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: “Game Time”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a famous athlete.
Answer: KOBE BRYANT
Number of correct entries: 216
Just one theme entry guiding us to our mystery athlete: 39-A reads [Big b-ball baskets], yielding THREE-POINTERS.
What could that mean? Several things. Pro tip: on a one-hinter meta like here, lean extra heavily on the title, since the constructor will often feel guilty about only giving you that solitary nudge and give you an extra one in the title to make up for that.
So “Game Time” might just mean the obvious “basketball,” or could it mean another type of game, perhaps a board game? Aha! Scrabble has four tiles that are worth three points apiece: B, C, F, and M. Looking for those four letters in the grid, we find each suspiciously clustered in the corners. That can’t be a coincidence, and, after some squinting and trial and error, 216 solvers found that those four letters spelled out the KOBE of the late, great Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
markta says:
I went to Kobe’s high school. He went straight from there to the NBA. I did not.
Megan Amram, whose very useful surname helped spell the E in KOBE, exults:
See, haters???? I always told you I was famous enough to be considered “amusing” by an obscure weekly crossword puzzle contest!!!! (this was a dream come true!)
And finally, docison says:
You’re not offering much of an escape from grim news these days!
OK, OK! Wasn’t intentional. This week’s instructions will be a mood-lifter! I promise.
UPDATE ON VARIOUS THINGS:
1) We’re up to 884 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) Refunds will all be done by this weekend. For real this time!
3) In addition to my regular 21×21, the current issue of New York magazine also contains four 15×15 puzzles I wrote themed on four activities that many of us are passing the time with in quarantine: playing board games, cooking, watching movies, and spring cleaning. Pick the issue up if you can!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is something beautiful that’s four letters long.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.