LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: MGWCC #890 — “Places, Everyone!”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is the *clue* that completes a set of 11.
Answer: 53-Across / [Meiji, for example], found by 220 solvers, 140 of which were solo solves
Unusual meta mechanism! 17×17 grid and it wasn’t clear at all what the theme entries were; the longest entries were I FEEL SO ALIVE, YOU’RE PERFECT, ZARQA RIVER, and JUDAH COHEN, the last two of which are not really famous enough to be theme entries so gotta be considered a li’l sus. Then there’s also 9-letter QUEUING UP, BOSTONIAN, MEGABUCKS, and DALAI LAMA, all lively.
So what’s the grand pattern? Let’s look back at those maybe-not-gridworthy pair of ZARQA RIVER and JUDAH COHEN. In reverse they each hide the name of a four-letter country: IRAQ and CHAD. Aha! There you are, little rabbit…
Indeed, the names of 10 of the 11 four-letter countries can be found reversed in grid entries:
JUDAH COHEN = CHAD
ZARQA RIVER = IRAQ
I FEEL SO ALIVE = LAOS
MEGABUCKS = CUBA
DALAI LAMA = MALI
YOU’RE PERFECT = PERU. Well hidden! It took me 10 seconds to find it just now.
QUEUING UP = NIUE. Webster’s gives both “queuing” and the insane-looking “queueing” as acceptable.
SCENARIO = IRAN
ENAMOR = OMAN
BOGOTA = TOGO
What’s missing? FIJI, not found backwards in any word(s) that I can find, so it became the meta answer. There it is at contest answer 53-Across, [Meiji, for example].
kse says:
Fiji has made me even more thirsty on this mid-90s day 
FIJI water, best bottle design in the business.
Evan writes:
Nice. This voice actor would have approved.
Jason T notes:
You must have been so pleased to discover the Zarqa River.
I was, and I was even more surprised to discover that it is the only river in the world comprised entirely of Fiji Water. Water the odds??
And finally, ASB says:
conspicuously making it a pangram was a bit unfair!
Bro, do you think I named JUDAH COHEN, the ZARQA RIVER and…uh…er…VOX? Um, OK, maybe ASB has a point…but no, that X wasn’t on purpose. And if it wasn’t on purpose I can’t be held responsible. See Chapter 37, page 24, subitem 9b of the Meta Handbook.
Who’s ready for Week 4? You are! And even if you’re not, here it is anyway…
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
Today’s puzzle is Week 4 of 4 in June. Instructions:
This week’s contest answer is a fitting five-letter term.
Good luck!
–Matt