LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
What sea creature was hiding in the center of last week’s puzzle grid? An OCTOPUS, of course, found by 607 solvers who noticed his eight ARMs radiating from the center square. 
Turns out I also had to accept SQUID and CUTTLEFISH, impishly submitted by a handful of solvers each, since they, too have eight arms. But neither of those is named after their number of arms, so come on now…
Gwinns writes:
Really wish I’d solved this one in ink.
maxgood says:
Army and navy.
Mikey likes it(?):
You must be squidding
devjoe noticed something:
Nice diagonal entries – those corners really weren’t disconnected!
(All eight arms extend to form a full six-letter entry, he means)
As did gmlevin:
Guessed this from the shape. Eight-armed is forewarned?
(Those black squares look like an octopus’s eight arms themselves, he means)
As did animaniac:
There’s a ninth ARM running diagonally southeast from the first A in PAAR, and a tenth one running diagonally southwest from the second A in MIATA!
The inclusion of these two arms is my commentary on our pollution of the oceans, which is leading to 10-armed octopi. If October is the 10th month, why can’t octopi have 10 arms?
Leo asks:
Please comment on your preferred pluralization: octopuses? octopi? octopodes?
I don’t often pluralize “octopus,” but when I do, I prefer “octopi.” And I’ve wondered: is there any other common noun with three acceptable pluralizations? E-mail me if you come up with something.
Andrew J. Ries (of Aries Puzzles fame) writes:
Honored at the inclusion at 49-Down, but I nonetheless don’t think it’s crossworthy fill. Maybe if I win an Oscar.
And finally, Daver writes:
As soon as I saw the grid, I knew this was a five-Friday month.
Since Week 1 in a five-Friday month is easier than Week 1 in a four-Friday month.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 607 correct entries received, is Matthew McMullen of Columbus, O. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Matthew will also receive a one-year subscription to Peter Gordon’s new Kickstarter campaign, Fireball Fortnightly News Crosswords.
MONTHLY WINNERS:
81 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of April’s challenges (MISSOURI RIVER, DANCING WITH THE STARS, 14-ACROSS, RAVEN). The following twelve lucky and skillful winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:
Peter Abide — Biloxi, Miss.
Dan Bowden — Sydney, Australia
Ed Brody — Cambridge, Mass.
Peter Gordon — Great Neck, N.Y.
Debbie Keller — Rochester Hills, Mich.
Chris Krosche — Pelham, N.Y.
Jeff Louie — Cambridge, Mass.
Jill Palmer — Leverett, Mass.
Brett Rose — Chicago, Ill.
Matt Perez-Stable — Fairview Park, O.
Jason Shapiro — New York City, N.Y.
Bea Snidow — Richmond, Va.
Congratulations to our dozen winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in April.
PUZZABILITY’S “PROJECT ARCHITEUTHIS”:
The power team (Amy Goldstein, Mike Shenk, Robert Leighton) of Puzzability has a cool-looking new puzzle-based mystery up on Facebook, sponsored by the US Navy (!). Project Architeuthis challenges you to help find a kidnapped Naval agent who’s been working on a top-secret project. The game is already well underfoot, but Amy G. assures me you can catch up quickly. From the link above, scroll back through the posts (without reading solver comments, which is spoiler territory) until you reach the beginning. Looks awesome!
Note: a little more info from Amy G., since Project Archteuthis might seem a bit tough to understand at first without this backstory:
Navy personnel (Tucker, Saira, Stephen) have set up this page, with all the relevant information, to enlist solvers’ help in finding the kidnapped Dirk Maskew, chief architect of the Navy weapons system Project Architeuthis, and the Navy cryptologist stowaway Maria Sosposa, our heroine and puzzle writer. Subsequent posts from them and from Maria more or less tell you what to do, though solvers are meant to figure out a lot on their own, ARG-style.
MAY MULLER MONTHLY MUSIC META:
Season 3, Episode 5 of the Muller Monthly Music Meta is up. The grid took me 7 minutes and the meta took me another 7. Beat that…
CROSSWORD OF THE MONTH, APRIL 2014:
Check out my five nominees — and one winner — for April’s Crossword of the Month here. Puzzles can be published in any medium, from Big Media to the tiniest indie site to anything in between.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a brand of breakfast cereal. 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 (2,246 members now!) here. Or you can download the .puz file (you may have to right-click the link and save to your Downloads folder).
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.