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: “Going Off-Site”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is how MGWCC solvers handle metas.
Answer: SKILLFULLY
Moving over to Patreon in January 2020, which I’m quite excited about. The page is pretty much done but I still need to submit to them for approval, so it’s not live right now but I’m hoping it will be next week. More details about the switch appear below, after the puzzle recap.
The key was the clue for PATREON across the middle at 28-A: [Website I’ll be using for MGWCC distribution and subscriptions as of January 2020 (page goes live later this month; full details next week)]. That stands out since it’s across the center, plus the title refers to “going off-site” which could mean…what?
A few letters get an awful lot of play in this little grid, and astute meta-solvers noticed that they just happened to be the seven letters in PATREON. Let’s “go off-site” by taking the letters in the grid that don’t appear in PATREON; from top-to-bottom they spell out SKILLFULLY, which is certainly how MGWCC solvers tackle metas.
This played pretty tough for a Week 1, so we’ll call it a Week 2 and today’s puzzle will be a real Week 1. Then next week we’ll go back to a Week 3 as scheduled.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 455 correct entries received, is Arthur Rudolph of San Francisco, Calif. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set, Arthur will also receive a signed copy of my book Crosswords for People on the Go.
PATREON UPDATE:
Well I was hoping to have the Patreon page up and running by now but it looks like it’ll take another few days (they’ve also got to approve it, which takes a little time as well). But here’s some info for now:
1) This might be a tricky transition since there are a lot of moving parts, but we’ll make it through! With that in mind, January 2020 is a free month for everyone since I’m assuming there’ll be a few headaches as we straighten it all out. So if you have, say, four months left on your subscription at the end of December, you’ll still have four months left on it at the end of January (and of course, your remaining months will be honored once we start at Patreon).
2) The site you’re reading this on, www.xwordcontest.com, will not change. We’ll still use it for submissions, leaderboards, and my weekly recap as we have been. Patreon will only be used for subscriptions, payments, distribution of the weekly puzzles, and communication between myself and you all (but you can still always e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com).
3) Not 100% sure of how everything is going to work, but there will probably be some changes with prizes. We’ll still have Streaks and all the other leaderboards, and we’ll still have yearly prizes. but Patreon frowns on anything that involves random drawings, even if the pool of potential winners had to complete a feat of skill (like solving a meta) to become eligible, so we will probably be doing away with weekly and monthly prizes, at least for the first year on Patreon (yearly prizes are unaffected since they are 100% skill-based).
But this might be a good change: I’ve sent out over 2,700 prizes since MGWCC began in 2008, and I must admit that as much as I enjoy rewarding solvers with swag, it does feel like a bit much lately. Plus it’s unevenly distributed: some solvers have won so many times that they actually decline the stationery upon winning again, while others have solved enthusiastically for years but have never won a thing. So what I’m leaning towards for the upcoming Patreon Era is that each subscriber receives a pen, pencil, and notepad set, plus we do yearly prizes, and that’s that. Not 100% sure yet but I think that’s what I’m going to have us try in 2020.
4) Again, bear with me — could be a rocky transition, but I will personally make sure that no Streaks will be unjustly broken, no subscription will be unhonored (of course, if you have, say, 5 months left on your current subscription, then you’ll get 5 months free in the Patreon Era), and in general everything will work out OK. So thanks in advance for all the solving you’ve done, and I hope you’ll move with me into this new evolution of MGWCC, now in Year 12 of 21.
MONTHLY PRIZES:
Congratulations to the following dozen November winners, whose names were chosen at random from the 65 solvers who sent in the correct contest answer to all five of last month’s challenges (FINGERS, REGIS AND KATHIE LEE, TRIG, MILLER’S CROSSING, CALLED BALL FOUR). Each will receive a MGWCC pen, pencil, and notepad set:
Ed Brody — Cambridge, Mass.
Eric Conrad — Peaks Island, Me.
Jared Dashoff — Washington, D.C.
Travis Hime — New York City, N.Y.
Jeremiahs Johnson — Lafayette, Calif.
Andy Keller — Apple Valley, Minn.
Craig Mazin — La Canada, Calif.
Jonathan McCue — Seattle, Wash.
Rich O’Malley — Philadelphia, Penna.
Eric Prestemon — Woodside, Calif.
Coreen Steinbach — Pompey, N.Y.
Tom Tabanao — San Jose, Calif.
Congratulations to our twelve winners, and to everyone who went 5-for-5 in November. Wasn’t easy!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a well-known book series.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.