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:
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
We were looking for an eight-letter noun last week. Theme entries looked like they were:
3-D [It’s studied by a lepidopterist] = BUTTERFLY
5-D [Figure skating figure (also, a column to ignore for this meta)] = FIGURE EIGHT
9-D [Building whose name means “every god”] = THE PANTHEON
11-D [Target of much scanning technology] = HUMAN FACE
64-A [LBJ’s domain] = BASKETBALL COURT. LeBron James, not Lyndon Baines Johnson.
The grid had unusual left-to-right symmetry, and the five theme entries above also have left-to-right symmetry — peculiar! How to extract our eight-letter noun? By finding the eight letters that appear symmetrically on the left and right of the grid, as highlighted in blue. From north to south they spell meta answer DUMBBELL, a piece of exercise equipment that also exhibits left-right symmetry. And I hope no one who missed it felt like a dumbbell! It was Week 4, after all.
And why the parenthetical in the clue to 5-D? Because technically the middle (eighth) column’s letters could be construed to be on both sides — well, they’d be split down the middle, I guess, but still — and I didn’t want any confusion for solvers there. Luckily the one digit from 1-9 that exhibits left-right symmetry was also the column number I needed to reference!
Tyler Hinman asks:
Bro, do you even lift?
wasoxygen is 1-for-1 on a Week 4(!):
My first puzzle, my first (hopefully) solution!
And rkval finished it off:
That pretty much describes how I’ve felt for these past four days. Finally got to say AHA , UHHUH, and then HAH!
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 142 correct entries received, is Charlie Haley of Chicago, Ill. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, Charlie will also receive a 1-year subscription to my new crossword feature, Matt Gaffney’s Daily Crossword.
MONTHLY PRIZES:
For the first time in quite a while, I blanked on notifying monthly prizewinners this week. Sorry about that, and I’ll pick 12 instead of the usual 10 as penance. They’ll go up next week.
THERE WILL BE A SEASON 5 OF THE MULLER MONTHLY MUSIC META!
Good news for meta solvers — Pete Muller informed fans this week that he will be returning for a fifth season of his extremely entertaining monthly music meta. The final metapuzzle of Season 4 (check out its crazy title!) is still live if you haven’t tried it yet; get it here. The deadline to enter is Sunday at 11 PM ET, at which time my review will of it will appear on Crossword Fiend.
In honor of Pete’s work and the forthcoming Season 5, this week’s MGWCC is music-related (and perhaps a little tougher than normal for a Week 1).
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a well-known singer.
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.