LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Count on It”
Prompt: This puzzle’s 5-letter contest answer is why many people
solve crossword puzzles.
Answer: HABIT, found by 185 solvers, 75 of which were solo solves

Bizarro-looking grid, with a huge number (46) of black squares. Must be a reason, right?

Checking out the five grid-spanning theme entries is probably important. They were:

15-A: [“I don’t understand this”] = IT’S ALL GREEK TO ME

21-A: [“Actually, you know what…?”] = COME TO THINK OF IT

33-A: [“We tried our best”] = CAN’T WIN EM ALL

45-A: [Relax and have a great time] = LET IT ALL HANG OUT

52-A: [Hemingway book, minus its opening definite article] = OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Now what? Time to figure out the reason for the weird grid. Why add so many cheater squares? Answer: to change the clue numbers of the five long themers. Note that they share a commonality: all of their clue numbers use only the numbers 1-5 (no 6’s, 7’s, 8’s, or 9’s). Unlikely to be a coincidence!

Now what? Well, another thing to notice as that all five of these entries contain exactly five words. So let’s match up their clue numbers to the words in their answers:

15-A: 1 + 5 = IT’S ME
21-A: 2 + 1 = TO COME
33-A: 3 + 3 = WIN-WIN
45-A: 4 + 5 = HANG OUT
52-A: 5 + 2 = SEA MAN

Those all form logical lexical chunks, so gotta be on the right track. What the next (and final step)? Find an clue in the grid that could also clue these five. Like so:

IT’S ME could also be an answer to 62-A: [“I’m outside your apartment and need to be buzzed up”], which was HEY

TO COME could also be an answer to 21-A: [In the near future], which was ANON

WIN-WIN could also be an answer to 5-A: [Like some situations], which was BAD

HANG OUT could also be an answer to 11-A: [Just sit around doing nothing], which was IDLE

SEA MAN could also be an answer to 51-A: [Popeye or Captain Nemo, e.g.], which was TAR

The first letters of those spell contest answer HABIT. Solving crosswords is a good habit, of course, not a bad one (usually!).

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR:

This week’s meta is written by meta (and MGWCC) veteran Ben Chenoweth. Ben, also known as benchen71, is the constructor behind Metas On A Tuesday (MOAT).

He is a full-time maths/computer science teacher with two hobbies: meta crosswords is the first, which takes up most of his available spare time; and the second is working on a PhD in Education in what little time remains around the edges. He hopes to have it completed sometime during 2025, but who really knows! He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two daughters (now in their early 20s). In the past, he has dabbled in writing historical fiction, and has a YouTube channel with music videos of his original songs and various spoken word pieces (sermons, if he’s being honest!).

Thanks, Ben! Let’s see what he’s got for us…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a 7-letter word.

Good luck!

–Matt