LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: MGWCC #875 — “High Marks” by Peter Abide
Prompt:This puzzle’s contest answer is a six-letter word.
Answer: POINTS found by 263 solvers, of which 165 were solo solves

The dude abided last week with a lovely meta! Six clues in the entries were asterisked:

22-A: [*Ted, in baseball] = WILLIAMS
30-A: [*Let’s hope] = IF ONLY
36-A: [*Buck’s mate] = DOE
65-A: [*Z competitor] = BMW. That’s a Nissan Z.
71-A: [*Chamber feature] = ALCOVE
77-A: [*Fish] = CAST A NET

Now what? Veteran meta solvers never take anything at face value, even something simple like an innocent piece of punctuation. What could those asterisks mean, for example? Well, they’re often referred to as “stars” instead of “asterisks” (indeed “aster” is Latin for “star”) — and lo! Look what happens to those clues if we call each a “star” and spell it out:

22-A: [Started, in baseball]
30-A: [Starlet’s hope]
36-A: [Starbuck’s mate]
65-A: [Starz competitor]
71-A: [Star Chamber feature]
77-A: [Starfish]

Veteran solvers will know the next step: find a grid entry that can satisfy these new STAR-struck clues:

22-A: [Started, in baseball] = 48-A: PITCHED
30-A: [Starlet’s hope] = 26-A: OSCAR
36-A: [Starbuck’s mate] = 9-D: ISHMAEL
65-A: [Starz competitor] = 14-D: NETFLIX
71-A: [Star Chamber feature] = 55-D: TRAVESTY
77-A: [Starfish] = 91-A: SHELLS

Those spell contest answer POINTS, found by 263 solvers. Big thanks to Peter for a fun one! Now we’re on to Week 3…

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR: EVAN BIRNHOLZ

Today’s puzzle is by Evan Birnholz. Evan lives in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Vicki, his 17-month-old son, Elliot, and his 17-year-old cat, Leeloo Dallas Multipass. He has been the Washington Post‘s Sunday crossword constructor since 2015, which is a little more recent than his last MGWCC guest constructor appearance. He occasionally writes metas for the Post as well. Two of them (“Out of the Picture” from March 2 and “Letters of Introduction” from Feb. 16) are still currently available to solve on the Post’s crossword webpage (just select Sunday from the Puzzle Type drop-down menu at that link to find my crosswords more easily), and there will be another meta appearing there on Sunday, March 23.

On Friday, April 4, he’ll be giving a short talk at the second Crossword Con in New York City before heading up to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. If you’ll be in attendance, go say hi to him there.

Alrighty, it’s go-time! Let’s see what wizardry Evan has concocted for Week 3…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

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