LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Sounds Like Someone I Know”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a famous athlete.
Answer: SHAQUILLE O’NEAL, found by 452 solvers

Rhyme-based meta, always a fraught proposition because people pronounce things a little differently around the country and that can make a big difference in a meta.

Five theme entries, each followed by a number in parentheses:

19-A: [President of France from 1995 to 2007 (4)] = JACQUES CHIRAC

50-A: [“High Fidelity” and “School of Rock” funnyman (6)] = JACK BLACK

81-A: [Children’s book character who takes idioms literally (7)] = AMELIA BEDELIA

13-D: [Cartoon penguin (4)] = CHILLY WILLY

38-D: [She played Bonnie Parker in “Bonnie & Clyde” (4)] = FAYE DUNAWAY

So we’ve got five people (well, four people and a penguin) whose first and last names rhyme. Now what?

Answer: find a grid entry of the parenthetical length that rhymes as well. Like so:

JACQUES CHIRAC + EWOK at 44-A
JACK BLACK = ATTACK at 61-D
AMELIA BEDELIA = OPHELIA at 6-A
CHILLY WILLY = LILY at 79-A
FAYE DUNAWAY = NO SE at 36-D. The toughest and least-liked of the bunch, since everyone scanning the grid saw that as the body part “NOSE” so glossed over it a time or two before noticing

In the usual grid order those spell ONEAL, leading to contest answer SHAQUILLE O’NEAL.

Since this one played almost like a Week 2, we’re backtracking this week to a Week 1, complete with Week 1 solving options. I’m especially interested to see if anyone can get this using downs-only + no instructions, so let me know in comments when submitting if you get it that way.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

No instructions given here since there are no-instructions available this week.

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