LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Following Directions”by Will Nediger
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a one-syllable word.
Answer: SLIDE, found by 174 solvers, 54 of which were solo solves

Lovely and SAD (Simple and Difficult) Week 5 from Will Nediger last week.

Step 1: Notice that there are very few of two very common letters in this grid: just 2 L’s and 3 R’s. Could be something with left-right, so let’s see what’s happening there.

Step 2: Notice that if you move the L to the left a bit in the two “L”-words and the R to the right a bit in the three “R” words, you get another valid entry:

15-A: BIKE LANE –> move the L two spaces leftward and you get cartoonist BIL KEANE
19-A: WREATHE –> move the R five spaces rightward and you get WEATHER
36-A: BREAD –> move the R one space rightward and you get BEARD
57-A: INKLING –> move the L two spaces leftward and you get LINKING
61-A: SCRANTON –> move the R 3 spaces rightward and you get SCANTRON

Gotta be the right track, but now what?

Step 3: find a clue that could also work for these answers. Like so, from Gridmaster T:

Those give you SIDLE, but that’s not a one-syllable word. What now? Final step: do the theme trick again! Move that L to the left for contest answer SLIDE. And you did SLIDE that letter over!

Eckless says:

Really well done puzzle – love the “L” moving again in the final answer!

gpagano writes:

Elegant mechanism with an apropos finish. Nice one Will!

BenChen71 liked it too:

Another stunning meta from Will.

And finally, JasonT thought this meta was:

Crevel!

Agreed. From now on, whenever you like a meta you have to call it “crevel.”

Thanks again to Will; now, on to Week 5-to-Week-l deceleration in difficulty…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS: