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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Couples Only”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is something that solving too many contest crosswords might lead to.
Answer: NIGHTMARES
Correct entries: 155 overall, of which 54 were solo solves

Certainly a SAD (Simple and Difficult) meta that played like a Week 5 instead of my intended Week 3. SAD test, in two sentences or less: Take the 10 two-word entries in the grid and form a chain based on their initial letters (N.I. for NO IDEA, I.G. for INDIGO GIRLS, G.H. for GO HOME, etc.). The first letter of those ten, in chain order, spells the contest answer.

But so hard to see. Supertester and I considered adding a [START HERE] and [FINISH HERE] tag on the clues to NO IDEA and SAY NO but ultimately rejected it as making the meta too easy. In retrospect that might’ve been the way to go.

Golod says:

It’s 4:41 am and I just awoke with one!

This sounds like the start of a “Twilight Zone” episode: then I make next week’s answer WIN THE LOTTERY and Golod gets it and then wins the lottery, and then the third week the answer is something crazy and Serlingesque and that last scene is Golod screaming “Nooooo!” into the camera as he solves the meta…

DIS says:

Seemed two hard at first, but the answer became appairent.

And Teamdoubletow writes:

Muggle crew got us to the all important second step

Which leads me this statement on Solo Vs. Group solves…

SOLO SOLVES VS. GROUP:

I’ve been asked to clarify what constitutes a Solo Solve vs. A Group Solve. My position is that receiving even the slightest bit of outside help classifies a solve as a Group Solve. I call this my “raised eyebrow” rule, where even a co-solver raising an eyebrow at a suggestion means you’re on a group solve. Obviously I lack the ability to police this and I think the vast majority of solvers are clicking the correct button, but that’s the official view of Group vs. Solo from the MGWCC home office.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is one of the entries in this grid.

IMPORTANT NOTE: 7-Down in this puzzle is a nonsensical entry as you’d see in an “Anything Goes” or “Something Different” crossword.

This is not meta-related; I just needed to use this one strange entry to make the meta work. Please excuse the inelegance.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.