Title: “Think Drink”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a beverage.
Answer: ORANGE JUICE
Correct entries: 705
Week 1 out of 5 had us seeking a mystery drink. Our theme entries showed the way:
17-A: [Mayor Ichiro Matsui’s city] = OSAKA, JAPAN. With that first and last name I hope he’s a baseball fan. When I visited Japan in 2003 the Yankees had just acquired Hideki Matsui and every single at-bat of his was scrutinized (pitch-by-pitch, slow motion) on the nightly news. Of course Ichiro Suzuki was already an MLB superstar by then.
23-A: [One of the original “MADtv” cast members] = ORLANDO JONES
38-A: [Drifter’s employment] = ODD JOBS
50-A: [Mayim Bialik and Joseph Lieberman, for two] = ORTHODOX JEWS. Got lucky to make all those high-value Scrabble letters work down there. XYLEM, HEY JOE, YAY, and JAY interlocked fortuitously. Of course I called the former senator “Joseph” in the clue since “HEY JOE” was in the area.
60-A: [Not serious at all] = ONLY JOKING
Speaking of only joking, mpstable writes:
but i’m sure you’ll accept Orange Julius from a few dozen smart alecks
I would’ve, but no one entered it! But HazMat has that beat anyway. He writes:
was drinking this and thought of your puzzle this week
Definitely would’ve accepted that!
REFUNDS UPDATE:
July, August, and September refunds (for those of you who have/had months remaining on your pre-Patreon subscriptions) are now done. If you should have received a refund for one or more of those months but didn’t, please e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com and I’ll get it taken care of.
2019 PRIZES:
Still figuring out a couple of them but will order this weekend and then report back with what they are next week, and then send them out later in the month.
GUEST CONSTRUCTOR PUZZLE:
Today’s meta is the debut puzzle of Mollie Cowger, who began working seriously on crossword construction this summer after dabbling in it on and off for several years. She especially enjoys solving metas and says she is delighted to be making an appearance at MGWCC. She currently lives in Dallas, and you can find her on Twitter at @molliecowger.
Thanks, Mollie! Let’s see what she has in store for this Week 2 of 5:
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is an eight-letter name.