LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Consider the Alternative”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is an eight-letter adjective.
Answer: DECISIVE, found by 361 solvers, of which 303 were solo solves

Tricky one last week, as none of the eight longest entries in last week’s grid (all downs) was actually theme. Instead, there were eight grid entries beginning with OR (see hinty puzzle title) whose post-OR part could satisfy another clue. For example, 4-Across [Law partner] = ORDER, but “or DER” is an alternative answer to consider for 54-D, [Augsburg article]. See graphic for all of them. Taking the OR- answers first letters in grid order spells the contest answer.

Katiedid says:

fun! loved OR EOS

Unexpectedly using the plural form, as with OR IBIS.

gifo writes:

I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure. As my mom used to say.

And donutrobot says:

I found it quite confusing that the OR-suffixes were alternate clue answers that only served as a sign that a solver was “seeing something real” rather than a “next mechanism step.”

Yes, this was a head-fake that threw a lot of solvers off, at least temporarily. But those original eight clues did have a function: to point solvers to the OR- entries, and indeed to allow those eight OR- phantom entries to exist.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a person often seen on the news whose name is enumerated (4, 6).

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