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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Three by Fives”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter word with three consonants and two vowels.
Answer: PSYOP
Two ways to attack this one: a) notice that each of the five theme entries hints at a palindromic, three-letter, all-consonant initialism, or b) notice those initialisms in five-letter words in the clues and then attach them to the themers. I intended a) but realized b) might’ve been a common backsolve, but anecdotally that might’ve been the “frontsolve” as the odd phrasing of some clues tipped more solvers off than I’d anticipated. But success is success no matter what the route.
Those themers were:
17-A [*Missives that technology made widespread in the 2000s] = PHONE TEXTS
24-A [*1956 musical comedy starring Sinatra and Crosby] = HIGH SOCIETY. Odd phrasing; why leave out the names Frank and Bing, and omit Grace Kelly altogether?
36-A [*This sitcom’s titular character is a teacher in Nova Scotia] = MR. D. Why “titular” instead of “title”?
45-A [*Function performed by a floppy disk, USB drives, etc.] = DATA STORAGE
56-A [*Game with slingshots and exploding crates] = ANGRY BIRDS
My intended solver’s thoughts would be: “What’s “Mr. D? [Googles] OK, it’s a Canadian sitcom, produced by the CBC. Hey, the crates in Angry Birds have TNT written on them…pattern forming…a DVD is Data Storage, so we’re looking at palindromic three-letter initialisms…MGM produced “High Society”…no vowels in any of these, either…SMS is the text messaging technology. Now what?”
But many also did this: “OK, nothing jumping out at me from those phrases, let me look at the clues…that’s an awfully weird clue for SOLIDS, [Magma contains many of them]. And why [Thespian DeLuise] instead of “actor”? Why isn’t 36-A [Sitcom whose title character…]…is he avoiding 5-letter words? Let me look — hey, there are only five 5-letter words in all the clues — MAGMA, CUBIC, TENET, SAMOS, and DAVID. Hey — those are all five-letter words with three consonants and two vowels, like the instructions indicate…take out the vowels and you’ve got MGM, CBC — I bet “High Society” is an MGM movie…” and then off to the races.
Take the five answers that start with a five-letter word, in order of their corresponding theme entry:
28-D [Samos letter] = PSI
14-A [Magma contains many of them] = SOLIDS
61-A [Cubic measurement, frequently] = YARD
50-D [David ___ Stiers of “M*A*S*H”] = OGDEN
11-D [Tenet of Bahaism] = PEACE
Those answers’ first letters spell PSYOP, fitting because a good meta is designed to mess with your mind, plus it’s another example of the theme mechanism: drop its two vowels and you’re left with Sony’s PSP (PlayStation Portable, for those of us over 40).
Puzzle got dinged some for two main reasons: 1) some solvers had never heard of a psyop, or had only heard of in the plural, “psyops” — indeed it’s only listed in Merriam-Webster as the plural, although the singular is in common usage. And 2) for some solvers the connection between “psyop” and the meta wasn’t a loud click, so they wondered whether they had the correct answer even when they did.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 137 correct entries received, is Tom Moosbrugger of Cincinnati, O. . In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Tom will also receive a 1-year subscription to Laura Braunstein and Tracy Bennett‘s Inkubator Crosswords series (in which all the puzzles are all written by women). Next week’s winner will receive the same.
OCTOBER WINNERS:
Congratulations to the following ten MGWCC winners for October, whose names were chosen at random from among the 106 people who sent in the correct contest answer to each of last month’s four puzzles (PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE, TORN MUSCLES, PALATE, PSYOP). Each will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set:
Nate Cardin — Studio City, Calif.
Meg Duvall — St. Petersburg, Fla.
Dave Fergemann and Tilly Hatcher — Atlanta, Ga.
Liz Goff — Toronto, Ont.
Mark Goodliffe — London, U.K.
Jeremy Koenig — Washington, D.C.
Ned Robert — Los Gatos, Calif.
C.W. — Hong Kong SAR
David Wild — Washington, D.C.
Bunny Zukowski — Lebanon, Penna.
Congratulations again to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 in October.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a U.S. state.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.