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.

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

425 solvers found the missing automaker in Alex Vratsanos’s week 2 meta. Theme entries were:

17-a [#1: Acting honor] = OSCAR NOMINATION

25-a [#2: Classic steam shovel owner] = MIKE MULLIGAN

44-a [#3: Dolphins use it] = ECHOLOCATION

56-a [#4: Opens, often] = GOLF TOURNAMENTS

Contest instructions asked for an automaker that would be an excellent fifth theme entry. What’s going on here? The first word of each theme entry is a letter in the phonetic alphabet, those cool words pilots use for absolute clarity when speaking to the control tower. Is there an automaker that starts with a letter from this alphabet? Why yes, Italy’s ALFA ROMEO.

But wait, there’s more! Notice that those four theme entries spell out OMEG, and that alfa there elegantly uses itself to complete the Greek letter OMEGA. And notice too that ALFA ROMEO is double-barrelled action, since alfa = A and romeo = R in the phonetic alphabet. Nice!

scoctopus says:

Bravo!

touchdown asks:

I’m starting to see a pattern this month – Zulu, Alfa, is Bravo next?

No, but you won’t be dissuaded from this theory when you see the preferred drink of this week’s guest constructor (or the byline on Week 4).

gbergvall opines:

Not only an excellent fifth entry, but an excellent car!

And finally, J.T. writes:

Lima Oscar Victor Echo Delta India Tango!

ERRATUM:

bschoner points out:

Loved the puzzle…but FYI, piranhas are freshwater fish, not marine. 😎

That’s 1-a, where I missed that [Marine menace] doesn’t quite work for PIRANHA. Sorry about that!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 425 correct entries received, is Rachel Park of Williamstown, Mass. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Rachel will also receive a copy of my new book Bite-Size Crosswords. Weekly winners for the rest of July will receive the same.

NEW YORK CITY + PITTSBURGH:

Two tournaments to put on your summer radar:

1) LOLLAPUZZOOLA 6:

New York City, Saturday, August 10th. I will be there! Stop me and say hello if you’re around.

Info here; tournament directors are Patrick Blindauer and Brian Cimmet.

2) 4TH ANNUAL PITTSBURGH CROSSWORD TOURNAMENT:

Pittsburgh, Saturday, August 17th. I won’t be there in person but I wrote a metapuzzle for the tournament.

Info here; tournament director is Rachel Colangelo. Here’s Rachel’s appearance on the news discussing last year’s event, including a shout-out to yours truly.

THIS WEEK’S GUEST CONSTRUCTOR:

Week 3 of Guest Constructor Month is in the hands of Julian Lim, whose byline you may recognize from memorable themes like this and especially this. Those are the 4/21/11 New York Times and 3/24/11 Fireball puzzles, incidentally, if you’d like to go back and solve them instead of clicking.

I’ll let Julian introduce himself:

I’m 33 years old, from Singapore, went to college (Duke) and grad school (UPenn) in America studying psychology. Have been back since 2010 doing a post-doc in the National University of Singapore, and I hope to be a faculty member some day in the not-too-distant future. I’ve published around 50 puzzles since 2009, mostly in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Besides crosswords, a selection of other things I like includes: traveling, Quentin Tarantino, Bright Eyes, single malt whiskey, and corgis.

Now, limber up your minds for limitless challenge…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a video game. 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 (2,066 members now!) here.

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