LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Week 2 of 5”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is something you won’t need to solve this meta.
Answer: MATH, found by 411 solvers, 381 of which were solo solves

Unusual title, using a phrase you’d normal expect to see in the instructions! So let’s take a look at our four grid-spanning theme entries first:

17-A: [“Take your time”] = HASTE MAKES WASTE

26-A: [Canada’s nickname, with “The”] = GREAT WHITE NORTH

47-A: [WNBA MVP of 2015 and 2019] = ELENA DELLE DONNE. Coincidentally this was also a grid-spanning theme entry in the Muller Monthly Music Meta last week! And I hadn’t looked at Pete’s puzzle until after mine had already run, so a true coincidence.

61-A: [Santana hit of 1970] = BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

So these are all 15-letter entries comprised of three five-letter words. With a nudge from the title, let’s look at the second letter of each of those fivers:

HASTE MAKES WASTE
GREAT WHITE NORTH
ELENA DELLE DONNE
BLACK MAGIC WOMAN

Those spell AAA, RHO, LEO, and LAO, all cluable (and common) crossword entries. Unlikely to be a coincidence! So now what?

Answer: Look for a clue in the grid that each of these three-letter answers could satisfy. They are, in order of their 15-letter theme entry:

68-A: [Letters for excellent hitters and pitchers] = MLB, but could also be AAA (since Triple-A players are also excellent)
66-A: [Greek letter] = ALPHA, but could also be RHO
22-A: [Zodiac sign] = TAURUS, but could also be LEO
14-A: [Language of Southeast Asia] = HMONG, but could also be LAO

The first four letters of our alternate answers spell contest answer MATH, which you didn’t really need despite the numbery title.

MLB
ALPHA
TAURUS
HMONG

Evan says:

I’ve had Calvin & Hobbes on the brain lately, so when I saw the meta told me I wouldn’t need math to solve it, I immediately thought of this classic strip

markta writes:

As a math teacher, I support this puzzle.

Same with David Stein, another math teacher:

Yay math!!

Sara Dacus got it:

AFTER JUMBO INSPO!

We see what you did there, both levels of it…

And finally, rkval disputes the no-math-required meta answer claim:

Well, we did have to count up to 2.

I stand corrected! On to Week 3 of 5….

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Good luck!

–Matt