Ahoy, Fellow Cruciverbalists! Welcome to Week 24 of my crossword contest. If you’re new to the contest and would like to enter, please see the site FAQ on the left sidebar for instructions.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Ding ding ding — we did it, kids! This week we’ve set a new record for total number of entries received (116) and, for the first time, I received triple-digit correct entries (107, to be precise). Terrific — now let’s aim for four digits!

The five 15-letter grid entries in last week’s puzzle contained a riddle:

WHICH WORD IN THIS / DIAGRAM CAN LOSE A / LETTER TO BECOME A / SHORTER WORD WITH / ONE MORE SYLLABLE?

The riddle’s answer — and last week’s contest answer word — was found at 65-across, FINANCE, a two-syllable word which drops its first N to become the three-syllable “fiance.” Five entrants submitted “fiance” instead of FINANCE, which was technically incorrect but I decided to count it anyway (they’d clearly solved the riddle as intended). Solution grid is at left.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from among the 107 correct entries, is Kevin Ashworth of Los Angeles, Calif. Kevin has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Gridlock.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer word is 12 letters in length. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer word in the subject line of your e-mail.

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite, join the Google Group here:

http://groups.google.com/group/mgwcc

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