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:
“The Winner’s Circle” was our title last week, and our quarry was a Super-Bowl winning quarterback. 17×17 grid for which there must’ve been a reason, and our theme entries were:
19-A [Words after “Get off my lawn”] = YOU WHIPPERSNAPPER
30-A [Sport of the biennial race called the Patrouille des Glaciers] = SKI MOUNTAINEERING. I’m guessing you need to be in incredible shape to do this.
47-A [Subject of the “Golden Girls” episode “Rose Fights Back”] = AGE DISCRIMINATION.
62-A [2004 Prince album] = THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE
79-A [Tusks on male narwhals, e.g.] = SEX CHARACTERISTIC
These five phrases share an unusual (3,14) enumeration. The QB who also fits this pattern is contest answer BEN ROETHLISBERGER, who won Super Bowls in 2006 and 2009 with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I couldn’t find any other famous people with this enumeration, though Joon at Fiend found chess star Ian Nepomniachtchi (currently #16 in the world and one of the most interesting players stylistically, but not broadly known enough to use), and a solver sent in another “John” variant from Eastern Europe who also isn’t well-known enough. But still interesting.
So why the strange deadline of 1:59:26 AM Mountain Time on Tuesday the 13th? To stretch things out to Wednesday on the East Coast, which is Pi Day! We weren’t just doing (3,14) enumerations randomly, they were part of celebrating pi in all its irrational glory. So our deadline was 3/14, 1:59:26 which are the first eight digits of pi.
Sadly I cannot take credit for this clever deadline myself; it was the brainchild of my meta-consigliere. Grazie, signore!
Megan Amram says:
I can’t believe you just forced me to google “football”
Jsolomon1999 writes:
For πttsburgh, of course
David Harris got it and states:
I am owed DUE CONGRATULATION
So granted.
Jed says:
I only have ~120 digits memorized now, down from 270 at my high school peak. Good times…
And Matthew G. writes:
All right, my sports-related MGWCC coincidences are getting uncanny. A few weeks ago you shared my photo of Alain Vigneault at the Rangers game where I solved the AV8 meta. Well, I solved this meta at Reservoir, Manhattan’s famous bar for expat Pittsburghers, when I happened to be in the neighborhood on Friday afternoon. I hadn’t even looked at the instructions before stopping in, but here’s a live shot from my barstool at the moment the meta clicked.
Speaking of Manhattan: this week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from among the 407 correct entries received, is Tim Flynn of New York City, N.Y. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Tim will also receive a 1-year subscription to Matt Gaffney’s Daily Crossword.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a famous singer.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.