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:
Title: “The Sixth Mix”
Instructions: There are 11 theme clues/entries in this puzzle, five of which have asterisks. Which of the remaining six is the odd one out? (You can submit either the clue number or its entry.)
Answer: SAS or 50-Across
Liked but not loved meta last week, by both solvers and me. It started off as a cooler idea than it turned out but I had to make some concessions along the way. Still wound up being fine, but wasn’t quite the home run I had originally envisioned.
Five long and starred theme entries got things rolling:
17-A [*Eponymous blues-rock debut album of 1971] = BONNIE RAITT. Great performance here.
25-A [*What my son, Tilghman, will be on Tuesday] = ONE YEAR OLD. See photo below.
38-A [*Toasted type of pasta] = ISRAELI COUSCOUS
51-A [*Theodore Roosevelt program] = SQUARE DEAL
59-A [*Say something funny, maybe] = BREAK THE ICE
First insight: each theme entry hides a string of the letters AER in some order, as highlighted in the grid at right. The only string missing is AER itself, as ARE, EAR, ERA, RAE, and REA already appear in these five.
Now what? Second insight: each of those five strings can satisfy a clue elsewhere in the grid:
62-D [Rival of Gain and Surf] is ALL, but could also be ERA (they’re all laundry detergents)
58-A [Body part which may take a ring] is LIP, but could also be EAR
70-A [“Diff’rent Strokes” actress] = Dana PLATO, but could also be Charlotte RAE
23-A [“Where ___ you?”] = WERE, but could also be ARE
11-D [“Michael Collins” actor, 1996] is Liam NEESON, but could also be Stephen REA
Third insight: the missing string is AER, which fits the clue for 50-A [Letters on some European planes]. The answer is the Scandinavian airline SAS, but could also be AER, seen of course on Aer Lingus planes. Which makes 50-A or SAS our contest answer.
Actually I like it better now that I type everything out like this. My enthusiasm had been take down a notch because my original instructions asked for a Shakespeare character who should be in the grid but isn’t, with the answer lAERtes. But then I realized that you didn’t need to see the six dual-use clues in the grid to get there, just the strings, which was a highly inconvenient short-circuit. Luckily one of my power-testers suggested the instructions fix I wound up using, which forces the solver to see everything.
This week’s winners, whose names were chosen at random from the 166 correct entries received, are Tilly Hatcher and Dave Fergemann of Atlanta, Ga. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Tilly and Dave will also receive a copy of Henry Hook‘s Munchkin Crosswords (written under the nom de grid Pete Naish). Next week’s winner will receive the same.
MONTHLY PRIZES:
Oops, I did it again — forgot to award monthly prizes. Will do so next week with the usual self-penance of choosing 12 winners instead of 10. Blame the child in the picture, who turned 1 on Tuesday. Can you be angry at that face?
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a drink.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.