Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 137 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. [UPDATE, 1/14, 2:30 PM: I originally mislabeled this puzzle as MGWCC #173, when in fact it’s MGWCC #137. That was only an error, not part of the meta.]

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

OTIS is my new cat, whom 348 solvers found curled up in each corner of last week’s grid. The puzzle’s two longest entries were clued as {How and where some cats sleep}:

27-a –> ALL CURLED UP
49-a –> IN THE CORNER

And there he is indeed, clockwise each time! And with his mouse toy in the picture above.

Annette Otis wrote me two weeks ago that, as a veterinarian, she felt bad about missing the JACK RUSSELL meta. I told her she’d have a chance to redeem herself the following week, and when she saw it was a cat-related meta she understood what I was talking about…but only in part! In fact, there were two reasons I knew she’d get a kick out of MGWCC #136:

Haha, I thought you were saying I would like this one because it had to do with cats, so I had a very a-ha moment with the meta. I am really flattered you named your cat after me. Or at least gave me a meta shoutout this week.

Tim French has a cat story:

I got a new kitten over the summer. Being a scientist and from Boston, I wanted a name that was either “sciency” or “Bostony”. I asked my friends via Facebook and someone came up with “Sam Atoms”. Done.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 348 correct entries received, is Elizabeth Saindon of Takoma Park, Md. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Elizabeth will also receive a one-year subscription to Peter Gordon‘s outstanding Fireball Crosswords. Winners over the coming two weeks will receive the same.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT OTIS:

1) “But wasn’t Milo was the cat in the movie, not Otis?”

Yes, but I wasn’t sure of that until I Googled it when we got home.

2) “Did you name him after Otis Redding or the elevator guy?”

Neither! The shelter named him, and it suits his personality, so we’re keeping it.

3) “How’s he doing?”

Extremely well. Our old cat, Stella (well, she’s 15 months) is taking a little more time adjusting to the new reality but we had a breakthrough yesterday. She and Otis chased each other around for 4 hours straight which I guess means they’re friends now.

GOOGLE GROUP CHANGES:

Google appears to be phasing out their Google Groups program, so I’ll be making some changes over the next couple of weeks in how I deliver the puzzle to you. The main change for now is that I can’t upload any new files to the archives, so your solving options will be 1) solve the Across Lite file received via e-mail, 2) print out and solve on paper from the e-mail or website, or 3) solve on the applet at the website.

If you can’t open the Across Lite file you receive via e-mail, please let me know and I’ll re-send.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a number between 1 and 10 (inclusive of 1 and 10). E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer number 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 either solve on the applet below or download the free software here, then join the Google Group (1,410 members now!) here. To solve with friends at Team Crossword, click here.

[UPDATE, 1/14, 2:30 PM: I originally mislabeled this puzzle as MGWCC #173, when in fact it’s MGWCC #137. That was only an error, not part of the meta.]

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