LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
454 solvers found ALICE IN WONDERLAND as last week’s contest answer (or ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, if you prefer the book’s official title, though the submissions system had a hard time with apostrophe).
Paying homage to the physiological transformations the title character undergoes in the book, solvers were given five multiword nonsense phrases whose words could change one letter each to become a character from Lewis Carroll’s story. They were:
17-a [Status update on your Apple’s temperature situation?] = MAC HOTTER, from the Mad Hatter.
20-a [Eliminate one’s golf rival once and for all?] = KILL TEE WIZARD, from Bill the Lizard.
35-a [Seek the advice of Torah experts?] = WRITE RABBIS, from the White Rabbit.
55-a [“The Caine Mutiny” captain getting very close to the fire?] = QUEEG ON HEARTH, from the Queen of Hearts.
59-a [Senator Rubio’s press secretary or chief of staff?] = MARCO HIRE, from the March Hare.
Jeff Louie almost overthought it:
I forgot what week it was and started picking out the wrong letters and trying to anagram them before looking at the instructions.
eieieowen wasn’t going to miss this one:
Fate is funny sometimes, my copy of the Knight Letter, the magazine of the Lewis Carroll Society of NA arrived Friday too!
And CY Hollander got full credit for submitting A LIFE IN WORDER-LAND, which he subtitled:
Best-selling autobiography of Matt Gaffney
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 454 correct answers received, is Robert Loy of North Charleston, S.C. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Robert will also receive a copy of Patrick Blindauer‘s Las Vegas-themed Holiday Puzzlefest AND a 1-year subscription to editor Ben Tausig‘s new American Values Crossword, which rose like a Phoenix from the ashes of the old Onion puzzle. Next week’s winner will receive the same.
CLUE DE-DUPER:
Sick of major clue/entry duplicates sneaking into your puzzles, like PARIS did to me in the Warren Buffett puzzle a couple of weeks ago? Just use Alex Boisvert‘s brand new Clue De-duper. It’s hard to imagine a phrase you sound sillier saying than “clue de-duper,” but this piece of code will save you from your word dupe nightmares. Simply upload your .puz file and it finds all repeating strings of four or more letters among clues and entries.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s puzzle contest answer is a 15-letter crossword entry whose clue is [Musical genre developed at a Big East school?]. 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 (1,922 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.