IMPORTANT NOTE: As of February 2020 MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page. A subscription costs $3/month.
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “They’re Falling for You”
Instructions: This week’s contest answer is a snack you might buy from a vending machine.
Answer: COMBOS
Number of correct entries: 456
Yum, time to eat some junk from a vending machine! We’ve got six mass-produced treats waiting to fall into our lives, each available by pressing an alphanumeric combination. Presented from left-to-right, they are:
3-D: [PRESS I-1] = SNICKERS
43-D: [PRESS C-5] = CHEETOS
5-D: [PRESS A-2] = ALMOND JOY
34-D: [PRESS G-4] = MR.GOODBAR
9-D: [PRESS D-5] = DORITOS
39-D: [PRESS H-3] = SUN CHIPS
Now what? You may have noticed that each “food” item contains exactly one of the letter in its code. Go down the number of spaces corresponding to the number in its code to extract a new letter, like so:
1 space from the I in SNICKERS yields C
5 spaces from the C in CHEETOS yields O
2 spaces from the A in ALMOND JOY yields M
4 spaces from the G in MR. GOODBAR yields B
5 spaces from the D in DORITOS yields O
3 spaces from the H in SUN CHIPS yields S
Put them all together and you’ve got COMBOS, which this video correctly labels “the world’s best gas station snack.”
Joshua Kosman writes:
Never heard of ’em!
About 20 other solvers said the same. I’ve never heard of never having heard of Combos, and I can’t decide whether I pity or envy these people.
Anyway, Joshua and co-constructor Henri Picciotto have a new Patreon site, where their longtime cryptic crossword series for The Nation resides as of next month. New content coming at their Patreon starting in April; sign up at the link if you’re cryptically inclined.
PATREON SWITCHOVER UPDATE:
1) We’re up to 803 solvers who’ve made the switch over to Patreon! Join them at the link. Thanks to everyone who’s made the jump so far; If you have any trouble with it, please e-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com or via Patreon messaging.
2) Almost done with sending out e-mails to solvers verifying how many months they have left on their MGWCC subscriptions. If you haven’t received yours yet, you’ll get it this weekend. No action required on these e-mails, assuming I have the correct information on the number of months left on your subscription. If I’ve got it wrong, just e-mail me back in response to it.
3) Also this weekend: all refunds due for February will be made by this weekend. I *think* I’ve figured out how to turn payments off for March (it’s a weird workaround required by some weird non-functionalities at Patreon) so nobody should be charged for March, but the backup plan is that everyone is charged for March but immediately has those payments refunded. Trying to avoid that scenario, but I’m glad I have the extra leap day to figure it out with Patreon’s Support team.
4) If you would like to keep solving but truly do not want to have a Patreon account, please e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com) and we can work out alternate payment. I have a list of about 25 solvers who can’t or don’t want to go the Patreon route, and I have a separate mailing list to get the puzzle to them each week. I’m trying to keep this list very small for logistical reasons, though, so please do sign up at Patreon unless you really have strong feelings against it.
That’s it for now. E-mail me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com or via Patreon messaging if you have any questions.
Also note that at the end of February I will begin sending out swag to those who Patreon backers at the $5/$10/$20 levels, and after I get that all out I’ll focus on the 2019 yearly prizes. One thing at a time, but it will all get done, and thanks for bearing with me.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a frequently faced decision.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.