LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
A record 596 solvers got last week’s meta, crushing the previous high of 553. That was the “Golden Girls” meta from Week #231; oddly, Bea Arthur was a theme answer in both puzzles (DOROTHY GALE and BEAUTIFUL BEA).
Theme entries consisted of a celebrity’s three-letter first name preceded by a word describing that celebrity beginning with those same three letters. They were:
17-a [Blockbuster queen Ryan?] = MEGASTAR MEG
24-a [Costello who never quit yakking?] = LOUDMOUTH LOU
37-a [Onassis born to great wealth?] = ARISTOCRATIC ARI
48-a [The alluring Ms. Arthur?] = BEAUTIFUL BEA
59-a [The talented Mr. Garfunkel?] = ARTISTIC ART
Instructions asked for a ten-letter answer to the crossword clue [Velvet-voiced singer Torme?]
so we need a seven-letter MEL???? word describing the Velvet Fog himself. That would be MELODIC MEL, submitted by 578 solvers. I also took MELTING MEL (10 entries) and MELLOWY MEL (8 entries — yes, “mellowy” turns out to be a real word), but couldn’t take MELODIOUS MEL (11 entries) or MELLIFLUOUS MEL (10 entries) since they’re longer than ten letters.
lhj says:
I’ll predict a record number of correct answers this week. What do I do with the rest of my afternoon?
touchdown points out:
If you don’t like that type of music, you could say he’s Mel-odious (10 letters if you count the hyphen).
Jeff C. suggests another theme entry:
Thanks for the puzzle, straight-shooting Gaffney (16 letters)!
And Jed reminisces:
Well, I grokked this one. Mel is one of my favorite singers…I got to see him three times in his last five years. He used the same schtick each time.
Hey, why mess with success?
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 596 correct entries received, is Ben Roye of Pleasantville, N.Y. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Ben will also receive a copy of Andrew Ries’ forthcoming (this Sunday!) meta-contest. Next week’s winner will receive the same.
RIGHT OR WRONG:
My wife has been chiding me for only counting correct entries in the weekly total reports, so this is a good time to change that: in addition to the record 596 correct entries this week, we also had a record 642 total entries submitted. I’ll be mentioning both numbers from now on.
EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/MATT_GAFFNEY:
How cool is this? I now have my own Wikipedia article, and didn’t even have to write it myself! Big thanks to longtime MGWCC solver Jeff Gellner for doing. Of course, you’ve haven’t really made it until someone vandalizes your Wiki page…
SCROLL WITH IT:
MGWCC web guru Dave Sullivan has added a little window icon to the right of the current week’s leaderboard standings. Click it and the list opens in a second (scrollable) window for people on mobile devices.
ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMIN:
The first brilliant crossword of the new year has now been published (click on January 11th). Bravo!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
One of the twelve TV shows in this puzzle’s four theme entries is out of place. Which one is it? 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 (1,947 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.