LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: MGWCC #876 — “Plot Device” by Evan Birnholz
Prompt:This puzzle’s contest answer is a five-letter word.
Answer: RADAR, found by 185 solvers, of which 68 were solo solves
Tough one from Evan, who has of course written many lovely metas in the Washington Post Magazine in recent years.
Four long entries in the grid: BON APPETIT, CALIFORNIA, HIS AIRNESS, and WASHINGTON, but nothing really stood out about them. What does stand out if you take a minute and free-scan the grid, is that the three entries on the left and top edges of the grid are a perfect, 26-letter pangram! FIND BMW GLYPHS up top, then JOCK VEX QUARTZ along the left edge. Coincidence? I think not!
Now what? Well we do have those four long entries to find a task for, and each of them is a non-dull, evocative term. Let’s peep their clues:
26-A: [Monthly Condé Nast publication] = BON APPETIT
41-A: [Setting of Florence and Venice] = CALIFORNIA
31-D: [Nickname of a Chicago Bulls legend] = HIS AIRNESS
36-D: [House location] = WASHINGTON. House of Representatives, of course.
Now what? A few moments’ worth of ponderage may reveal that each of these clues could also be answered with a bigram:
26-A: [Monthly Condé Nast publication] = GQ
41-A: [Setting of Florence and Venice] = LA, since both of those are sections of Los Angeles
31-D: [Nickname of a Chicago Bulls legend] = MJ, a more common nickname for Michael Jordan
36-D: [House location] = DC
Must be on the right track, but the prompt calls for a five-letter answer and we’ve only got four of these bigrams. But 77-D looks themey, as the last Across entry and a themey clue of [Coordinate ___]. So let’s take its symmetric entry, 63-D, which is clued as [Campaign consultant’s concern]. Which could also be PR!
So we’ve got GQ, LA, MJ, DC, and PR, and each of the thirteen white squares along the top row and left edge get a unique letter. So now we match them up! For example, take the G from GLYPHS on the top row and the Q from QUARTZ on the left edge, and they meet at the D of DOT. Match the other four up similarly and, read from top to bottom, they spell contest answer RADAR, found by 185 solvers. Thanks to Gridmaster J for the solution grid above.
Ryoustra says:
Quite inventive! Always love me some Evan Birnholz!
Jason T thinks this was:
XY-lent!
And finally, Magoo writes from across the pond:
The Florence/Venice answer(s) are especially cruel to a European. [Although my Irish wife randomly met a schoolfriend on Venice Beach (LA)]
Huge thanks to Evan for a lovely Guest Constructor Month meta. Now it’s time for Week 4 of 5…
GUEST CONSTRUCTOR: JEFF CHEN
This week’s guest constructor is MGWCC veteran Jeff Chen. Jeff is a writer and puzzle-maker living in Seattle, WA with his wife (Jill) and two kids (Tessa and Jake). His book with Stuart Gibbs, “Spy School: Entrance Exam,” hit the Indie Bestseller list in 2024. His daily word game, Squeezy, is now a core offering of Hey Good Game. Other books, daily games, and perhaps even a streaming series are in the works.
In his free time, Jeff enjoys rock climbing, donating blood for the free cookies, and feeling obligated to keep up his 391 day Duolingo streak. He’s currently in the middle of a (53-year-long) existential quest for … well, he’s not sure. Please send answers.
Alrighty, let’s get to it!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
Today’s puzzle is Week 4 of 5 in March. Instructions:
Someone is hiding in the grid. The answer to the meta is the two-word, 11-letter phrase that describes their hiding place.
Note that the contest deadline this week is noon ET on Tuesday, March 25th. (i.e. no extra time for the two-hour delay)
Good luck!
–Matt, on behalf of Jeff