LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “MGWCC #947 — “Where Are My Glasses?”
Prompt: This puzzle’s contest answer is a slightly gross word.
Answer: BACKWASH, found by 208 solvers, 133 of whom were solo solves

Much SADder than I expected! Took e.a. 7 minutes and he was first, and that wound up lapping the field since the second right answer didn’t land until 12:15. Theme entries weren’t 100% obvious but they wound up being the quartets of eight- and nine-letter Acrosses:

17-A: [Skate park ride, sometimes] = FREEBOARD
21-A: [Option if you don’t want an Altoid or a Tic Tac] = VELAMINT
23-A: [Fun-to-say Florida city] = OPA-LOCKA. If I ever start a band I’m calling it “Opa-Locka Velamint.” Also, I’m never starting a band.
33-A: [Hard to look away from] = STRIKING
42-A: [Squander with worry, as time] = FRET AWAY
52-A: [European six-time NBA All-Star] = PAU GASOL
54-A: [Whence Rihanna] = BARBADOS
60-A: [Unit of frequency] = DECIHERTZ

As highlighted above, each of those eight conceals a drink backwards: BEER, ALE, COLA, KIR, WATER, AGUA, SODA, and HI-C. The first letters of those spell icky contest answer BACKWASH.

What made this so tough? I’m not quite sure. You may never have heard of KIR, but that’s just one of the eight. Hyphenated HI-C is near-impossible for the eye to parse backwards unless you already know it’s there, and AGUA is a bit of a cheat but 99% of adult American English-speakers could tell you what the Spanish word for “water is”. So just a tricky thing for the eye to catch, even if you know it’s there…

JrMan says:

Cleverly-misleading title!

That probably helped a little, not giving away too much.

Tyler Hinman got it, but only with 27 minutes to spare:

what the hell took me so long?

genefaba writes:

Really good one. all fell into place. Obvious in retrospect but difficult to see

And finally, woozy says:

Not crazy about NIGel trying to slip some GIN into it but I ignored him.

Nigel! You put that unauthorized alcohol away right now. (64-A).

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR PUZZLE:

This Week’s guest constructor is Patrick Berry. Last week played like a Week 5 so this one is a bit easier. I think. Adding a no-instructions option in case you’re feeling super-powerful.

Today’s puzzle is Week 5 of 5 in July. Instructions:

No instructions given here since there are no-instructions options available.