LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Take a Little Off Around the Edges”
Prompt: Read the instructions herein to solve this puzzle’s meta.
Answer: NATICK, found by 325 solvers, 274 of which were solo solves

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

First step in last week’s meta: notice that the first word of a well-known U.S. city is hidden backwards in the theme entry, like so:

MAGNOLIAS = LONG (Beach, California)
KICKS UP ROCKS = CORPUS (Christi, Texas)
NOT A BAD EFFORT = BATON (Rouge, Louisiana)
GRADE CROSSING = CEDAR (Rapids, Iowa)
JACOB‘S LADDER BOCA (Raton, Florida)
FERRET OUT = TERRE (Haute, Indiana)

Next step was a toughie! Find a clue with the missing half of the city hidden in it:

BEACH is in [Be aching for] = NEED.
CHRISTI is in [Movie in which Taylor Schilling played Christine Mendez] = ARGO
ROUGE is in [Frou-frou gelatin mold container] = TIN
RAPIDS is in [He falls for a trap, I’d say] = IAGO
RATON is in [Fervor a ton of people have at once] = CRAZE.
HAUTE is in [Be familiar with, as a French auteur] = KNOW.

The first letters of those spell out contest answer NATICK, found by 325 solvers. Due to a famous Rex Parker post, this city has become synonymous in recent years to mean a letter in a crossword you have to guess at since the words in both directions may be unfamiliar.

This puzzle had an interesting provenance! Read this to see why.

Today’s puzzle is Week 4 of 4 in June, a guest puzzle by FOMGWCC Mike Graczyk. Instructions:

This week’s contest answer is a 4-letter word.