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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Pitch Perfect”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a celebrity in the news.
Answer: PELE
Correct entries: 634, dos quais 623 foram soluções individuais

Thought I might trip up a few people who’d answer MESSI without solving in a race to be first, but alas no one fell for it. That was of course the great PELE running across our four theme entries:

16-A: [Wastes of time and energy] = HOPELESS CAUSES
28-A: [Justin Trudeau called one in 2021] = SNAP ELECTION
44-A: [Fancy term for a caver] = SPELEOLOGIST. From the same root as the more familiar “spelunker”.
57-A: [Force someone to testify] = COMPEL EVIDENCE

Really wanted to sneak GRAPE LEAVES in there to cover every splitting possibility + unsplit, but a grid can only hold so much.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer, which is 7 letters long, is what I hope you’ll find this meta to be.

NOTE: Due to the late post, the deadline for this week’s contest is Wednesday, January 18th, at noon ET.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.