IMPORTANT NOTE: As of February 2020 MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page. A subscription costs $3/month.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “There Will Be Blood”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a Best Picture nominee this weekend.
Answer: PARASITE
Number of correct entries: 601
Five bloodsucking parasites burrowed into our grid last week, cleverly concealing themselves inside theme entries:
18-A: [Cartoon character whose hat is larger than his body] = YOSEMITE SAM. Mite.
24-A: [Picnic cutters] = PLASTIC KNIVES. Tick.
40-A: [Friend of Van Gogh] = TOULOUSE-LAUTREC. Louse.
49-A: [1972 transgender-themed movie starring Glenda Jackson and Oliver Reed] = THE TRIPLE ECHO. Leech.
61-A: [Hide your boredom, one way] = STIFLE A YAWN. Flea.
Leading us to “Parasite,” of course. Eagle-eyed solvers also noticed that I had called the film’s win; if you take random letters in the grid, you get the message I’M ALSO GOING OUT ON A LIMB HERE AND PREDICTING THAT PARASITE WINS.
JK Levy writes:
I’m trying to get the hang of these, and this one was very doable!
DIS says:
I like a puzzle with a little bite to it.
And joon brilliantly quips:
the lack of a host at the oscars might be bad news for parasite.
If there were Oscars for MGWCC comments, then we’d have two winners named “Joon” this week.
PATREON SWITCHOVER UPDATE:
1) We’re up to 772 solvers who’ve made the switch over to Patreon! Join them at the link. Thanks to everyone who’s made the jump so far; If you have any trouble with it, please e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com or via Patreon messaging.
2) Extremely hectic week here and I ran into technical difficulties on the refunds/e-mails notifying solvers how many months they have remaining on their subscriptions. Figured it all out, but that left no time for the actual refunds/e-mails. Bear with me…we only have to do this once, and then it’s smooth sailing! But everyone who has time remaining on their MGWCC subscription will receive an e-mail from me next week verifying the number of months left, then have their February payment refunded, then get March for free (as everyone does, since March was the actual free month instead of January), and then will have Patreon payments turned off until their subscription runs out.
3) If you would like to keep solving but truly do not want to have a Patreon account, please e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com) and we can work out alternate payment. I have a list of about 25 solvers who can’t or don’t want to go the Patreon route, and I have a separate mailing list to get the puzzle to them each week. I’m trying to keep this list very small for logistical reasons, though, so please do sign up at Patreon unless you really have strong feelings against it.
4) Because of lingering issues with subscriber lists, I’m putting the downloadable files on the site for another week. I know I keep saying it’s the last week for that, but…issues. So now I’m intentionally NOT saying it’s the last week, which means it probably will be.
That’s it for now. Hopefully everything will be 100% ironed out by the end of February and we can just focus on the puzzles! E-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com or via Patreon messaging if you have any questions.
Also note that at the end of February I will begin sending out swag to those who Patreon backers at the $5/$10/$20 levels, and after I get that all out I’ll focus on the 2019 yearly prizes. One thing at a time, but it will all get done, and thanks for bearing with me.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a noted 20th-century American.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.