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:
Big grid last week, and we were looking for a ten-letter term explaining this puzzle’s theme. Weird grid with weirdly-placed theme entries, which appeared to be (and in fact were):
25-A [You can see it from the top of the Burj Khalifa] = STRAIT OF HORMUZ
37-A [It opened on May 6, 1994] = THE CHUNNEL
59-A [Put a cork in it] = WINE BOTTLE
69-A [Where a clown blows] = BALLOON OPENING. This sounds like an odd way to phrase the hole in a balloon, but I spent some time trying to identify exactly what this is called and “balloon opening” appears to be the answer. The other candidates are “balloon hole” and “balloon mouth.” I’m not sure there’s a balloon industry standard here but “opening” seems to be the top choice.
Anyway, savvy metasolvers noticed two things: 1) These four entries all involve narrow traffic flow to an enclosed destination, and 2) each of the four either starts or ends at an extremely circumscribed grid section — to be precise, a section cut off by exactly one letter.
Some iffy fill in those sections, which usually means the meta lurks about, and indeed the key idea is: each of those areas contains the letters in whatever’s flow is restricted by the theme entry, plus a few more letters.
So the sixteen letters cut off by the S in STRAIT OF HORMUZ spell THE PERSIAN GULF, which that strait restricts flow to, plus the letters C and O.
The seventeen letters cut off by the L in THE CHUNNEL spell ISLAND OF BRITAIN, which The Chunnel restricts flow to, plus the letters H and P.
The seventeen letters cut off by the B in BOTTLENECK spell SAUVIGNON BLANC, which a bottleneck restricts flow to, plus the letters K, T and I.
The sixteen letters cut off by the G in BALLOON OPENING spell CARBON DIOXIDE, which a balloon’s opening restricts flow to, plus the letters E, N and O.
Those leftover letters in each section spell the apt meta answer CHOKE POINT, found by 159 solvers.
But not all of them fully grokked what was going on; I should have left out the “10-letter” indicator, since it wasn’t necessary and allowed some solvers to guess at the answer just by the theme entries and grid pattern. Oh well — there’s your 4th of July gift, educated guessers! And I hereby give those who grokked it permission to feel morally superior for a week to those who did not.
Jonesy took a wrong turn:
for strait of hormuz i got FUEL CARGO SHIP and a missing ENT which really screwed me for a while. finally revisited & got ‘the persian gulf’
And Stribbs says:
I spent a ton of time on sauvignon blanc and the final anagram. Good thing I always have a well-stocked bar and access to an anagram solver!
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from the 159 correct entries received, is H.S. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, H.S. will also receive a signed copy of my book Pocket Posh Easy Crosswords.
MONTHLY WINNERS:
101 solvers submitted the correct contest answer to all four of June’s challenges (PANDA EXPRESS, IRON TOGA, E/S-MILE, CHOKE POINT). The following ten skillful and lucky winners, chosen randomly from that group, will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set:
Peter Abide — Biloxi, Miss.
Ben Gutman — Menlo Park, Calif.
George Herz — Boston, Mass.
Jeremy Horwitz — San Francisco, Calif.
Ray Hunley — Manassas, Va.
Bob Johnson — Ambler, Penna.
Jeff Louie — Cambridge, Mass.
Mark O’Kain — Philadelphia, Penna.
Jill Palmer — Leverett, Mass.
Scott Rogoff — Mountain View, Calif.
Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in June.
GUEST CONSTRUCTOR #1:
July is 2015’s Guest Constructor Month, and our first constructor is Peter Gordon. This is like having Barry Bonds as your leadoff hitter, but 1-0 is a good way to start the game.
Peter is the editor of the weekly Fireball Crosswords, constructor of the Weekly Fireball Newsflash Crosswords, and former editor of the New York Sun’s daily crossword and the Washington Post’s weekly themeless crossword, the Post Puzzler.
That project has been rebooted as a recent Kickstarter, which is here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1900602681/fireball-postmodern-puzzler
Our weekly winner for this puzzle will receive a subscription to the above-linked Kickstarter, or a signed copy of any of Peter’s many books.
And now, batter up:
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a past or present member of the Supreme Court who would complete this puzzle’s theme.
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.