LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Solve for X”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is described at 18-Across, 38-Across, and 63-Across. (SOMEONE WHO / DEALS WITH / BIG NUMBERS)
Answer: WHOLESALER, found by 237 solvers, of which 130 were solo solves

The Week 2 Curse reared its head again last week, as this puzzle played more like a toughish Week 3 than an ideal Week 2. Per that 18-A/38-A/63-A: instruction, we see that we’re looking for “Someone who deals with big numbers.” OK; then there’s another hint at the omega-across, where CXIV is clued as [CXIV (four squares, four meanings)].

So what does that mean? Well the title is “Solve for X” and the X in that entry is the only X in the grid, so that X, or something derived from it, might be our contest answer (Announcer: “It was.”). What about the C, I and V, though? Well, it turns out that CXIV is a code: C stands for Consonant, X is what you’re solving for, I is the letter I, and V is Vowel. That’s the “four meanings” in the clue.

How were you supposed to get there? Well, there were an awful lot of four-letter Acrosses that ended with IA: CHIA, FOIA, LEIA, GLIA, and HSIA, and more than ended in I-another vowel: WWII, PLIE, BAIO, SEIU, and BRIE. Writing those ten out in grid order reveals the code:

WWII
CHIA
FOIA
PLIE
LEIA
HSIA
BAIO
GLIA
SEIU
BRIE

And you can see the full CXIV code above as well: first row is all consonants, second row is the meta answer, third row is all I’s, and the fourth letter is all vowels. You’ll never look at the Roman numeral CXIV the same way again!

A.B. got it, but wasn’t 100% sure:

If this is right, why is EDIT in there?

EDIT doesn’t play because its first letter isn’t a consonant (and its last letter isn’t a vowel, so doubly-disqualified!).

And cyn says:

This is more like a week VIII if you ask me 🙂

Well, I hope that today’s puzzle will play like a Week III, or even Week II since this one was so tough!

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a word that describes how contest crosswords should be written.

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