LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Crossing State Lines”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a six-letter word associated with Wyoming.
Answer: GEYSER, found by 207 solvers, 100 of which were solo solves

Toughie, with just 100 solo solves on a Week 3. Key insight: a set of five squares in this pattern:

*
**
**
…resembles the state of Utah. That alone wouldn’t get you there, but keep it in mind.

Six starred theme entries in a very rough-around-the-edges grid, so must be a lot going on. They were:

5-D: [*In and of itself] = ESSENTIALLY
8-D: [*Set free] = RELEASE
13-D: [*Unable to back out] = COMMITTED
45-D: [*Suddenly appear] = MATERIALIZE
53-D: [*Encourage to behave badly] = INSTIGATE
64-D: [*Just barely manage to make ends meet = SUBSIST

What do we notice? These are all common words, perhaps on the longer side for single words at 11/7/9/11/9/7. But what do they have in common?

Think synonyms, and each one turns out to have a common two-word synonym with (3,2) enumeration, especially as clued:

ESSENTIALLY: PER SE
RELEASE: LET GO
COMMITTED: ALL IN
MATERIALIZE: POP UP
INSTIGATE: EGG ON
SUBSIST: GET BY

Now what? Notice that all of these six phrases appear in the grid, with the three-letter word and the two-letter word placed side-by-side in a shape resembling the state of Utah (see solution grid above).

Final step: We’re looking for a word relating to Wyoming — and lo and behold, what state “fills in” that missing northeast corner of Utah on a map? Wyoming! So take those six Wyoming’s-southwestern-corner squares, in the usual order to spell contest answer GEYSER, found by 207 solvers.

In addition to the famous Old Faithful, did you know that Wyoming is home to about half of the world’s geysers? I did not.

Stribbs got it at the last minute:

Stick save! Finally saw LET GO lurking around, although the asymmetry and the inability to remove the upper EGO were certainly clues on where more gems were hidden.

Megan Amram got it, too:

Not too bad for an old geyser like myself

Ale M got there in the end:

Wow! I noticed LET GO right away but didn’t realize what to do until I opened an atlas. Crazy hard, but really fun. Phew!

Jonesy made use of an old trick:

i texted my friend that i was struggling on this week’s puzzle (which he hadn’t started) and that was the key to trying something new!

I’ve heard this many times from solvers over the years: start explaining what you have so far to a co-solver, and then halfway through — “Wait, I got it!” Something about verbalizing/organizing your own thoughts.

And finally, Purdue81girl says:

Yellowstone is amazing! So was the puzzle!

Well thank you! And you didn’t need to cross state lines to solve it.

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR: BEN CHENOWETH

This week’s guest constructor is Ben Chenoweth, a familiar face here! I think this is his fourth guest puzzle. His bio is here if you scroll down.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a six-letter word. NOTE: due to the late post, the contest deadline this week is noon ET on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Good luck!

–Matt