GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH:

It’s July, and that means it’s the 2nd Annual Guest Constructor Month here at MGWCC! For various reasons, Guest Constructor Month this year will consist of five puzzles even though July only has four Fridays. We’re going to poach the first Friday of August and then August will be a four-Friday month. Sorry for the weird rhythm lately; it will settle down after August.

LAST WEEK’S WINNER:

I forgot to give credit to last week’s weekly winner: it was Kyle Osborne of Hamilton, O.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

A riddle last week spelled out by the theme entries: WHAT PART OF / THE BODY IS / A PALINDROME BOTH / IN ENGLISH / AND SPANISH?

That’s the EYE of course, rendered as OJO in Spanish, as every crossword solver learns quickly. ¿Muy facil, no? 595 solvers found it, so it must’ve been!

Jared Dashoff says:

EYE believe that is the answer.

tberla writes:

EYE, Aka “ojo”… oho, aha!

And Howard B states palindromically:

Si, eye is.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 595 correct entries received, is J.L. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, J.L. will also receive a copy of my new book Bite-Size Crosswords. Weekly winners for the rest of July will receive the same.

MONTHLY WINNERS:

47 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of June’s challenges (5, TESTY, TONY SOPRANO, EYE/OJO). The following ten lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Erik Agard — College Park, Md.

Stephen Williams — Holbrook, Mass.

Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in June.

PETER THE GREAT:

By a vote of 98-42, MGWCC solvers decided last week that Peter Gordon’s 35-letter pangrammatic set of DIEGO VELAZQUEZ, FOXY BROWN and JACK THOMPSON is a legitimate victor over my 36-letter set of JACQUES BARZUN, FELIX POTVIN and DWIGHT YOAKAM.

Peter thought his set should count, but I felt that 1) FOXY BROWN not being her real name opened up a can of worms on other names (DJ JAZZY JEFF wouldn’t help in this specific case, but you get the idea; would that one count?). Counterargument: FOXY BROWN isn’t a super-crazy name like DJ JAZZY JEFF, and a lot of entertainers don’t use their real name; for example, under that logic, ELTON JOHN or JOHN WAYNE wouldn’t be usable. But more importantly I felt that 2) scrub quarterback JACK THOMPSON isn’t famous enough for the list.

Solvers seemed to overrule me on that, but halfway through the week the point became moot when a solver pointed out to me Australian actor Jack Thompson, who looks easily famous enough to me for this. He’s had starring roles in big movies like “Breaker Morant” and “The Man from Snowy River,” and more recently a prominent role in “The Great Gatsby.” So Peter will indeed be receiving his MGWCC stationery set soon.

YOU’RE IN FOR A TWEET:

To my own surprise I’ve become an active Twittererer. Follow me at the big button in the upper left.

META ANALYSIS:

Three live crossword contests for your amusement:

David Steinberg (contest deadline is 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Saturday, July 6th)

Pete Muller (contest deadline is 11 PM Eastern Time on Sunday, July 7th)

Erik Agard (contest deadline is noon Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 10th)

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Normally you’d get a photo and bio of this week’s Guest Constructor, but I can’t do that now because…this week’s contest answer is the author of this week’s puzzle. 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 (2,062 members now!) here.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.