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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Back and Forth”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is the constructor’s favorite number.
Answer: 24
Believe it or not, I was worried that Rich O’Malley‘s puzzle would be too easy for the anchor spot of Guest Constructor Month, but it played hard. Only 94 correct answers came in, and about half of those were group solvers.
Two big hints to guide solvers: the six circles in the grid, and the three clues to the entries that included the top three of those:
1-A: [Uno + siete [To find the meta (9,5)…] = OCHO
5-A: [Back-of-the-house title […for this puzzle (9,5)…] = CHEF
9-A: [CBS’s eye and NBC’s peacock, e.g. […unearth seven buried treasures (4,8,2)] = LOGOS
Lots of things to notice already: 1) we’re looking for “seven buried treasures,” and there are seven enumerations among the three clues. So he’s probably giving is the letter lengths of these treasures. 2) Each of these three enumerations adds up to 14, which is probably not a coincidence, especially if you also notice that the grid is only 14 squares high. So almost definitely not a coincidence now, and when you add in the three circles squares on the top of the grid and the three on the bottom, you may theorize that we are looking for seven words, in lines starting from the top circles and leading down to the bottom, taking one letter from each row (because the 14’s match the height of the grid). This is all in fact correct.
But how to decide which letters to take? This was the tricky part — but there’s a logical way to deduce it, though it’s very subtle.
Notice that each of the three circled squares on the bottom is two rows to the right of the square on the top. Twice might be a coincidence, but that all three wind up that way might mean the constructor is trying to tell us something. And he was: what pattern through the grid would land you two squares to the right each time? A two-square zigzag pattern, like a knight’s move in chess.
Zigzagging your way thusly through the grid yields words in the parenthetical clue enumerations: CLEVELAND and OMEGA in the first column, HENDERSON and BAUER in the second, and OPAL, CHROMIUM and EX in the seventh. Grover Cleveland was the 24th president of the U.S. (and 22nd, but you need the 24 here), omega is the 24th and final Greek letter, baseball great Rickey Henderson wore jersey number 24, Jack Bauer saved the nation every season on the show “24,” opal is the traditional wedding gift for a 24th anniversary (a little tricky to Google, hence the hint in the clue), chromium is the 24th element, and ex, the letter two before “zee” and two after “vee,” is the 24th letter of the English alphabet.
Two elegant touches that didn’t help you get the meta but are Easter eggs to be appreciated later: 1) the zigzag moves from the 2nd and 4th columns from the start of the top-row words, so you’re making repeated 2-4’s as you suss out the 24s, and there are 42 total squares in the zigzagging action, a reversal of the key number.
Clever and subtle if you ask me, though a not-insignificant number of solvers felt the nudge toward the pattern was *too* subtle. But I think it was fair for a Week 4: if a solver asks themselves, “Why are all three lower circles two to the right of the upper circles?” I think they have a good shot at landing on the idea.
mrbreen says:
Awesome!
Bob J says:
Funny how late-month metas sometimes take a full weekend’s effort but sometimes leap off the page. ‘Back and Forth’ was a solid nudge.
johnstonteacher writes:
Absolutely impossible to see, until it jumped right out at me.
Squonk writes:
Nice aha on that one!
jus10 writes:
wow, quite a tricky one. I spent a long time staring at this one before I noticed that the grid was only 14 squares tall (and that the “treasures” as listed were in numbers adding to 14). Very nice construction here.
And finally, Tyler Hinman writes:
***k yeah, Monday night solve
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 94 correct entries received, is J.R. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, J.R. will also receive a signed copy of my book Pint-Size Crosswords.
A big thanks to Emily Cox, Henry Rathvon, Laura Braunstein, Ken Stern, Adam Simon Levine, and Rich O’Malley for a fun (and tough) Guest Constructor Month 2019. Glad to have you all participate!
SEPTEMBER WINNERS:
Congratulations to the following 10 winners, whose names were chosen at random from the 81 solvers who sent in the correct contest answer to all four of September’s challenges (PIZZA PIE, KISS THIS GUY, SFORNO, 24). Each will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set:
Mollie Cowger — San Francisco, Calif.
Meg Duvall — St. Petersburg, Fla.
Peter Gwinn — Chicago, Ill.
Travis Hime — New York City, N.Y.
Heather Kennedy — Austin, Tex.
Patricia Miga — Colleyville, Tex.
Tom Moosbrugger — Cincinnati, O.
Mary R. — Toronto, Ont.
L.S.
Cindy Weatherman — Matthews, N.C.
Congratulations to our ten winners, and to everyone who went 4-for-4 during Guest Constructor Month.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a part of the body.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.