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Prompt: This week’s contest answer is one of the five people nominated for Best Director at the upcoming Academy Awards.
Answer: EMERALD FENNELL
Correct entries: 750 overall, 730 of which were solo
Four famous names comprised our theme last week:
18-A: [Desegregation icon who visited President Obama in the White House in 2011] = RUBY BRIDGES
28-A: [Pilot who published her memoir “West with the Night” in 1942] = BERYL MARKHAM. Exhilarating book which I read as a teenager.
47-A: [She played the title role in “Joan of Arcadia”] = AMBER TAMBLYN
62-A: [She won a Tony Award in 1968 for “Hello, Dolly!”] = PEARL BAILEY
And then at 71-A: [Metaphor for an excellent movie (and a hint to this puzzle’s theme)] = GEM. So let’s take a look at our five Best Director nominees and see who else has got a gemmy first name. Chloé (Zhao), David (Fincher), Lee (Isaac Chung), and Thomas (Vinterberg) aren’t gems, so it must be the English actress and director with the rather Dickensian name of EMERALD FENNELL, found by 750 solvers.
Bird Lives says:
That’s my fennell answer.
That’s an awful pun.
Megan Amram writes:
I feel as smart as Agate-tha Christie
OK, that’s even worse.
TRidgway notes:
I enjoyed every facet of this puzzle.
Seriously, stop.
Pundog obliges:
Of quartz!
Moving right along…the great Amy Reynaldo notes:
In other gem filmmaking news, Director LEE (EEL backwards) Daniels helmed “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
And finally, marpocky says:
I assume you decided using her sister DIAMOND in the grid was too direct?
Hardy-har-har. Emerald Fennell’s sister is actually named Coco, but their mother is named…Beryl! What are the odds?
2020 GROUP PRIZE WINNERS:
It’s now time to announce our Group MGWCC prize winners for 2020!
GOLD GROUP:
Congratulations to our 2020 Group Gold Medalists, who got all 52 of last year’s puzzles correct:
Megan Amram — Los Angeles, Calif.
Alan Arbizu — Foster City, Calif.
Alex Bourzutschky — Menlo Park, Calif.
Matt Breen — Madison, Wisc.
Eric Conrad — Peaks Island, Me.
Jared Dashoff — Alexandria, Va.
Zen Dexter — Kellyville, NSW, Australia
Adam Doctoroff — Brookline, Mass.
Meg Duvall — St. Petersburg, Fla.
Gideon Fostick — Givat Shmuel, Israel
Toby Golick — New York City, N.Y.
Justin Graham — Oakland, Calif.
Peter Gwinn — Chicago, Ill.
Kathy J. — Alameda, Calif.
Bill Katz — San Rafael, Calif.
Heather Kennedy — Austin, Tex.
Eric Klis — St. Louis Park, Minn.
Chris Kochmanski — Saline, Mich.
Jesse Lansner — Rochester, N.Y.
Craig Mazin — La Canada, Calif.
Patricia Miga — Grapevine, Tex.
Rachel Parsons — Chappaqua, N.Y.
RPardoe — Houston, Tex.
Tom Tabanao — San Jose, Calif.
Cindy Weatherman — Matthews, N.C.
Max Woghiren — Oshawa, Ont.
Cynthia Wong
Leslie Yonce — Richmond, Va.
And now for our 2020 Group Silver Medalists, who got 50 or 51 of 2020’s metas:
SILVER GROUP:
Peter Abide — Biloxi, Miss.
Deepak Bal — Verona, N.J.
Laura Braunstein — Lebanon, N.H.
Ethan Budin — Deerfield, Ill.
Mike Chinberg — Simpsonville, Ky.
Lisa Cope — Mason, O.
Daniel Echt — Mapleville, R.I.
Yossi Fendel — Berkeley, Calif.
Peter Gordon — Great Neck, N.Y.
Katie Hamill — Arlington, Mass.
Simon Henriques — Brooklyn, N.Y.
Ben Jones — Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
Brian Kell — Munich, Germany
Jeremy Koenig — Washington, D.C.
Nathaniel Lee — Pleasanton, Calif.
Tom Moosbrugger — Cincinnati, O.
Rich Novo — Andover, Mass.
Erich Prestemon — Woodside, Calif.
Brett Rose — Chicago, Ill.
Marcia Rose — Mequon, Wisc.
Al Sanders — Plymouth, Mass.
Alex Sisti — Whitesboro, N.Y.
David Stein — Silver Spring, Md.
Coreen Steinbach — Pompey, N.Y.
BRONZE GROUP:
And finally, here’s to our 2020 Group Bronze Medalists, who got 48 or 49 of 2020’s metas:
Greg Anderson — Madison, Wisc.
Steve Blais — Maidstone, Ont.
CanNibble
Andrew Foerster — Morrisville, N.C.
Lily Geller — Brooklyn, N.Y.
Tina Lippman — Newburgh, Ind.
Scout Mitchell — Bellingham, Wash.
Jill Palmer — Leverett, Mass.
Anna-Marie Ruoff — Scottsdale, Ariz.
Congratulations to all of our 2020 Group Medalists! Teamwork pays off!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a kind of talk that’s best kept private.