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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Easy-Peasy”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer, which is eight letters long, is what you’ll need for a successful solo solve.
Answer: ZERO HELP
Correct entries: 280, of which 197 were solo solves

Weeks 3 and 4 switched places this month, looks like. Happens sometimes…

When coming up with a meta idea, I’m often wondering: what’s the first thing they’ll notice? That first little suspicious aspect of a puzzle that prompts solvers to look further. Here it was the extreme symmetry of the grid; I wanted solvers to see that, and then see that two of the three Z’s in the grid were symmetrically placed, and that their two counterparts were a pair of symmetrically-placed P’s, and then hopefully off to the races, probably with help from the title.

Correctly parsed as “Easy P-Z,” successful solvers noticed that those two symmetric P-Z pairs could become Z-P pairs to clue eight grid entries. In the normal grid order:

JEEP = JEEZ = 53-A: [“Holy Toledo!”] = ZOWIE
QUIZ = QUIP = 22-D: [Witty remark] = EPIGRAM
DROP = DROZ = 17-A: [Noted Senate candidate in 2022] = RUBIO
ZUMA = PUMA = 31-A: [Wild cat of the Western Hemisphere] = OCELOT
WHIZ = WHIP = 21-D: [Part of an Indiana Jones costume] = HOLSTER
ZETA = PETA = 35-A: [It’s represented by a bunny] = EASTER
PIMA = ZIMA = 13-A: [Citrusy drink] = LIMEADE
PEST = ZEST = 27-A: [Outer part of an orange] = PEEL

Those first letters spell ZERO HELP, which is both what’s required for a solo solve and also a Z.P. phrase, fittingly using our two theme letters.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

No instructions given here because there are no-instructions options available.

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