Ahoy, Fellow Cruciverbalists! Welcome to Week 33 of my crossword 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:

Holy guacamole — shattering all previous MGWCC records, 154 solvers correctly figured out last week’s contest answer word, which was EDAM. Only two incorrect answers came in, but for the record: the puzzle’s theme consisted of four famous EDs whose first and last names anagram to a verb. These yielded the theme entries ED ASNER ENDEARS, ED KOCH CHOKED, ED AMES SEAMED, and ED BURNS BURDENS. That third entry begins with EDAM, which was hiding at 24-down. Solution grid at left (not that anyone needs it).

This week’s winner, whose name was chosen at random from the 154 correct entries received, is Jeff McVann of Chicago, Ill. Jeff has selected as his prize an autographed copy of Gridlock.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Quite a few solvers have e-mailed that the past two MGWCC puzzles were a little on the easy side. 154 correct entries last week bolsters that claim, so this week I made things a little tougher. Let’s just say I’d be surprised to get 1/3 that number of correct answers this week. Good luck!

[UPDATE, 1/16/09, 4:25 PM ET: it’s been one hour since I sent this week’s Google Group e-mail out, and I’ve received exactly 1 correct entry. An hour after last week’s e-mail went out I had 17 right answers.]

This week’s contest answer phrase is four words long and a total of seventeen letters. It describes what you, the solver are if you’re able to finish this week’s crossword and figure out the contest answer phrase. E-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by Tuesday at noon ET. Please put the contest answer phrase 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.