LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Subtle meta last week, although a healthy 149 solvers wound up getting it. The task was to find a period in American history, but it wasn’t clear exactly what the theme entries were. SINGLE HOME SALES and ESPN THE MAGAZINE spanned the grid horizontally, while the long downs were CAN’T SHAKE IT, LEOPARDESS, linked SEMESTER AT and GREASEPAINT. Nothing there really screams theme, so most solvers moved on after playing with those for a while.
The two keys were the title (“What’s That Sound?”) and all the cats running around the middle of the grid: in addition to CAT itself at 20-a, we also had TIGERS at 23-d and LIONS at 27-d (both clued in ways that did not endear me to Detroit-area sports fans, but I wanted to deflect attention from the meta by not cluing to the animals) and then a LEOPARDESS at 29-d.
The sound mentioned in the title is a roar, and each of the boxes numbered 20-29 began something that roars, either across or down:
20-a — CAT
21-a — AUDIENCE
22-a — STOP (as in, “come to a roaring stop”)
23-d — TIGERS
24-a — the SEA
25-d — GREASEPAINT (a reference to this play)
26-d — ENGINE
27-d — LIONS
28-d — CROWDS
29-d — LEOPARDESS
This made the meta answer THE ROARING TWENTIES, found by 149 solvers, not all of whom had it fully grokked.
Several solvers penalized me for hot having every word from a 20’s box be a roarer (CHIS, GEL and LIT don’t work), but let me assure them here that adding that restriction would have rendered this construction impossible. There are only so many things that roar, after all (my list ran to just 18) and getting them to play nice in that one area of the grid was like — well, herding cats.
Peter Washington had the aha moment:
I was totally stymied on this one despite a lot of puzzling over it for a few days. I thought about the title … I noticed all the big cats … I (correctly, it turns out) figured that the several long answers were probably not really themers just because there seemed to be no way they could have something in common with one another … and still I had nothing. Then out of the blue as I was about to go to sleep last night, it hit me – a bunch of stuff in the middle of the puzzle roars!
Leo was born to get this one:
As Leo the LION, I ought to know all about roaring.
Gwinns nailed it, too, and good thing:
If I get this wrong, I will enter a Great Depression.
Jason Shapiro found an Easter egg:
Wow! I spent a few minutes distracted because MACE and IRAN on top of each other anagram to AMERICAN.
And finally, Don Lloyd correctly noted:
I guess THE GAY NINETIES would require a 21×21 grid.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 149 correct entries received, is Robert Hutchinson of Valdosta, Ga. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Robert will also receive a 1-year subscription to Peter Gordon‘s outstanding Fireball Crosswords.
ERRATA:
Two mistakes were made (note weaselly passive voice) in last week’s puzzle:
1) At 54-a [Org. for Victoria Azarenka] is wrong, since the ATP is for men’s tennis and Azarenka is a woman. So this clue should have read [Org. for Novak Djokovic] or similar, as I noted in an update on the blog.
2) I decided not to update the second mistake on the blog, a tough decision. It came in the clue for CAT at 20-a, which was [Hyena or puma]. Unbeknownst and surprisingly to me, a hyena is not really a cat. It’s not quite a dog, either. It seems to be a creature evolutionarily halfway between the two; Wikipedia summarizes it thusly: “Although phylogenetically close to felines and viverrids, hyenas are behaviourally and morphologically similar to canines in several aspects.”
So why did I not mention this on the blog? Although I wouldn’t repeat the clue, I thought hyenas were catlike enough for it to be considered semi-defensible (their suborder is called “feliformia,” after all), and, most importantly, I didn’t want to call attention to cats in the grid in this way. I also felt there wasn’t much danger of solvers thinking this miscue had anything to do with the meta, since CAT is the answer and the puma certainly is one.
MONTHLY WINNERS:
114 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of December’s challenges (ALICE IN WONDERLAND, VILLANOVA ZYDECO, THE JOKER, THE ROARING TWENTIES). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly by computer from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:
Paul Coulter — Glassboro, N.J.
Katie Hamill — Arlington, Mass.
Norm Hurlbut — Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Jeremiahs Johnson — Lafayette, Calif.
Herb Kaplan — Woodland Hills, Calif.
Paul Melamud — Milford, N.J.
Pete Muller — Montecito, Calif.
Jim Silvestro — Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.
Justin Weinbaum — Minneapolis, Minn.
Steve Williams — Holbrook, Mass.
Congratulations to our 10 winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in December.
A NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER TO REMEMBER:
Heady days here at MGWCC, with November traffic up 13% over the previous record (June 2012), then December up 23%(!) over November. You keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.
MULLER META:
Pete Muller‘s end-of-year meta-meta is proving a tough nut to crack! If you can break it open you’re a better meta-solver than I, though I certainly haven’t thrown in the towel yet. Deadline is Sunday at 11 PM ET, and there’s a hint available for half-credit if you need it.
SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:
In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, weekly winners this week and next will receive a copy of Andrew Ries‘ forthcoming meta contest, which drops on January 13th. If you don’t think you’re going to win (and what kind of attitude is that?) buy it at the link for $15.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a ten-letter answer to the crossword clue [Velvet-voiced singer Torme?]. 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 (1,939 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.