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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Except After”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter word that describes the theme entries.
Answer: WEIRD
Where have you heard those title words before? From the spelling guideline “I before E, except after C.” Week 3 constructor Anna-Marie Ruoff played on the exceptions to those rules for her theme, breaking the rule five times in the grid with symmetrically placed WEIGH, EIGHT, ICIER, REIGN, and DEIFY. Those first letters spell out contest answer WEIRD, which is both a descriptor of those rule-breaking words, and also another example of the rule-breaking itself. So meta.
I also liked how varied they are: EIGHT has nothing before the EI, C or otherwise; ICIER has the C, so it breaks the exception; and DEIFY splits the E and I between two syllables. Nicely done.
ericconrad laments:
I lost a 5th-grade spelling bee because of this word, and that “rule”
Small Wave Dave has a question for the lizard- and snake-handling vet:
Is Anna-Marie’s favorite reptile from Geico?
cyn says:
LOVED the fill, ok, loved everything about this one.
HomeSkooled writes:
…science!
Hipokrit says:
Gneiss one!
Raygirl says:
Google probably has me pegged as weird now for searching “rats getting tickled.” Thanks for the puzzle! Which came first I wonder, the pic with the snakes or the clue for pythons?
And finally, Raph asks:
Wondering whether you would have also accepted “wierd”.
Maybe. Thanks again to Anna-Marie for the puzzle!
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 449 correct entries receives, is Yuval Wigderson of San Francisco, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Yuval will also receive a 1-year subscription to Matt Gaffney’s Daily Crossword.
GUEST CONSTRUCTOR MONTH 2018, PUZZLE #4:
Our Week 4 guest constructor is longtime MGWCC solver Peter Washington, who goes by pgw on the leaderboard. Peter is a lawyer in Chico, California, where he was born and raised (and to where he later dragged his family from Oakland). In addition to his sometimes-unhealthy puzzling obsession he enjoys fly-fishing, watching NBA basketball, and drinking Ethiopian coffee from his MGWCC mug. This is his first published crossword, and I think you’ll agree that it’s an impressive debut.
And here it is…
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
One of this puzzle’s clues needs to be rewritten to complete the metapuzzle’s theme. Which is it, and what is a suitable rewrite?
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.