Good afternoon, crossword fans — welcome to Week 45 of my contest. If you’re new to the contest and would like to enter, please see the site FAQ on the left sidebar for instructions.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
The palindrome that springs to mind is “wow” — because a record-shattering 249 entrants sent in last week’s contest answer phrase, which was CROSSWORD SOLVER. Solution at top left. The previous MGWCC record was 197 entries, so we blew that one out of the water.
The 249 got there by figuring out Bob Doll‘s clever cruciverbal bumper sticker, CROSSWORD LOVERS / DO IT EACH MORNING / AND ALL DAY SUNDAY. Anagram the second word of the top line and you’re left with CROSSWORD SOLVER.
Since last week’s answer was CROSSWORD SOLVER and the previous week’s answer was the solver’s surname, Gerry Tansey writes:
Cool. I’m the answer to the puzzle two weeks in a row. This is even better than when I was named Time’s Person of the Year.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 249 correct entries received, is Meg Duvall of St. Petersburg, Fla. Meg has chosen as her prize an autographed copy of Sip & Solve Hard Crosswords.
FOUR THINGS:
1) An awful lot of solvers expressed interest in getting a copy of this bumper sticker. If anyone prints them up, let me know and I’ll post it on the blog.
2) Elissa Grossman is organizing the inaugural Crosswords LA Tournament, held at Loyola Marymount University on Saturday, Apr. 25. Over 50 contestants have already registered; check out the website for full details:
http://www.crosswordswest.com/
[UPDATE, 4/10, 4:10 PM — I forgot to mention that Tyler Hinman will be there doing commentary on the finals.]
3) The MGWCC notepads still haven’t arrived (!) but are apparently en route (hmmm). At any rate, they’ll be going out to February’s winners and March’s winners (along with pens & pencils) asap when they arrive at my door.
4) SPECIAL PRIZE THIS WEEK: Instead of receiving one of my books, the winner of MGWCC #045 next week will be awarded a copy of Patrick Berry‘s stunning new Masterpiece Puzzles. Patrick is one of the very best puzzle writers around and I tore through this book like a hyena on Vivarin. It features several series of crossword variants, a specialty of Patrick’s throughout his career.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer word is a four-letter entry in this crossword grid’s fill. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer word in the subject line of your e-mail.
To print the puzzle out, click on the image below and hit “print” on your browser. To solve using Across Lite, join the Google Group here:
http://groups.google.com/group/mgwcc
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.