IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2015 MGWCC is a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe (or get a free trial month first) here:
www.mgwcc.com
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
We were looking for a well-known restaurant chain last week, and our theme entries were:
17-A [Trashed] = AS DRUNK AS A SKUNK
28-A [It merged with Random House in 2013] = PENGUIN BOOKS
49-A [Early-in-the-year crosswordfiend.com announcement] = ORCA NOMINEES
64-A [1968 Rock Hudson movie] = ICE STATION ZEBRA
Skunk, penguin, orca and zebra are all black-and-white animals, so we need a restaurant chain with a black-and-white animal in it. That would be PANDA EXPRESS, found by 348 solvers.
That’s very low for a Week 1, and we also had 106 incorrect answers, which is very high. I thought the meta idea was pretty straightforward, but turns out that it was easy enough to realize these things were black-and-white without realizing they were also animals. This led solvers to submit restaurants with black-and-white color schemes, like Steak ‘n’ Shake (25 entries) and Checkers / Rally’s (24 entries), or even Domino’s (21 entries) even though their color scheme is red, white and blue. Actually Checkers / Rally’s isn’t black-and-white either (and a checkerboard is red-and-white).
So anyway, Week 1 was more like a Week 2, so I made Week 2 sort of a Week 1.5, or maybe a 1.75.
ethicalpaul writes:
My friend Scott (to whom I gifted your awesome puzzle series) put in “Checkers”. I told him it was Steak & Shake but he didn’t believe me. Was I right? Have a nice weekend!
OK, like I didn’t already feel like a jerk for making Week 1 too tough…
pgw got the right answer, but also found this:
Looks like this place is opening a second location soon: http://www.holsteinrestaurant.com/
Skyler says:
Reminds me of the joke: What’s black and white and red all over? Some of my corrected crosswords!!!!!!
howorthd got some help:
My 30-something daughter, who “can’t do crosswords,” came up with the meta answer after I told her I needed a “restaurant chain with b&w animal in title.” I suppose that help must disqualify me for any prize, but maybe it’ll finally get her started on crosswords!
VlnVla says:
Eats, shoots, and leaves. Dangerous things, those pandas!
and finally, marpocky writes from Suzhou, China, that he got PANDA EXPRESS, but:
none of those around here!
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 348 correct entries received, is Jason Rau of Carlsbad, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Jason will also receive a signed copy of my book Pocket Posh Easy Crosswords.
MAY MONTHLY WINNERS:
I found a new way to screw up the monthly winners last week — chose and notified the 10 winners, then forgot to post their names. You can’t say I’m not original.
98 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all five of May’s challenges (ARGENTINA, HALL & OATES, PARISH PRIEST, IMPEL ARCHITECT, HARE). The following ten skillful and lucky winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:
David Bael — Minneapolis, Minn.
Rich Bragg — Los Altos, Calif.
Sean Forbes — Crest Hill, Ill.
Robert Hutchinson — Valdosta, Ga.
Bob Kin — North Chesterfield, Va.
Giovanni Pagano — Narragansett, R.I.
Paula Popescu — Catalina, Calif.
Jim Quinlan — Westtown, N.Y.
Dan Seidman — Watertown, Mass.
Jesse “CanNibble” Simons — Cambridge, Mass.
Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 5-for-5 in May.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is the two-word answer to the crossword clue: [What the strong ancient Roman wore?].
IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2015 MGWCC is a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe (or get a free trial month first) here:
www.mgwcc.com
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.