Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 40 of my 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:

145 solvers correctly figured out last week’s contest answer word, which was ACPT, of course (you know, that other crossword contest). Each of the five theme entries in the grid (CAT PEOPLE, ACT PROPERLY, PAT CASH, CAPTAIN EO, and PACT OF STEEL) began with some combination of those four letters. Solution grid at top left.

Several solvers gave me mild grief for referring to ACPT as the “contest answer word,” but I figured “contest answer initialism” would’ve been too much of a gimme.

This week’s winner, whose name was selected at random from the 145 correct entries received, is Margaret Hoglund of Walla Walla, Washington. Margaret has chosen as her prize an autographed copy of Sip & Solve Hard Crosswords.

AND THE MONTHLY WINNERS ARE…

Ah, but we have some other prizes to award today, don’t we? That’s right, it’s time to distribute to 10 lucky and skillful winners the inaugural MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad sets! These names were randomly selected from the 21 entrants who submitted correct entries for all four of February’s puzzles.

The monthly winners are:

Stan Brunner — Jackson, Tenn.

Ken Crowell — Halifax, Nova Scotia

Andrew Feist — Newport News, Va.

Alice MacIsaac — Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia

Eric Maddy — Huntington Beach, Calif.

Joon Pahk — Cambridge, Mass.

Jim Silvestro — Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.

Scott Weiss — Walkersville, Md.

Dave White — Leawood, Kan.

Stephen Williams — Holbrook, Mass.

Congratulations to our 10 winners! If you’re one of them, please e-mail me your address so I can send you your loot. Also, I’d like to update the winners’ names with their cities/states of residence — if you’re one of the winners and don’t want your city/state listed, please let me know.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer phrase is two words and a total of eleven letters long. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer phrase 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.