LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “One or Two?”
Prompt: This puzzle’s contest answer is what you’ll get from me if you get it right.
Answer: KUDOS found by 201 solvers, 96 of which were solo solves

“One or Two?” is the title, but let’s start with five instead — those five being our theme entries:

17-A: [“Two’s company…” ruiner] = THIRD WHEEL
27-A: [Party like a rock star] = WHOOP IT UP
40-A: [Words before a hot take] = MY GUT REACTION IS
50-A: [See if it’ll be worth it] = DO THE MATH
60-A: [U.S. Secretary of Transportation, 2017-2021] = ELAINE CHAO

Now what? Key insight is: each of these entries contains a word that radically changes meaning when an “s” is attached to the end:

WHEEL –> wheels = slang for “car”
WHOOP –> whoops = something you say when you’ve messed up
GUT –> guts = courage
DO –> dos = Spanish for “two”
CHAO — chaos = turmoil

Now what? Answer: find a clue that each of these five new words can satisfy. They are:

WHEELS: 59-D: [Ride around town, maybe] = KIA
WHOOPS: 41-D: [“That was a mistake…”] = UH-OH
GUTS: 1-D: [Courage] = DARING
DOS:71-A: [Number in Nicaragua] = ONCE
CHAOS: 12-D: [Out-of-control situation] = SNAFU

The first letters of those five newly-clued entries spell contest answer KUDOS, another singular-that-looks like a plural. Like “chaos” it’s from the Greek, hence the -os ending.

Golem says:

When one kudo just isn’t enough…

I’m sure we can all empathize with the rabbit hole Evan fell into:

I’m completely astounded how this puzzle has a nasty trap that’s a seemingly one-in-a-million coincidence: All five theme answers have exactly two letters that appear twice where all other letters are unique. I could see that happening randomly with maybe two theme answers … but all five? And (especially) MY GUT REACTION IS??? I got seriously stuck here for days because there’s no way that could have been an accident, could it?

Voice-over: “It could have been, and indeed was.”

And finally, BirdLives has a scoring request:

Not a solo solve, so give me only one kudo.

Your kudo has been awarded, sir. And now we’re on to Week 4 of 5…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle’s contest answer is something associated with Christmas.

Good luck!

–Matt