Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 117 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:

He appears frequently in crossword grids, but never this prominently! Garfield’s slow but lovable cartoon pal ODIE was last week’s contest answer animal, found by 94 dogged entrants. Solution at left.

ODIE was the odd animal out because the other nine had homophones of their type concealed in clues. Z was an ant, for example, and “aunt” appears in the clue to 36-across. Similarly:

BULLWINKLE –> moose (“mousse,” 34-down)
YOGI –> bear (“bare,” 65-across)
BAMBI –> deer (“dear,” 15-across)
DOLLY –> lamb (“lam,” 1-across)
SHAMU –> whale (“wail,” 32-down)
TOM –> cat (“Katt,” 16-across)
NALA –> lion (“Lyin’,” 19-down)
MR. ED –> horse (“hoarse,” 63-across)

Only “dog” didn’t have a homophone, which makes ODIE our doggie of the week.

Julian Lim writes:

The title toad me what to look for.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 94 correct entries received, is Miss Kali of Brooklyn, N.Y. Miss Kali has selected as her prize an autographed copy of Sip & Solve Hard Crosswords.

LAST WEEK’S WINNER:

I managed to completely miss last week’s winner’s e-mail until yesterday, so let’s do it now: last week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 341 correct entries received, is Holden Baker of Greenfield, Mass. Holden has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Literary Crosswords.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Something funny’s going on with five squares in this puzzle grid! This week’s contest answer is the grid entry that spells out the trick. E-mail this entry to me (the actual entry in the grid, not its clue number) at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer in the subject line of your e-mail. [UPDATE, 2:10 PM, 8/27: the clue for 15-down should reference 12-down, not the nonexistent 12-across]

To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite download the free software here, then join the Google Group (1,309 members now!) here.

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