LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “To What Lengths Will You Go?”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a word that describes how contest crosswords should be written.
Answer: CONSCIENTIOUSLY
Just a SAD (Simple and Difficult) two-stepper. In two sentences: 15 of this puzzle’s clues are comprised of two like-length words, from 1 to 15 letters. The first letters of the answers to those spell the contest answer. See Gridmaster T’s grid attached.
Seed entry: I had written out [Schwarzenegger, astrologically] as a clue for LEO in a non-MGWCC puzzle, randomly picking him out from the many Leo celebs. When I saw it on my screen I realized both words were 14 letters long. The meta-gods had sent me a signal, and I of course had no choice but to follow their sacred hintage…and a contest crossword was born.
Andrew Bradburn writes:
Is this your longest ever one word solution? I have to laugh, but I was pointing out to a coworker that ‘puzzle constructors get tired of the same old clues for often-used words: look how Oreos are defined here, as ‘Dichromatic delectables’!” Didn’t figure out until sometime later that that was part of the meta.
Probably is the longest one-word solution. And I think I’ve used [Dichromatic delectables] before for OREOS, but not certain.
DCBilly says:
Whoa, hope I spelled that right, that’s a really long and vowelly word!
Agreed — looks like it’s spelled wrong even when it’s not, and sounds sort of made up.
Ben Kramer writes:
Gaffneyesque masterstroke
I see what you did there.
Magoo writes from Europe, which turned out to be helpful:
Great meta – I figured it out as I was in the swimming pool looking at the Mediterranean Sea, wondering why anyone would call it a ‘configuration’ … then I started counting …
And finally, Kettlebadger writes:
I am, but once again, thusly chuffed! Gorgeous crossword containing imaginative, premeditated, exemplifiable extrapolations grandiloquently!
Poetic and numerially precise! Thanks!
MY NEW WEEKLY MERRIAM-WEBSTER CROSSWORD:
Starting now, I’m writing a weekly crossword for Merriam-Webster’s website. It’s a puzzle type called “The Missing Letter” that I created especially for the site: 25 entries in the grid are defined using their M-W dictionary definition, and these each begin with a different letter of the alphabet. The only one not represented each week is “The Missing Letter,” and you can enter to win a $25 gift certificate at their site. Check it out here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/games/missing-letter
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a 6-letter adjective that I hope you won’t think applies to this puzzle.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.