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:
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: “Sit Down for This”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a 68-Across lyric that sounds like it’s about solving meta-crosswords.
Answer: YOU CAN SEARCH FOREVER / YOU MIGHT NEVER FIND
Correct entries: 222
My favorite thing about this meta is the uniqueness of the Big Hint: it wasn’t the theme entries per se, which of course is the most common key to a meta; it wasn’t the *lengths* of the theme entries per se, though that is an occasional meta tactic; but rather, it was the *sum of the lengths of the theme entries* that provided the in for most solvers. Very odd!
Well, technically it was an even number (88), which also had to be a number instantly recognizable for one thing — in this case, the number of keys on a piano. Our theme entries were:
22-A: [Wild cat seen in upstate New York?] = LYNX OF UTICA
27-A: [Electric car owned by singer Lennox?] = ANNIE’S TESLA
40-A: [Security problem at a kitchenware store?] = CROCK THEFTS
44-A: [Climbing plants in Conan’s garden?] = O’BRIEN IVIES
89-A: [Send positive thoughts to the Western Pacific?] = PRAY FOR GUAM
93-A: [Nun’s duty?] = BEING CHASTE
105-A: [Punishment for acting up in the army?] = NO LEAVE EVER
113-A: [2000 presidential candidate shaking in his boots?] = AFRAID NADER
And then across the center we’ve got:
68-A: [Two-man rock band from Akron] = THE BLACK KEYS
So treat those 88 letters as keys on the piano, take only the black ones, and read the lyric:
Lovely image above stolen from the Joonmeister.
Two e-mails from this week:
1) Mutman was on vacation with only his phone, but created his own grid:
2) So, why do I write metas? I write metas hoping to create experiences like this one from Silverskiesdean:
Man oh man I’m busting I’m so proud of myself. I don’t have anyone to call, I am not in any groups, I do these myself and it was worth the wait. I Stared at it for three days. Saturday night I worked all night in the ER so I was tired when I got home. I had even though of treating the entries like black notes but there are twelve in a scale, not eleven. What I kept thinking was why are all the entries 11 letters long? Anyway, I got home Sunday and started to work backwards looking at lyrics. Gave up after four songs.
Went to lie down to sleep but kept thinking of 11 letters long. It wasn’t until I multiplied it by 8 entries i.e. 88 that it hit me. Then the title made sense as well because you sit down to play a piano.I jumped out of bed, scaring my Yorkie-Pom, and went to the piano.
I looked at my piano, noticed the first is an A. Then looked at the first line and came up with “YOUC”. That’s when I had multiple aha moments and doing it myself it was worth the wait. I laid all 8 out and did them backwards so I could prolong the moment, made some coffee and figured it out. Man that was a “GREAT META and I solved it. By the way, can you tell that I’m happy. Thank you Matt thank you!!!
I think “Yorkie-Pom” should enter the meta-solving lexicon as a verb meaning “to suddenly stop whatever you’re doing and run over to your laptop/paper to see if your sudden meta inspiration is correct.”
PATREON UPDATE:
We’re up to 964 solvers who’ve made the jump to Patreon! Join them here. Reminder that all refunds for January, February, March, and April are now done. If you have months left on your subscription and haven’t received a refund for any of those months, please e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com and I’ll take care of it.
Note that May and June refunds will be given during the first two weeks in June. So if you see a charge from me for May and/or June and still have time left on your subscription, don’t worry — you’ll be refunded then.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is something you may need to do to figure out the meta.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.