LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

What world capital concealed itself in last week’s grid? ROME, found by 87 solvers, who noticed its seven HILLs in geographically correct placement:

DIS wonders:

If it HAD been Ulan Bator (56A), would you have hidden seven yurts in the grid?

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 87 correct entries received, is C.C. of whereabouts unknown. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, C.C. will also receive a one-year subscription to Peter Gordon’s new Kickstarter campaign, Fireball Fortnightly News Crosswords.

TAUSIG IN TABLET:

Excellent profile of Ben Tausig and his American Values Club Crossword in Tablet.

They laughed when I wrote last year that by 2023 the AVCX would have more subscribers than the NYT’s digital puzzle. It was 50k for the NYT and 1.5k for the AVCX when I wrote that, but I learned from this piece that that second number is now at 3k! It’s very impressive what he’s done: hire a best-of list of American crossword writers (Quigley, Heaney, Walden, Blindauer, etc.) to write seven or eight puzzles a year apiece, then pay them more than the Times pays. Bravo!

A LITTLE EASIER THIS WEEK:

Week 1 played like a Week 1, but Week 2 played like a 2.75 and Week 3 played like a 4. So this week’s puzzle is going to be easier than a normal Week 4, and then I’ll come back at you with a real live Week 5 next week. Holiday weekend, too, so that’s another reason to lighten up a little on the difficulty.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is an American university. 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 (2,251 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.