IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2nd, MGWCC is now a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe here:

www.mgwcc.com

LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Fifth Friday last week, so you knew it’d be tough! Our instructions read:

One letter in this grid needs to be changed to complete this puzzle’s pattern. Which letter is it, and what letter does it change to?

The four longest entries in the grid were:

17-A [Christmas decoration] = POINSETTIA
36-A [Especially wide banner] = QATARI FLAG
45-A [Helianthus annuus members] = SUNFLOWERS
65-A [Heat sphere] = BASKETBALL

You may have noticed that each of these things has a dominant color: poinsettias are red, the Qatari flag is mostly maroon, sunflowers are yellow, and a basketball is orange.

Further examination revealed that each of the fifteen rows in the grid — with one exception — contained an entry of a particular color:

Row 1: CORN is YELLOW
Row 2: the OCEAN is BLUE
Row 3: a POINSETTIA is RED
Row 4: EGGPLANT is PURPLE
Row 5: LAVA is ORANGE
Row 6: OSCAR the Grouch is GREEN
Row 7: the QATARI FLAG is MAROON
Row 8: an OBOE is BLACK
Row 9: SUNFLOWERS are YELLOW
Row 10: DENIM is BLUE
Row 11: the exception; neither MAIS nor OSIS yields a color
Row 12: LAVENDER is PURPLE
Row 13: a BASKETBALL is ORANGE
Row 14: a PEAR is GREEN
Row 15: TAMU’s colors (as specified in the clue) are white and MAROON

That’s an odd pattern; with the exception of the colorless Row 11, there are seven colors in the first seven rows, then black in the 8th row, then the same seven colors repeated, in order, as in the first half.

Where can you commonly see this color scheme? On a pool table, where balls 1-7 are the solid colors listed above, the 8 ball is black, and balls 9-15 are the stripes of those same colors. You may have also intuited the redness of Row 11 just from the pattern itself, but if you saw the billiards connection then you were sure.

So Row 11 needs an entry to change one letter to become something red in order to complete this pattern, and conveniently MAIS can change its I to an R to become MARS, the red planet, making that I–R switch our meta answer.

ALTERNATE ANSWER:

80 solvers submitted MAIS/MARS as their answer, but an additional 16 instead changed the M in SAMSA (60-A) to SALSA, forming something red there.

Now, this answer is not on the correct row, so it doesn’t exactly “complete the pattern” as the instructions require. And indeed, no solver who noticed the billiards connection submitted this entry. But before you dismiss it out of hand, check out its positives:

1) SALSA is undoubtedly red.
2) It’s only one row off.
3) Changing the M to an L makes LALA on the down, an easily cluable entry. Changing the I to an R leaves only jibberish on the down (RDBET); true, the instructions didn’t specifically mention whether the down would be cluable or not, but still.
4) The Gregor SAMSA connection is a “Metamorphosis” from one word to another, which would have provided a false “click” to a solver on this path.

This is a close call, but I’ve decided to give credit on this one 1) only to those among those 16 entrants who saw both MAIS/MARS and SAMSA/SALSA but chose the latter because it formed something on the down, and 2) ONLY for their yearly/streaks/overall total, not for the weekly or monthly drawing. Because hey, it’s on the wrong row, and that has to count for something. If you didn’t see MAIS/MARS at all, then no credit. But even with missing the billiards idea, it shouldn’t happen that something so close to the meta answer is right there, and you have both ideas, and still can’t decide. So I’ve decided to make a concession towards that.

So if you are one of those 16 entrants who saw both MARS and SALSA and still chose SALSA, e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com) and you’ll get credit on your yearly/streaks/overall score.

mrbreen says:

Bonus answer: change the K to S in 2D: “Know,” and there’s your cue ball.

and Stribbs writes:

This color stripe pattern sounds like something my boyfriend would wear. We struggle to leave the house peacefully sometimes.

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 80 correct entries received, is Kyle Osborne of Hamilton, O. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Kyle will also receive a signed copy of my book Pocket Posh Easy Crosswords.

SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK AND NEXT:

Weekly winners this week and next will receive a 1-year subscription to the weekly American Values Club Xword, edited by Ben Tausig.

If you’re unfamiliar with it: the AVCX is like an All-Star team (Heaney, Walden, Quigley, et al.) of crossword constructors, who rotate about every eight weeks. And it works: they’ve won my Crossword of the Month award 5 of the 17 times I’ve given it out since September 2013, more than any other venue.

MONTHLY WINNERS:

43 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all five of January’s challenges (GQ, ROSA PARKS, ARABIAN PENINSULA, DOOR, I/R). The following ten skillful and lucky winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:

Mark Coleman — London, England

Dave Fergemann and Tilly Hatcher — Norwalk, Conn.

Sean Forbes — Crest Hill, Ill.

Andy Keller — Apple Valley, Minn.

J.M.

J.M.

Rich Pardoe — San Ramon, Calif.

Jason Rau — Carlsbad, Calif.

Brett Rose — Chicago, Ill.

Tom Tabanao — San Jose, Calif.

Congratulations to our 10 winners, and to everyone who went 5-for-5 in January.

YEARLY WINNERS:

OK, seriously this time: I now have all the yearly winners’ names and am ready to go logistically, but this week’s post is already pretty long so we’re doing it next week 100%. Bear with me!

OPERATION SLEEPER SHARK:

The venerable Puzzability trio (Amy Goldstein, Robert Leighton, Mike Shenk) have launched their newest Facebook puzzle adventure for the U.S. Navy: Operation Sleeper Shark!

What exactly is Molly and Clark’s mission? That’s for you to figure out as you go along. Just start with the first post and — good luck!

META ROUNDUP:

Birnholz (deadline today at 6 PM ET, so get on it!)

Muller (deadline Sunday at 11 PM ET)

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a famous building.

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2nd, MGWCC is now a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe here:

www.mgwcc.com

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