LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
So simple, but only once you saw it. We were looking for a part of the human body, and the six theme entries each ended in one:
17-A [Where to stab Dracula] = IN THE HEART
21-A [Both of my cats have them] = GREEN EYES
29-A [Vigilant] = ON ONE’S TOES
46-A [Grubby kid’s feature] = DIRTY NAILS
53-A [Food often braised] = SHORT RIBS
62-A [One way to be armed] = TO THE TEETH
What body part do these point to? You may have noticed that only the first body part, the heart, is singular, while the other five are plural. That’s because your standard-issue adult human gets:
1 heart
2 eyes
10 toes
20 nails
24 ribs
32 teeth
The six squares in the grid with those numbers spell out TONGUE, making that body part our meta answer.
Eleven solvers submitted VERTEBRAE, continuing the pattern of 1-2-10-20-24-32 body parts. I wasn’t sure whether to accept this: one on hand it’s not as elegant as the TONGUE solution; but on the other hand, 33 is right after 32, so there’s no doubt that it’s the next body part in line.
I kicked it over to my three-person adjudication panel, who, for the first time ever, delivered me a 1.5-1.5 tie. Rather than convene a super-panel to break the tie, I’m going to go ahead and accept VERTEBRAE as a correct alternate answer.
Erin (a physician) solved it right away:
I’d have to ritually remove my intestines if I didn’t get an anatomy meta.
Amy Reynaldo (an editor of medical texts) also nailed it:
Got this meta so fast. It was on the tip of my grid.
And did Tyler Hinman get the meta? Read on:
Ah, I see it's one of those "watch the #MGWCC leaderboard fill up while I feel like a complete idiot"-type weeks.
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) November 21, 2014
Saturday morning #MGWCC update: Crushing sense of doom beginning to creep in.
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) November 22, 2014
Sunday morning #MGWCC update: Crushing sense of doom has made itself at home. Utter resignation coming up the driveway.
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) November 23, 2014
Sunday night #MGWCC update: Pretty much resigned to my fate. Undone by a mere Week 3 once again.
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) November 24, 2014
AHHHHHH I GOT IT I GOT IT UPDATE THE #MGWCC LEADERBOARD ALREADY @METABYMATT DAMMIT
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) November 24, 2014
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 174 correct entries received, is David Stein of Silver Spring, Md. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, David will also receive a copy of Patrick Blindauer’s forthcoming Outer Space Puzzlefest. Next week’s winner will receive the same.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is the two grid entries that can combine to make 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 (2,334 members now!) here. Or you 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.