LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Which Best Picture did last week’s metapuzzle point to? The five theme entries each hinted at a Best Picture nominee from a memorable year in film, 1982:
17-a DECISION IN COURT = “The Verdict”
23-a BEFORE POP OR ROLL = “Tootsie”
39-a NOT ACCOUNTED FOR = “Missing”
51-a SALT MARCH LEADER = “Gandhi”
62-a CAEN CONJUNCTION = “E.T.”
The winner among those five that year was “GANDHI” making it our contest answer. 475 solvers got it; the most common incorrect answer was “The French Connection,” sent in by 10 solvers. The idea is that “et,” meaning “and” in French, is certainly both a CAEN CONJUNCTION and a “French Connection,” and that awesome movie did win the Best Picture Oscar for the year 1971. But that doesn’t take the other four theme entries into account so I couldn’t count those 10 as correct.
LordOfTheExacto writes:
Sari it took me so long.
Ed didn’t find it tough for a Week 2:
Like taking Gandhi from a baby.
cybergoober notes:
Alphabetically logical: G&HI
Mean Old Lady earns her username:
SUCH a clever puzzle. Loved it. (Unless I’m wrong. If that is the case, stupid puzzle and I hated it.)
(She got it right. Phew!)
And finally, Susher shows an admirable level of devotion to MGWCC:
12 days with no power and this is the first thing I thought of doing when it came back on.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 475 correct entries received, is Norm Hurlbut of Mamaroneck, N.Y. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Norm will also receive a signed copy of my new book Mental Floss Crosswords. Winner next week will receive the same.
TWO LEADERBOARD THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE WONDERED ABOUT:
Question #1: How is it that some people are submitting their correct answers right at noon, or at 12:01, etc.? Are they that fast?
Answer: No one’s that fast! MGWCC is available on PuzzleSocial on Thursday nights at 11 PM ET. They’re solving there and then submitting their answers right as the form opens at noon. (note: without trying to I used they’re/there/their in one sentence. Sweet!)
Question #2: How come it sometimes takes a few hours for my username to show up on the Leaderboard, Streaks and Overall tabs?
Answer: I have to manually verify each entry, which sometimes takes a few hours if I’m away from the computer. The reason we do it this way is that some weeks there will be several ways to phrase a correct response, so I need to eyeball each one. For instance, in the blood type puzzle from a few weeks ago, correct responses included B+, B-POSITIVE, B POSITIVE, B-POS, B POS, etc.
HEY, IT’S NOT LIKE I’M TELLING YOU TO REVIEW MY NEW BOOK OF METAPUZZLES ON AMAZON…
…but I’m not telling you not to, either.
HARRIS HOME RUN:
No contest attached to it, but a lovely and creative meta-crossword entitled “Terse Verse” from Jeffrey Harris at his Squaresville site. An excellent a-ha moment awaits.
RE-BLOOMIN’ ONION:
What does a modern crossword editor do when his newspaper kills the puzzle? If you’re Ben Tausig at the Onion, you start a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to keep the feature going as an indie. Truly remarkable! I’ll be giving away subscriptions to the puzzle — newly re-christened as “The American Values Club Crossword” — early next month as prizes.
BEQ ON FIRE:
He’s already one of the very best, but Brendan Emmett Quigley has been especially clever lately. You’ll surely enjoy 53-across in this beautiful freestyle, and this one is very nice as well.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a well-known American billionaire. Submit your answer in the form on the left sidebar by Tuesday at noon ET. Note: the submissions form disappears from the site promptly at noon on Tuesday.
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 (1,899 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.