LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
What American actress did last week’s meta indicate? There were three theme entries:
17-a [When fighters deserve permanent battle reminders, but are denied them?] = SCAR SNUBS
37-a [Annual gala in yesterday’s news] = ACADEMY AWARDS
61-a [He did it, in many mysteries] = THE BUTLER
523 solvers found meta answer OPRAH WINFREY from these three clues, but many (perhaps most) weren’t quite sure how it all fit together. Oprah didn’t receive an ACADEMY AWARDS nomination for “The Butler,” which some observers interpreted as a snub. But what did SCAR SNUBS have to do with anything? That missing O from the phrase “Oscar snubs” was meant to point to O-lessness, and indeed, there was no O in the entire puzzle grid (though every other letter was represented), and no O in the clues, either.
Zing, Oprah! You need some ice for that burn? I guess I’ll never get a crossword in O Magazine after that snub.
singerdog says:
I’ve heard Louisianans always plant their gardens on the leeward side of the house because you need okra windfree…
Jason Shapiro suggests:
it’s too bad the clue categories couldn’t have been “sideways” and “vertical”.
I thought of that! (Notice that the instructions last week didn’t include the word “contest.”). But there’s no way (that I could find) to export a puzzle from Crossword Compiler to Across Lite with different clue headers than “Across” and “Down.” Actually I had thought of “vertical” but didn’t get far enough to contemplate an alternative to “horizontal” once I couldn’t overcome the exporting issue.
And Maggie W. asks:
Wait, is your blood type O-negative now?
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 563 correct entries received, is M. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, M. will also receive a copy of Patrick Blindauer‘s forthcoming puzzle suite, “XWord University.”
JAVA ISSUES:
Quite a few solvers are having Java issues lately with the Across Lite app on my site. I haven’t had time to educate myself on the problem yet, but I’m putting the .puz file directly on the site (still haven’t figured out how to do this, but it will be ASAP this afternoon) so you can download it directly if need be (and remember that Google Group members get the .puz and .pdf e-mailed to them at noon each Friday). UPDATE, 1:30 PM ET, 1/24: doesn’t look like this is going to happen this afternoon. Seems like it should be a simple operation to post a .puz file here, but WordPress thinks otherwise. E-mail me if you need a .puz file.
Hopefully I’ll have this solved by next week, and apologies for the hassle. If you know how to fix this or need a copy of the .puz, e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com.
UPDATE:
From Mike I., this might fix your Java issue (it worked for me):
The newest Java won’t run your app because it’s not signed. People need to add
an exception via the Java control panel to get around this. Start up the Java
control panel, go to the “Security” tab, and then click on “Edit Site List”.
Click add, click in the empty box, and type “http://icrossword.com” (without
the quotes). It will complain because it’s http vs https, so hit “Continue”
and then “OK” repeatedly until the control panel exits.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s answer is a famous author whose surname is five letters long. 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 (2,185 members now!) here.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.