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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “What Are the Odds?”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter proper noun.
Answer: MACAO
If you can’t even, that’s fine — we were looking for odds last week. Five events were described in theme clues:
17-A [Question that may determine whether you go to work on a given morning] = IS TODAY A WEEKDAY?
23-A [Question that may determine a spade’s value in certain card games] = IS A NUMERAL ON IT?
36-A [Question that may determine whether one’s opponent wins at roshambo] = DID YOU PLAY PAPER?
50-A [Question that may determine whether the other football team kicks off or receives] = DID YOU SAY TAILS?
56-A [Question that may determine whether a Yahtzee was converted on the last turn with the final die] = DID YOU ROLL A FIVE?
Let’s calculate the odds on those events:
Odds of a given day being a weekday is 2-to-5
Odds a numeral being on a given spade (or any suit) is 4-to-9
Odds of paper winning a round of roshambo, a.k.a. rock-paper-scissors is 2-to-1
Odds of winning a coin toss by guessing tails (or heads) is 1-to-1
Odds of rolling a five (or any other specific number) with a die are 5-to-1
Now what? Easier to see if we use the traditional Vegas “x-x” or “x:x” instead of “x-to-x”:
2-5
4-9
2-1
1-1
5-1
Those are starting to look like two-digit numbers all low enough to be in a puzzle grid, and indeed if you check out boxes 25, 29, 21, 11, and 51, they spell out in order gambling mecca MACAO, found by 173 solvers…which was my Consigliere’s exact prediction for the correct number of entries! Amazing. I had guessed 251 and Super-Tester had guessed 300. Super-Tester is usually the one with supernatural powers of correct entry prediction but this week it was Consigliere’s turn to shine.
Julian L says:
Hmm…I prefer the “U” spelling. Was there earlier this year, not for the casinos though, only for (very good) dim sum.
“Macau” outgoogles “Macao” slightly (242 million to 193 million), but the official Chinese government spelling is with the O — and, more importantly, that’s what fit in the grid.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 173 correct entries received, is…whoops! Forgot to pick a winner. Will do so and announce next week. Turkey coma, apologies.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a geographical group.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.