Dear Fellow Cruciverbalist,

Due to a minor family emergency, I’ll be posting today’s crossword, MGWCC #009, Saturday afternoon instead of today. I’ll extend the crossword deadline this week to Wednesday at noon to allow for the normal amount of solving time.

The minor family emergency is: my brother Sean, his wife Mandy, and their two-year-old son Patrick are moving to their new house today. Originally I wasn’t needed to help with the move, but then earlier this week Sean cleverly fell through the floor of their attic while retrieving some boxes. Diagnosis: one broken arm, one brother unable to participate in his own move, and the other brother called in for assistance, which meant all day yesterday and today.

Full, normal write-up of last week’s results coming tomorrow along with the puzzle.

Covered in sweat and begging your indulgence for the delay,

Matt

UPDATED, 8/2:

Ahoy, Fellow Cruciverbalists! My brother and his family are now moved in, and MGWCC #009, “The Replacements,” is now up. Life rolls on!

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

The numbers from MGWCC #008 were brutal, so sit down for this: a record-low 14 solvers (it was a toughie, I admit it!) correctly returned last week’s crossword answer letter, which was UPSILON.

Why UPSILON? It was the only Greek letter that could not be found concealed in the clues, as hinted at by the answers to 1-across (GO GREEK) and 1-down (GET A CLUE). As with MGWCC #006, this puzzle’s grid was pangrammatic, so solvers had to look elsewhere for the “missing” letter mentioned in the instructions.

EPSILON, for example, was hidden in the clue to 41-down, {Pepsi longs to destroy them}, the answer to which was COCA-COLA. SIGMA concealed itself in 67-down, ZEN {Philosophy Robert Pirsig matched up with motorcycles}, while GAMMA lurked within 64-across, {Amalgam material}, the answer to which was MERCURY. The only Greek letter nowhere to be found was UPSILON — a.k.a. Y, hence the puzzle’s title, “Y Not.”

Last week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 14 correct entries, is Jan O’Sullivan of Killingworth, Conn. Jan has selected an autographed copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crossword Puzzles & Word Games as her prize.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer word is a five-letter musical term. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Wednesday (N.B., you have an extra day due to my delay in posting) at noon ET. I’m on the road again so will post the printable version when I get home Sunday night; for now please use the Across Lite version sent via the Google Group.

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

[UPDATED, 8/2, 9:40 PM ET: Amy Reynaldo comes thru with a JPEG! Awesome. Click it and hit “print” on your browser to solve.]