LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
A week two record, as 591 right answers poured into MGWCC world headquarters last week. Only two (!) wrong ones, so not many were fooled by the theme trick. Relevant answers were:
17-a [Make people address the director of “The Sixth Sense” as “sir”?] = KNIGHT SHYAMALAN
27-a [Famous trial lawyer who’s protected from the wind?] = ALEE BAILEY
45-a [Backstab a 1990s presidential candidate?] = CROSS PEROT
55-a [Somewhat embarrassed T.S. Eliot character?] = HALF-RED PRUFROCK
So we’ve taken a famous person who uses an initial + name + last name, changed the initial, and fused the first two together to make a wacky new phrase. Which two grid entries combine to form a fifth such wacky phrase? 30-across and 38-down, where meta answers IRON and HUBBARD could have come from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Many solvers suggested clues for that entry, my favorite of which was [Statue in Tom Cruise’s back yard?] from NealH.
Peter Gordon writes:
Clue for IRON will soon be out of date. The cat token is replacing it.
As was just announced last week! I didn’t know it then, but after being informed of said by 40+ entrants, I do now. Let’s call it an accidental tribute to a presumably unloved token (I always tried to get the racecar or the Scottish terrier as a kid, but when the cat shows up that’ll be my first choice).
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 591 correct entries received, is Kevin Hanley of Hicksville, N.Y. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Kevin will also receive a copy of Trip Payne’s Second Annual Puzzle Extravaganza, which drops this summer.
ERIK IS NOT IDLE:
Check this amazing thing out. Yes, he gave me 6-down because I own — well, you’ll see. (And Neville at 35-a is hilarious).
SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:
The Internet continues to allow skilled puzzle writers to find their fan bases efficiently and without a middleman. You may have Kickstarter Fatigue these days, but consider shaking it off for Patrick Berry‘s new campaign, The Crypt.
Winners this week and next will receive a copy of this 12-puzzle suite of cryptics, which drops in April. I’m on a cryptic-solving kick myself these days, and Patrick is one of the foremost masters of this art, so I’m looking forward to this. Highly recommended without even having seen it.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a well-known newspaper. 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 (1,983 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.