LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

523 solvers conquered Ian Livengood’s Oscar-themed meta last week. Ian asked us to find two grid entries totaling 10 letters that would make an appropriate fifth theme entry.

Our four overt theme entries were:

17-A [“London Fields” novelist] = MARTIN AMIS

29-A [44.5-carat gem in the Smithsonian] = HOPE DIAMOND

46-A [Drug produced by TV’s Walter White and Jesse Pinkman] = CRYSTAL METH. From “Breaking Bad,” as you probably knew.

59-A [“The French Connection” feature] = CHASE SCENE. Specifically, the one where Gene Hackman is driving on the road underneath a New York subway for about two minutes. The bad guys are on that train!

What do those four entries have in common? They start with the surname of an Oscar host: Steve Martin, Bob Hope, Billy Crystal, and Chevy Chase. Which means we need a ten-letter, two word phrase where the first word is also the surname of an Oscars host, and there it is at 32-Across and 12-Down: meta answer ROCK GARDEN, since Chris Rock hosted the Oscars in 2005.

32 solvers submitted ROCK AWARDS as their meta answer, which was also counted as correct. It’s not as much of a thing as “rock garden,” but it’s ten letters long and, given the awards vibe of the puzzle’s theme, enough of a thing to be correct.

DIS quips:

Not too hard — I’m sure you’ll get a host of correct answers.

Golem quips:

Guest constructor month is looking pretty comic-al so far.

Steve T writes:

Had the answer half hour ago, as it was only combo making a phrase. Took this long before I got the Oscar MC connection.

He means: the title of the puzzle needs to be pronounced “emcee” jobs, not “McJobs.”

Hammer took a plausible wrong turn for a bit:

Nice headfake with (MAR)TIN/DIAMOND/CRYSTAL — was looking for an anniversary in CHASESCENE but couldn’t find one!

iabervon submitted ROCK AWARDS:

But only because I couldn’t find CARSON CITY in the grid.

And finally, a bizarre coincidence. Check out these three e-mails:

Evad:

I guess Goldberg Variations would be a bit too obvious.

EvadGib:

I guess “goldberg” and “variations” was too long to fit in the grid.

Math Teacher Dave:

I suppose each of these clues could be considered Goldberg Variations?

So the three people who mentioned “The Goldberg Variations” this week are all named Dave and express this in their usernames. Actually, we did have one non-Dave mention it as well, but still.

My thanks for guest constructing, Ian! Everyone dug it.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 523 correct entries received, is Joey Cotruvo of Berkeley, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Joey will also receive a signed copy of my new book Munchkin Crosswords #2.

TWO THINGS FROM LAST WEEK:

1) Regarding Andrew Ries‘s Rows Garden (not ROCK GARDEN!) meta, I wondered aloud last week whether anyone had ever wed those two puzzle forms. Joon Pahk was first among several readers to point out that, among other constructors, Patrick Berry used a Rows Garden meta last year in his “The Crypt” Kickstarter project.

2) I also incorrectly stated last week that constructor Peter Broda is from Manitoba, but he’s actually from Saskatchewan. Province fail, sorry.

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH, PUZZLE #3:

Our guest constructor this week is Neville Fogarty, who is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Kentucky, which is in Lexington. Neville did his undergrad at Washington & Lee University about 30 miles south of me in Lexington, Virginia, which means two things: I’ve gotten to have lunch with him several times here in Staunton as he’s en route to or from W&L, and that he likes to earn degrees in cities called Lexington.

In his spare time, Neville also writes a highly-regarded weekly puzzle at his blog here (new one goes up every Friday morning). He recently celebrated his 100th blog puzzle, which is quite an achievement, and #84 of those hundred won my Crossword of the Month award earlier this year (solve that puzzle here; read about it winning CotM here).

So let’s do it! Neville’s instructions are: This week’s contest answer is an actor with a ten-letter name who’d make a good fifth theme entry for this 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.

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 (2,302 members now!) here. Or you can download the .puz file (you may have to right-click the link and save to your Downloads folder).

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