LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Which recent pope concealed himself in last week’s puzzle? Nine clues in the grid got stars:
19-a [Major “cougar cage“*] = PICK-UP JOINT
49-a [King legend Wayne ___*] = GRETZKY
76-a [Denver waters*] = SOUTH PLATTE
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.
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 (2,015 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.