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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Our title last week was “What Has Come Between Us?” and we were looking for a familiar phrase of three words totaling 19 letters. The seven theme entries were starred (unnecessarily, some solvers felt, but I didn’t like that two non-theme downs were longer than the middle theme entry) as follows:
19-A [*Charisma so strong it needs no spoken words?] = SILENT MOXIE. From silent movie.
24-A [*Person who’s always trying to get Danson to argue?] = TED BAITER. From Ted Baxter of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” Also changes one letter to get “red baiter,” but from the pattern established by the other six it had to be TED BAITER.
31-A [*Nail place where everyone’s British?] = ANGLO SALON. From Anglo-Saxon.
48-A [*Videos that are supposed to be six seconds but wind up running ten or fifteen?] = LONG VINES. From long lines.
65-A [*Moves like Jagger’s?] = MICK SHAKES. From milkshakes.
74-A [*Digestion aid at a cook-off?] = CHILI PILL. From chill pill.
81-A [*Tricky part of a highway in South Dakota’s capital?] = PIERRE CURVE. From Pierre Curie.
First key insight: in each of these cases, one Roman numeral has been replaced by another. If you had RED BAITER above, then, you realized the R-to-T transition was the odd one out and gave it another look.
Second key insight: the key word in the title was “Between;” take the difference between the replaced Roman numerals and you get:
19-A — V and X = 5 difference
24-A — X and I = 9 difference
31-A — X and L = 40 difference
48-A — L and V = 45 difference
65-A — L and C = 50 difference
74-A — L and I = 49 difference
81-A — I and V = 4 difference
Circle those seven in the grid and you get OPINION from top-to-bottom, and after a moment’s reflection you find that what has come between us is a literal DIFFERENCE OF OPINION, found by 175 solvers.
Interesting provenance to this meta: my wife showed me a text she’d written where “previous” had been somehow autocorrected to “precious” which made the text highly amusing. I live my life in a constant state of low-level meta alert, so I noticed right away that one Roman numeral had replaced another, and pointed this out to her, along with the idea of using the difference between the two numbers. She immediately suggested, “Yeah, and then the answer could be something like “difference of opinion.” I calculated that there were seven usable differences in a 15×15 grid, and with 7 letters in OPINION, the idea was fully formed in about 60 seconds. Go wifey!
chriskingsc writes:
The Roman numeral well will never run dry!
It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Bob J says:
I thought there must have been a good reason for not having D’s or M’s involved
I’d need to write one of those “World’s Largest Crossword” thingies for that.
And DIS writes:
This was a ream work of art.
If 500 of you printed it out, it is!
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from among the 175 correct entries received, is Grant Yang of Clarksburg, Md. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Grant will also receive a 1-year subscription to Matt Gaffney’s Daily Crossword.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is something I’ve done several times in this crossword’s clues — and what you need to do in the grid.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.