LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “First-Quarter Action”
Prompt: This puzzle’s contest answer is something people did this week.
Answer: RING IN THE NEW found by 541 solvers, 519 of which were solo solves

You all went 541 out of 541 last week! 0 incorrect entries. A true Week 1 out of 5! Notice how I spin your triumph as one of my own!

Four theme entries, each 12 letters in length (which turned out to be important):

20-A: [It costs more at a hockey game] = RINKSIDE SEAT
28-A: [“Shall We Dance” dancer, 1937] = GINGER ROGERS
47-A: [Greece’s second-largest city] = THESSALONIKI. Also the site of this event, as I’m sure you are all well aware. Right? Right??
55-A: [Time Magazine’s 1995 Person of the Year] = NEWT GINGRICH

From our title, take the first quarter (i.e. 25%, i.e. first three letters of the twelve-letter theme entries) and you get RING IN THE NEW, found by the abovementioned 100.00% of entrants. Nicely done!

syoustra is back after a break:

Life interfered, and I fell off the meta wagon. Hoping the new year helps me get the meta mindset back again! 😉

Welcome back! Never leave us again!

EP says:

Great, appropriate week 1 challenge. And, having 20A be RINKside instead of the more common ‘ringside’ was a thoughtful, classy touch.

New motto that will start appearing at the top of each post next week: “MGWCC…Thoughtful and Classy.” I like it!

And finally, dkletter says, re 45-Down:

For those who didn’t get to enjoy the classic Riunite commercials growing up, I hope you will share a a link like this one:

The only people having more fun than people in 1980s Riunite ads are…MGWCC solvers every Friday! So let’s get back to it…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

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