MGWCC #825 — Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 — “Take a Little Off the Sides”

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “It Takes One”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter part of the body.
Answer: ELBOW, found by 258 solvers, of which 167 were solo solves

Step 1 last week: Notice that each of the five grid-spanning entries conceals a verb:

LEAVES DROPPINGS = EAVESDROP
DEATH ROW RECORDS = THROW
HOSTESS TWINKIES = WINK
WILL SHAKESPEARE = SHAKE
THE SCOTTISH OPEN = HOP

Step 2: Notice that each of these verbs pertains to a certain part of the body, especially to *one of the pair of body parts performing an action*:

You EAVESDROP with one ear (usually)
You THROW with one arm (usually)
You WINK with one eye
You SHAKE with one hand
You HOP with one leg

Step 3:

Find a grid entry that conceals each of these body parts:

Find an EAR in NEAR at 3-d (not in WILL SHAKESPEARE, as the note on its clue suggests. There was no other usable entry with SHAKE I could find that wasn’t just using SHAKE as the verb, so I had to go with a SHAKESPEARE, but then that contains a spare EAR, which necessitated its awkward-but-still-mysteriously-hinty note).
Find an ARM in UNHARMED at 74-A
Find a EYE in DREYER at 8-A
Find a HAND in GHANDI at 73-A. Sort of a stretchy entry, but Google “Ghandi” and see how many reputable news, politics, history, etc. sites misspell it this way. And they’ve had a century of famous GANDHIs to practice on, not just the Mahatma. Still not as grating as “Lionel Ritchie” though.
Find a LEG in ELEGY at 53-A.

Take the first letter of those five:

NEAR
UNHARMED
DREYER
GHANDI
ELEGY

That spells NUDGE, and what five-letter body part does one nudge with? Contest answer the ELBOW, found by 258 entrants.

Dude did not appear to know that ELBOW was coming!

2023 MGWCC MEDALISTS:

The following solvers puzzled out the answer to between 47 and 51 of 2023’s MGWCC Metas. Each will receive a MGWCC pen and notepad set.

2023 GOLD MEDALISTS:

The following two solvers were unstumpable in 2023, going 51-for-51 on MGWCC’s. Wow!

Jeffrey Harris — Nashville, Tenn.

Bennett Washburn — Aurora, Colo.

2023 SILVER MEDALISTS:

The following sixteen solvers got 49 or 50 of 2023’s 51 metas. Not easy to pull off, but they did it!

Rich Bragg — Los Altos, Calif.

Ameet Brahmavar — Vancouver, Wash.

Neville Fogarty — Newport News, Va.

Mike Graczyk — Chicago, Ill.

Hector — San Francisco, Calif.

Travis Hime — New York City, N.Y.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Jeremy Horwitz — San Francisco, Calif.

Jasters — Seattle, Wash.

B.K.

J.M.

A.M.

Alex Sisti — Whitesboro, N.Y.

J.S.

Vraal

P.Y.

2023 BRONZE MEDALISTS:

The following solvers found 47 or 48 of last year’s meta answers. Much respect!

David Bael — Minneapolis, Minn.

Andy Nelson — Baton Rouge, La.

DJB — Sydney, Australia

Rich Pardoe — Houston, Tex.

Jason Rau — Campbell, Calif.

David Squire — Flagstaff, Ariz.

Maggie Wittlin — New York City, N.Y.

Congrats to all our winners! Your prizes are on their way.


NEGRONI’S COCKTAILS:

Bumping this from last week since I posted it late *and* because it’s getting rave reviews from solvers:

Attention cryptic crossword fans: Martin Reinfried has a new Patreon up called “Negroni’s Cocktails.” It’s a series of six variety cryptic crosswords in 2024, one every two months, each with a meta. There is also a final meta for the entire year. Check it out here:

https://www.patreon.com/negronis_cocktails

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer a Top 10 hit of the early 1990s.

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