LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “MGWCC #915 — “Triple Entente” by Paul Coulter
Prompt: This puzzle’s contest answer is a quality you’ll need to solve it.
Answer: MOXIE, found by 213 solvers, 124 of which were solo solves

SAD (Simple and Difficult) meta by Paul Coulter last week! Our five theme entries were:

17-A: [Yellow-skinned apple] = GOLDEN DELICIOUS
23-A: [Cruises close to a coast] = HUGS THE SHORE
40-A: [Parts of parents’ bedtime routine] = GOODNIGHT KISSES
52-A: [Tyke’s transport] = THREE-WHEELER
63-A: [Feminist prequel to “Jane Eyre”] = WIDE SARGASSO SEA

What’s the common bond? Each of these contains a word that suggests a three-letter trigram using all the same letter:

DELICIOUS = MMM
HUGS = OOO
KISSES = XXX
THREE = III
WIDE = EEE (as in shoes)

Put those together and you’ve got MOXIE, found by just 213 solvers. A classic SAD (Simple and Difficult) meta. Thanks, Paul!

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle’s contest answer is a 5-letter proper name.