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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Crack the Code”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a well-known number 3.
Answer: EARTH
Correct entries: 264 overall, of which 206 were solo solves

If you swap the totals for Weeks 4 and 5, then we had pretty much a perfect 5-Friday-month in terms of difficulty gradation (641-540-418-264-157). Go me! And you! Go all of us!

Insight #1: Notice that five across entries conceal a 1-digit number:

18-A: [Where celebrities answer questions] = PRESS EVENT (7)
20-A: [Cheech or Chong, e.g.] = STONER (ONE)
31-A: [“The Handmaid’s Tale” novelist] = ATWOOD (2)
44-A: [Dog-related] = CANINE (9)
57-A: [Important] = WEIGHTY (8). Some solvers were vexed (as in irritated, not merely puzzled) that this entry also conceals EIGHTY. I noticed that of course but shrugged it off with the thought that 80 isn’t a one-digit number like the rest, but I probably should’ve just used SLEIGHT to avoid any confusion.

Insight #2, the tough one: remove the number from each of these five, replace that number with a letter of the alphabet, and you’re left with another grid entry. For example, remove the SEVEN from PRESS EVENT and you’re left with PRES?T, and PRESET is in the grid. So 7 = E. In full they are:

18-A: PRES(SEVEN)T = PRES(E)T
20-A: ST(ONE)R = ST(A)R
31-A: A(TWO)OD = A(R)OD
44-A: CA(NINE) = CA(T)
57-A: W(EIGHT)Y = W(H)Y

Insight #3, easy: those unused letters spell contest answer EARTH, famously the 3rd rock from the Sun.

I asked solvers to rate the difficulty level, and you said:

Week 1 — 0 votes
Week 1.5 — 2 votes
Week 2.0 — 20 votes
Week 2.5 — 48 votes
Week 3.0 –63 votes
Week 3.5 — 28 votes
Week 4.0 — 6 votes
Week 4.5 — 2 votes
Week 5.0 — 0 votes

So the winning answer is Week 3.0, which seems about right (2.95 if you average them out).

On to a new month! Here’s the leadoff puzzle:

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a word associated with the Nobel Prizes.

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