which works just as well. Or better, since many of those pundits don’t impress.

Norm Hurlbut chose the band, but also added:

And their great bassist (SPAR)TINA WEYMOUTH

While Maryland high school math teacher David Stein (9-down), writes:

You give me super-cred with my students. Ben Stein went to Blair!

(That’s the same high school where David teaches.)

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 431 correct entries received, is Peggy Johnson of Granada Hills, Calif.

CROSSWORD RACE:

Alex Boisvert solves against 5-time ACPT champ Tyler Hinman. Tyler’s handicap? He has to solve the puzzle as a diagramless! I guessed who would win before watching, and got it wrong.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 17-letter word. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Was your mind boggled last week, as 1-across and 61-across suggested? Instructions asked for a 17-letter word, and there were just three hints: 1) BOGGLES / THE MIND up top and down below, clued ominously as [What a good metapuzzle does]; 2) The title, “Shake It Up”; and 3), a single, curious rebus square of QU in the southwest.

Could it mean a Boggle-like search for a 17-letter word? A Boggle board is 4×4, and there are 4×4 blocks all over this grid. So which one to choose?

Since a Boggle board is only 4×4 squares, the only way to make a 17-letter word is to use the Qu, which helpfully appear on the same cube in the game (see above photo; you know how many times I had to shake that thing until this board showed up?). That narrows the search down to the SW corner, where a little trial-and-error (or hunting for Latinate roots) yields the monster play INCONSEQUENTIALLY, which was last week’s meta answer.

DIS asks:

I had a hunch the Qu die was part of it. How long did it take you to work that out?

I had some help. My original idea was to situate the 4×4 box in a corner, but some poking around led me to two conclusions: 1) it was going to be much easier to fit the 4×4 in some non-corner part of the grid, and 2) even relaxing that constraint, this was going to be much easier with computer assistance.

So I asked Alex Boisvert if he would write a little magic code to see if this could be done. He graciously obliged and sent along a few possible-looking 4×4 boxes; we couldn’t make anything work in a corner, and even the solution we found required half the grid to absorb.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 342 correct entries received, is N.P.

PUZZAZZ PRIZES:

The 2013 Year of Puzzles has started over at Puzzazz. The inaugural free puzzle is a double spiral by Parker Lewis called “Dawn in Seattle”.

MGWCC winners this week and next will receive a copy of Puzzazz’s 2013 YoP, which you can buy here.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a Best Actress winner who should be in this grid, but isn’t. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

UPDATE, 4/26, 3:40 PM ET: The last eight down clues got cut off on the printable .png file. This isn’t part of the meta (as you can see by checking the .puz and the .pdf, which has all the clues), just a technical glitch. Please refer to the .pdf or the .puz for those eight missing clues — thanks and sorry!) UPDATE #2, 4:10 PM: .png is now fixed! Sorry for the hassle.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

It wasn’t really an Oscar-winning actress we needed last week, it was a left fielder! 147 solvers noticed that symmetrically-placed entries covered eight of the nine positions in baseball:

1-a PELE (P = pitcher)

19-a SUZANNE SOMERS (SS = shortstop)

31-a RICHARD FEYNMAN (RF = right fielder)

45-a COLETTE (C = catcher)

46-a BOB BARR (BB = second baseman)

57-a BIG BILL BROONZY (BBB = third baseman)

73-a CARLOS FUENTES (CF = center fielder)

83-a BONO (B = first baseman)

So we need a left fielder, and the only Best Actress winner who fits the bill is LOUISE FLETCHER, who made her mark as Nurse Ratched in 1975′s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” At 78 I hope she’s still got a powerful arm to make that throw home!

Not as tricky as last month’s Week 5, but again riffing off Peter Gordon‘s recent Fireball meta “Capital Capital”: not clear what was theme and what was fill until you figured out the idea, and it links to a familiar but slightly unusual set (unusual here because the positions of first, second and third base are normally abbreviated 1B, 2B and 3B, but here they just used the letter B as many times as indicated. This made catching the baseball position abbrevs. a little tricky). But the title was more helpful than last month’s and Peter’s, so that softened the meta somewhat.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 147 correct entries received, is Roger Friedman of Annandale, Va. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Roger will receive a 1-year subscription to Puzzazz’s Year of Puzzles 2013. Next week’s winner will receive the same.

MONTHLY PRIZES:

118 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of April’s challenges (LITTLE WOMEN, TALKING HEADS, INCONSEQUENTIALLY, LOUISE FLETCHER). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Louis Ah — Cupertino, Calif.

Abby Braunsdorf — Lafayette, Ind.

Seth Canetti — Rye Brook, N.Y.

Todd Dashoff — Philadelphia, Penna.

Bob Kerfuffle — Carlstadt, N.J.

Bob Klahn — Wilmington, Del.

Alex Kolker — East Moline, Ill.

Erich Peterson — Grand Rapids, Mich.

Al Sanders — Loveland, Colo.

Jim Silvestro — Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in April.

HOW TO MAKE A WEEK 1 META TOUGHER:

Solve it without the instructions! Recomnmended this week for meta-veterans. I’ll even put a little spoiler space so you can go to the .puz right now without reading further.

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THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is one of New York City’s five boroughs. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Which of New York City’s five boroughs served as the answer to last week’s meta? With theme entries of LARYNX JINX, PHALANX THANX, MANX QUINCUNX and SPHINX LYNX we’re evidently looking for -NX words, meaning it had to be THE BRONX. 593 solvers got it. Naturally I also accepted just “Bronx” — and also “Da Bronx,” which was submitted by four jokesters. Whaddyagonnado?

Paul Coulter writes:

I tried without directions, but there’s nothing that points in that direction!

I had suggested the old Week 1-toughening trick of solving sans instructions, and, while it didn’t keep anyone from getting the answer, how were people supposed to guess the Bronx? Well, the only other usable words were MINX, PHARYNX, SYRINX, MENINX and a few others, unsuitable for a Week 1 meta since they’re somewhat uncommon. Also, meta answers work best when they’re part of a clearly defined and familiar group, like “Boroughs of New York” or “Best Actress Winners” from last month. THE BRONX works for this, while the others don’t.

But Vraal points out:

OK, so the “NX” theme was relatively easy, but what I think made your “instructionless” idea fail (for me, not necessarily everyone) is that I didn’t see any other hook into you wanting a NYC borough. Everything else was two-word NX suffix phrases, my first thought was to try to find a common two-word -NX phrase, but these didn’t seem to exist. So downgrading to a single albeit common -NX word was not readily apparent to me. I guess, thinking about it, “BRONX” is the only common -NX word you did not use. But again I think it was the pairing of the others that threw me into “unsure” enough to read what you wanted.

Point taken. Not the best week for a suggestion of instructionslessness.

Dan Katz asks:

Would you have accepted Manhattanx?

No, but “Brooklynx” sounds so cool I would’ve had to think about it.

Lisa from Queens says:

I really wanted it to be Queens!

Hollie notes:

And the shapeware sold in this borough is: Bronx Spanx

And finally, Jason Shapiro got the right answer, but only after a Homer Simpson moment:

I took your suggestion and planned to guess what the meta answer would be without looking at the instructions. I printed out the puzzle and solved it on a Bronx-bound subway train. The conductor must have said “Bronx” 15 times. My best guess as I exited through the turnstile — Spanx. Doh!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 593 correct entries received, is William Prevor of Holland, Penna. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, William will also receive a 1-year subscription to Puzzazz’s Year of Puzzles 2013.

MAY MULLER MONTHLY MUSIC META:

Solve it here; deadline is Sunday. I’m stumped so far but don’t plan to let my 3-for-3 streak in 2013 snap so easily.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a familiar website. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

EARLY POST TODAY:

I’ll be gone all day so I’m posting early (I don’t fully trust WordPress’s autopost). Probably won’t be verifying entries until this evening, so please don’t fret if you don’t see your name on the leaderboard until tonight.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

On what website can you UNFOLLOW a thread, UNBLOCK another user, UNLIKE a comment, UNHIDE a post, and UNFRIEND someone altogether? FACEBOOK, of course, which 575 meta-solvers found. 12 incorrect entries also came in, 8 of which were for TWITTER. You can unfollow someone on Twitter, but can’t unfriend or unlike anyone or anything (not sure about unblock or unhide, but I don’t think you can do those, either).

3 guesses also came in for the United Nations’ website, un.org. Close but no cigar, since the un-words weren’t merely random.

Jeremy Lin writes:

Apropos this week’s challenege, and because it’s Eurovision time (my favorite ridiculous time of the year), here is a (slightly off-color, so if you offend easily please don’t click) Facebook-related song, San Marino’s Eurovision entry for 2012. All I have to say is that she clearly uses Facebook very differently from the way I do.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 575 correct entries received, is Josh Kuritzky of Cleveland, O. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Josh will also receive a 1-year subscription to Puzzazz’s Year of Puzzles 2013.

SPECIAL PRIZES FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS:

In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, weekly winners for the rest of May will also receive a 20-week subscription to Peter Gordon‘s new Fireball Newsweekly Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is where I’ll be heading for vacation next week. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

EARLY POST AGAIN THIS WEEK:

Travel day, so early post. Again please don’t fret if you don’t see your name on the leaderboard until this evening, since I’ll be on planes today.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

By the time you read this I’ll be where that X is! Or on the way, at least. 183 solvers figured out that I’m en route to GRAND CAYMAN. 17-across made it clear we were looking for a CARIBBEAN ISLAND; the puzzle came at 58-across, USE ANAGRAM TWICE, clued as [What you must do to figure out which 17-across I'll be on]. Then one other hint: the last across clue was asterisked: [Itinerary for many Acela passengers, briefly*] = DC-NY. So now what?

They key was to use ANAGRAM twice, like so: once as an indicator to anagram something, and the second time using the letters in ANAGRAM itself. So simply anagram ANAGRAM + DCNY and you’ve got my vacation destination, meta answer GRAND CAYMAN.

Tim Harrod asks:

Surely you didn’t plan a vacation around what would make a great meta!

Nah, it’s for a wedding. But that would be a serious level of meta-dedication.

Four solvers reported a curious backsolve to this meta. Tyler Hinman explains:

Maybe my funniest MGWCC solve ever after two days of cluelessness. Monday NYT spoilers below. So I’m solving that puzzle. 18A: “Caribbean resort island”. I have GRAND?A????. Ah, GRAND CAYMAN, of course. …wait a second. …holy crap, that’s it! And the denouement: That was the wrong answer. It was GRAND BAHAMA. I had planned to look for islands that contained all of DCNY, so there’s a good chance I would have succeeded anyway. But still.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 183 correct entries received, is ant of Gilbert, Ariz. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, ant will also receive a 20-week subscription to Peter Gordon‘s new Fireball Newsweekly Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a kind of fabric. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

[A strand of the fabric] read all six theme clues last week, the answers of which described someone known for wearing a letter on their clothing:

23-a LORRE BREAKOUT ROLE was child-murderer Hans Beckert in Fritz Lang’s great movie “M.” A pursuer identifies Beckert as the culprit on the streets of Berlin and, afraid of losing him, surreptitiously slaps an M in chalk on his back so he stands out in the crowd.

36-a WITCH DOCTOR SINGER is Alvin from Alvin & the Chipmunks, known for the big A on his sweater so you don’t mistake him for Simon or Theodore. If you don’t think you know this song, yes you do.

55-a AL MVP WINNER OF MMXI is Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander, who wears the gothic D on his uniform.

82-a VERONICA LODGE’S GUY. That’s Veronica from the Archie comics, and Archie Andrews himself wears the R on his sweatshirt for Riverdale High.

98-a PURITANS SHAMED HER was Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne, forced to wear an A (for “adulteress”).

118-a LEAPER OF BUILDINGS, of tall buildings in a single bound, in fact, is Superman, who wears the S on his superhero suit.

Weave those six strands together, and what fabric do you get? MADRAS, of course, found by 304 solvers. It’s also the hometown of World Chess Champion Vishy Anand, who’ll be defending his title this November in Madras, aka Chennai, against Magnus Carlsen. Hey, an excuse to show a random chess picture!

Were weeks 3 and 4 “switched at birth” this month? I had originally intended to run the Caymans puzzle in Week 4, since I would actually have been on Grand Cayman while people solved, which would’ve been cooler. But I became concerned that one of my non-crossword friends would innocently post my location on Facebook or Twitter if I waited that long, so Week 3 was indeed tougher than Week 4 this month.

Also: thanks to solver CY Hollander for the MADRAS montage above.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 304 correct entries received, is Jason Rau of Carlsbad, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Jason will also receive a 20-week subscription to Peter Gordon‘s new Fireball Newsweekly Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a five-letter word that bears a certain relationship to a word in this puzzle grid. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY + TIP JAR WEEK STARTS NOW!

It was 5 years ago this week that MGWCC began! How time does fly; let’s do 5 more.

The yearly tip jar week also begins today, so if you’ve enjoyed the past year of puzzles half as much as I have, visit the Super-Duper Extra-Special Tip Jar Page, or just click the PayPal button below. If you prefer to send a check, e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com).

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

“This Might Upset You” read the title of last week’s puzzle, though “upset” there meant not “sadden” but rather “invert.” And if you’d stood on your head you’d've gotten the meta quickly, since the key was turning the first word of each theme entry upside-down. Those themers were:

17-a [They help you reach lofty goals] = NINE IRONS
24-a [Get lots of 10s] = WOW THE JUDGES
40-a [Source of much bacon (use flag)] = POLAND CHINA PIGS
50-a [Movie with the line "I remember how the meaning of words began to change"] = V FOR VENDETTA
63-a [Doubter's reply (use lowercase)] = I THINK NOT

So let’s invert those:

NINE upside-down is famously a SIX (9–>6)
WOW upside-down is semi-famously MOM
The flag of POLAND upside-down is the flag of INDONESIA (note “use flag” tag in the clue)
V upside-down is the Greek letter LAMBDA
And a lowercase i upside-down is an EXCLAMATION POINT

Instructions asked for “a five-letter word that bears a certain relationship to a word in this puzzle grid.” The first letter of each inverted result above yields meta-answer SMILE, which is famously a FROWN (51-d) upside-down. So even if you missed the meta, turn that frown upside-down because a new month (year, in fact!) begins today.

Joshua Kosman writes:

So obvious in retrospect! And still it took me all weekend.

Nice to hear! That’s exactly what I’m aiming for on Week 5.

Jeff Louie‘s path to success:

Six Mom Indonesia Lambda Exclamation point. Is that right? I had figured some of this out early on, but I had only come across Monaco’s flag and not Indonesia’s, so nothing was making sense, so I kept going down other radically different barren trails. I finally resorted to scanning all grid entries for any word that could have a logical relationship with another five-letter word, saw FROWN, thought of SMILE, and then reverse-engineered it, looking at the flags of all “I” countries. The point: this was very difficult and it’s 2 something in the morning and I hate you. Love, Jeff

Nice to hear! That’s exactly what I’m aiming for on Week 5.

And finally, mrbreen submitted UNCLE, explaining:

‘Cause I give up.

Nice to hear! That’s exactly what I’m aiming for on Week 5.

OK, that joke is getting old so let’s go to the prizes: This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 48 correct entries received, is Karen Horn of Centennial, Colo. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Karen will also receive a 20-week subscription to Peter Gordon‘s new Fireball Newsweekly Crosswords. Peter’s Kickstarter campaign could use a little love, so consider subscribing if you haven’t already.

MONTHLY PRIZES:

36 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all five of May’s challenges (THE BRONX, FACEBOOK, GRAND CAYMAN, MADRAS, SMILE). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Jared Banta — Superior, Colo.

Sean Forbes — Crest Hill, Ill.

Peter Gordon — Great Neck, N.Y.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Karen Horn — Centennial, Colo.

Jeremy Horwitz — San Francisco, Calif.

Don Lycette — The Woodlands, Tex.

Paul Melamud — Milford, N.J.

Eric Prestemon — Woodside, Calif.

Scott Weiss — Walkersville, Md.

Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 5-for-5 in May.

MULLER META:

I swung and missed on May’s edition of the Muller Monthly Music Meta, but I clocked June’s puzzle out of the park. It’s a good one, and you have until Sunday evening to unravel it.

SPECIAL PRIZES THIS WEEK AND NEXT:

In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, winners this week and next will also receive a copy of the forthcoming Team 23 Crossword from the American Values Crossword gang.

TIP JAR OPEN:

In case you missed it above: It was 5 years ago this week that MGWCC began! Tempus really fugit, doesn’t it? The yearly tip jar week also begins today, so if you’ve enjoyed the past year of puzzles half as much as I have, visit the Super-Duper Extra-Special Tip Jar Page, or just click the PayPal button below. If you prefer to send a check, e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com).

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a number between 1 and 10. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (2,054 members now!) here. [UPDATE, 6/7, 12:20 PM: Awesome way to start Year 6, with two mistakes! The clue at 7-d should read "Tenor" instead of "Tenon," and the clue for 27-d should read [Trip to Mecca]. Double d’oh.]

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

TIP JAR WEEK: A NEW RECORD, AND 36 HOURS TO GO!

36 hours left in Tip Jar Week! And we’re at $9,175 (including checks), meaning we’ve already surpassed last year’s total by about a hundred bucks. Can we get to an even $10,000? I say we go for it! But I would say that, right?

Seriously, so extremely gratifying to have the site grow every year. Chip in by visiting the Tip Jar Page, or just click the PayPal button below. If you prefer to send a check, e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com).

12:05 AM, JUNE 16th: Tip Jar Week is now over! We easily surpassed last year’s total — thank you to all who chipped in! I’ll have final numbers in this Friday’s post. — Matt

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Had to be 5, right? 5th anniversary of MGWCC and all that. But let’s see how we got there.

Instructions asked for a number between 1 and 10, and the five (of course) theme entries were:

17-a [Source of the saying "man does not live by bread alone"] = DEUTERONOMY.

24-a [Oldest of French-Canadian girls born on May 28th, 1934] – YVONNE DIONNE of Dionne Quintuplets fame. Two of the five, Annette and Cecile, are still living.

39-a [One of Michael's brothers] = JERMAINE JACKSON. Bet you can’t make it to the chorus.

51-a [Duluth's body of water] = LAKE SUPERIOR. I was once told by a Duluthian that Lake Superior is so big you can surf on it. Appears to be true!

63-a [It's pointed at things] = INDEX FINGER.

What do these five have in common? They’re all members of famous sets of five: books of the Torah or Pentateuch, the Dionne Quintuplets, the Jackson 5, the Great Lakes, and fingers. Which makes 5 our meta answer, found by 611 entrants. Six incorrect entries also came in.

e.a. writes:

thanks for putting the answer right on the website so i didn’t have to do any work

Norm Hurlbut got it as well, and found an Easter egg:

Which, thankfully, is not the number of this month nor the number of Fridays in it (brutal May for me, MGWCC-wise). By the way, nifty JACKSON HOLE over there in the east.

NDE says:

I hoped that each of first, second, third, fourth, fifth would be represented, but apparently that was not Jermaine, um, germane to the puzzle.

And finally, Chip quips:

If last week felt like a pentathlon (which I didn’t finish!), then this week was more like playing the nickel slots.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 611 correct entries received, is Bridget O’Brien-Mitchell of Rochester Hills, Mich. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Bridget will also receive a copy of the forthcoming Team 23 crossword from the AVCX gang.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is how some people get while solving metapuzzles. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Tricky for Week 2: a lowish 274 solvers found TESTY as the word describing how some people get while working metapuzzles (I won’t name names!).

They noticed two things: first, that the five theme entries were two-word phrases where both words start with the same three letters. Second, they noticed that there was another four-letter word in the grid beginning with that same trigram. Take the fourth letter of those extra words, as nudged at by the title, and you get the meta answer:

CHARLIE CHAPLIN — CHAT

MARY MARTIN — MARE

SIMPLE SIMON — SIMS

CANDY CANES — CANT

ALLIGATOR ALLEY — ALLY

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 274 correct entries received, is C.D. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, C.D. will also receive a copy of the intriguing new Team 23 contest crossword from the AVCX gang, which just dropped yesterday. Read more about this intriguing $5 creature here.

TIP JAR ROUNDUP:

The final results are in: $10,955 was the grand total of the 2013 MGWCC Tip Jar Week. That’s a 21% increase over last year’s haul — very nice, and thank you to all 362 who chipped in! Year 6 starts now.

CROSSWORDESE AND LEGALESE:

Newly-minted law school graduate Andy Kravis has a new weekly crossword blog out. They’re not law-themed, so don’t worry! New puzzle every Saturday — here’s one I particularly enjoyed.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a famous fictional character. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Tough Week 3: just 55 solvers found TONY SOPRANO as the famous fictional character requested by the instructions.

The six theme entries were:

19-a ["Please Read the Letter" singer, with Robert Plant (A)] = ALISON KRAUSS

25-a ["The Hurt Locker" director (A)] = KATHRYN BIGELOW

38-a [Dorothy Zbornak portrayer (A]) = BEA ARTHUR

53-a [Noted Don Giovanni (V)] = EZIO PINZA

66-a [She sang at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday, 1939 (V)] = MARIAN ANDERSON

76-a [First singer to sell a million recordings (V)] = ENRICO CARUSO

What’s going on? The parenthetical A in the first three clues stands for “award,” relevant since ALISON KRAUSS won the 2009 Record of the Year album for “Please Read the Letter,” KATHRYN BIGELOW won the Best Director Oscar for “The Hurt Locker,” and BEA ARTHUR won an Emmy for playing Dorothy Zbornak on “The Golden Girls.” Grammy, Oscar, Emmy — so the missing member of the four major entertainment awards is a Tony.

The last three entries are opera singers, so you might have guessed that the three V’s stand for voice. We’ve got a bass voice in EZIO PINZA, an alto (contralto) in MARIAN ANDERSON, and a tenor in Enrico Caruso. The missing member of the four main voices is SOPRANO. Put the two missing members of those quartets together and you get meta answer TONY SOPRANO, played by the recently deceased James Gandolfini.

Some solvers had a couple of problems with the meta: 1) Bea Arthur won a 1966 Tony Award, which some found confusing since it completes the awards set. I somehow had missed her Tony and would’ve used another Emmy winner if I had noticed it, but since the awards were won for the works specifically cited in the clues I didn’t feel this inelegance should have affected the meta. Read the lengthy and somewhat contentious comments section at Crossword Fiend for the arguments on both sides of this. 2) Marion Anderson is a contralto, not an alto. There seemed (and seems) to be enough ambiguity in the terms “alto” and “contralto” — they’re technically separate, but often casually conflated — so I didn’t think anyone who saw the meta idea of awards/voices would get TONY SOPRANO and then say, “but wait a second — Anderson isn’t an alto, she’s a contralto.” Music theory is over my head, so see the above-linked comments for thoughts on this as well.

Since Week 2 was more like a Week 3 this month and Week 3 was like a Week 5, today we’re backtracking: This puzzle is a Week 2 difficulty level. Next week we’ll start a new month with the usual order of difficulty.

LEADERBOARD REMINDER:

Webmaster Dave Sullivan sends along this reminder: please make sure that you keep your leaderboard username consistent each week. Usernames are case- and punctuation-sensitive, so if you’re “Zachary Z.” one week make sure you’re not “zachary z.” or “Zachary Z” (without the period) the next.

GORDON POLL:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
First ever MGWCC poll! Here’s the backstory: in 2009 I ran a meta which hinted at three famous people whose names, when taken together, were pangrammatic. They were historian JACQUES BARZUN, country singer DWIGHT YOAKAM and hockey player FELIX POTVIN. I felt the 36 letters those three shared was probably as low as you could go on this, but challenged readers to do their worst. I wrote: “If anyone can beat my 36 letters I’d be very interested to hear about it. A MGWCC pen/pencil notepad set to whoever goes lowest!” No one took me up on the challenge, though….until now!

Four years later, and armed with a monster database of famous names he collected mainly for his iPhone app Celebrity: Get a Clue, Peter Gordon wheeled out his list of three celebrities whose pangramhood needs just 35 letters. If you haven’t yet solved the May 22nd Fireball puzzle using these three names but plan to, stop reading now!

Peter’s trio is rapper FOXY BROWN, quarterback JACK THOMPSON and painter DIEGO VELAZQUEZ. The poll question Peter and I want readers to settle is: should this list count as a record-breaker? There are two questions to weigh: 1) is it OK that FOXY BROWN isn’t her real name (it’s Inga DeCarlo Fung Marchand) and 2) is Jack Thompson famous enough? Vote in the poll at right and we’ll see if we have a new record. And BTW — don’t assume that Peter necessarily thinks the 35 should count or that I think it shouldn’t! I’ll reveal his and my personal views on it next week.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is the answer to the theme question. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday. NOTE: in case you missed it above, this week’s meta is only a Week 2 difficulty level.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH:

It’s July, and that means it’s the 2nd Annual Guest Constructor Month here at MGWCC! For various reasons, Guest Constructor Month this year will consist of five puzzles even though July only has four Fridays. We’re going to poach the first Friday of August and then August will be a four-Friday month. Sorry for the weird rhythm lately; it will settle down after August.

LAST WEEK’S WINNER:

I forgot to give credit to last week’s weekly winner: it was Kyle Osborne of Hamilton, O.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

A riddle last week spelled out by the theme entries: WHAT PART OF / THE BODY IS / A PALINDROME BOTH / IN ENGLISH / AND SPANISH?

That’s the EYE of course, rendered as OJO in Spanish, as every crossword solver learns quickly. ¿Muy facil, no? 595 solvers found it, so it must’ve been!

Jared Dashoff says:

EYE believe that is the answer.

tberla writes:

EYE, Aka “ojo”… oho, aha!

And Howard B states palindromically:

Si, eye is.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 595 correct entries received, is J.L. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, J.L. will also receive a copy of my new book Bite-Size Crosswords. Weekly winners for the rest of July will receive the same.

MONTHLY WINNERS:

47 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of June’s challenges (5, TESTY, TONY SOPRANO, EYE/OJO). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Erik Agard — College Park, Md.

Tony Antonakas — Hudson, O.

Joseph DeVincentis — Salem, Mass.

Bennett Engel — Willow Grove, Penna.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Jeremiahs Johnson — Lafayette, Calif.

Bob Klahn — Wilmington, Del.

Katie Miller — Houston, Tex.

Jason Shapiro — New York City, N.Y.

Stephen Williams — Holbrook, Mass.

Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in June.

PETER THE GREAT:

By a vote of 98-42, MGWCC solvers decided last week that Peter Gordon’s 35-letter pangrammatic set of DIEGO VELAZQUEZ, FOXY BROWN and JACK THOMPSON is a legitimate victor over my 36-letter set of JACQUES BARZUN, FELIX POTVIN and DWIGHT YOAKAM.

Peter thought his set should count, but I felt that 1) FOXY BROWN not being her real name opened up a can of worms on other names (DJ JAZZY JEFF wouldn’t help in this specific case, but you get the idea; would that one count?). Counterargument: FOXY BROWN isn’t a super-crazy name like DJ JAZZY JEFF, and a lot of entertainers don’t use their real name; for example, under that logic, ELTON JOHN or JOHN WAYNE wouldn’t be usable. But more importantly I felt that 2) scrub quarterback JACK THOMPSON isn’t famous enough for the list.

Solvers seemed to overrule me on that, but halfway through the week the point became moot when a solver pointed out to me Australian actor Jack Thompson, who looks easily famous enough to me for this. He’s had starring roles in big movies like “Breaker Morant” and “The Man from Snowy River,” and more recently a prominent role in “The Great Gatsby.” So Peter will indeed be receiving his MGWCC stationery set soon.

YOU’RE IN FOR A TWEET:

To my own surprise I’ve become an active Twittererer. Follow me at the big button in the upper left.

META ANALYSIS:

Three live crossword contests for your amusement:

David Steinberg (contest deadline is 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Saturday, July 6th)

Pete Muller (contest deadline is 11 PM Eastern Time on Sunday, July 7th)

Erik Agard (contest deadline is noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 10th)

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Normally you’d get a photo and bio of this week’s Guest Constructor, but I can’t do that now because…this week’s contest answer is the author of this week’s puzzle. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.

MGWCC #247 — Friday, February 22nd, 2013 —“There’s Cash Missing”

MGWCC #248 — Friday, March 1st, 2013 —“Animal Farm”

MGWCC #249 — Friday, March 8th, 2013 —“Categorically Denied”

MGWCC #250 — Friday, March 15th, 2013 —“First-Quarter Action”

MGWCC #251 — Friday, March 22nd, 2013 —“Papal Conclave”

MGWCC #252 — Friday, March 29th, 2013 —“False Start”

MGWCC #253 — Friday, April 5th, 2013 —“Book Club”

MGWCC #254 — Friday, April 12th, 2013 —“Hey, Watch the Language!”

MGWCC #255 — Friday, April 19th, 2013 —“Shake It Up”

MGWCC #256 — Friday, April 26th, 2013 —“Diamond Girl”

MGWCC #257 — Friday, May 3rd, 2013 —“Anxious Moments”

MGWCC #258 — Friday, May 10th, 2013 —“Site Unseen”

MGWCC #259 — Friday, May 17th, 2013 —“Where in the World…?”

MGWCC #260 — Friday, May 24th, 2013 —“Theme Material”

MGWCC #261 — Friday, May 31st, 2013 —“This Might Upset You”

MGWCC #262 — Friday, June 7th, 2013 —“Group Activity”

MGWCC #263 — Friday, June 14th, 2013 —“Bring Forth the Fourth”

MGWCC #264 — Friday, June 21st, 2013 —“AV Club”

MGWCC #265 — Friday, June 28th, 2013 —“Found in Translation”

MGWCC #266 — July 5th, 2013 — GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH, PUZZLE #1 —“Who Am I?” by Anonymous