Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 187 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:

What famous U.S. mayor did last week’s puzzle point to? Let’s take a gander at the theme entries:

17a {How many human civilisations have gained power} = SLAVE LABOR
23a {Person who covers many thousands of kilometres} = WORLD TRAVELER
36a {Defence against root canal pain} = LOCAL ANESTHETIC
46a {It helped fulfil a JFK dream} = APOLLO PROGRAM
58a {“You’ve been marvellous!”} = THANKS A TON
190 successful metapuzzlers noticed that each of these five theme clues contained a word spelt like Brits do: civilisations, kilometres, Defence, fulfil and marvellous. Surely that couldn’t be a coincidence! But what next?

Aha — each of the theme entries also ends in a word that the British spell differently than Americans. A Londoner would spell our five theme entries:

SLAVE LABOUR
WORLD TRAVELLER
LOCAL ANAESTHETIC
APOLLO PROGRAMME
THANKS A TONNE

The added letters have been emboldened above, and anagram to Chicago mayor Rahm EMANUEL, who was last week’s contest answer.

Mark Manuel can’t believe he missed the meta:

Combine my last name with the fact that I was in London right before Christmas and you have one embarrassed contestant. Colour me red.

The recently-relocated Eric LeVasseur writes:

For Boxing Day I spent much of the day emptying boxes (the cardboard kind). Relaxing now by filling boxes (the crossword kind).

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 190 correct entries received, is Reid Koss of Seattle, Wash. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Reid will also receive a copy of Brendan Quigley’s new 21×21 freestyle crossword. Winner next week will receive the same.

ACROSS LITE FOR iPAD:

Want to solve crosswords on your iPad? Litsoft has just launched a new app that lets you do so. Check it out here:

http://itunes.apple.com/app/across-lite-crosswords/id480513184

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is the last name of a famous athlete. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer athlete 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 (1,621 members now!) here. To solve with friends at Team Crossword, click here.

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