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 RESULTS:

“Oh, Henry!” How many solvers have uttered that over the decades as they battled with last week’s constructor/meta answer, HENRY HOOK?

Solvers were tasked with discovering the identity of last week’s anonymous crossword writer. 570 entrants IMDb-ed it from the three long theme entries, clued simply as “WHO AM I?” and which spelled out:

PRIVATE PLAYED BY / JAMES BOOTH IN THE / MCMLXIV FILM “ZULU”

Head here and you’ll see this:

Making the greatest crossword constructor of all time (if you ask me) last week’s meta answer.

e.a. writes:

legend!!!

Steve T knew it all along:

Twas my guess even before starting.

wobbith says:

One of my favorite films of all time and one of my favorite constructors, some fun! Thanks HH!

gpagano asks:

Cool, wasn’t Henry Hook one of the people that inspired these meta contests in the first place? If so, nice grab for guest constructor month.

Indeed he was — his “Hooked on Puzzles” book series contained the first metas I ever solved.

clarsach quips:

If the movie was long enough, maybe he’d have been promoted to Captain Hook.

And finally, Rincon writes:

cool to get him involved!

It really was. Thanks for leading off Guest Constructor Month with a bang, Henry!

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 570 correct entries received, is Bevin Bullock of Glendale, N.Y. 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.

THIS WEEK’S GUEST CONSTRUCTOR:

Tough act to follow, but Alex Vratsanos is up to the task! Alex is a 20-year-old Allentown, Pennsylvania native who graduated from high school on the same day his first New York Times crossword was published. He’s since had four more there, including this clever idea (spoiler alert; it’s from 11/11/11 if you want to go back and solve it).

Alex studied chemical engineering at the University of Delaware for two years, where the above picture of him was taken. In the medium term he hopes to study professional writing at Kutztown University, and in the long term, as he puts it, “I would really, really love to have crosswords as a career.” I’d say he’s off to a good start! And he makes a mean meta…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is an automaker that would be an excellent fifth theme entry. 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 (2,065 members now!) here.

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