LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Global Search”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a country in Asia that would’ve made a good sixth theme entry.
Answer: MYANMAR, found by 463 solvers, 448 of which were solo solves

Five theme entries last week despite the wee 13×13 grid. They were:

15-A: [Talking non-stop] = YAMMERING AWAY
22-A: [Part of the brain that processes memory] = AMYGDALA
28-A: [Many a Bolivian] = AYMARA SPEAKER
36-A: [World Music pioneer from Peru] = YMA SUMAC
45-A: [1971 Jackson 5 hit] = MAYBE TOMORROW

So we’ve got five of the six A-M-Y permutations beginning these five entries, which strongly hints that our contest answer will begin with that missing trigram. Is there a country starting with MYA? Indeed there is, contest answer MYANMAR, found by 463 solvers, 448 of which were solo solves. I gave the extra hint that the country is in Asia because 1) it was renamed (from “Burma”) in living memory so might be slightly unfamiliar to solvers and 2) It’s Week 1 of 5, so no real stumbling blocks should be present.

Time for things to get slightly tougher…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Today’s puzzle is Week 2 of 5 in May. Instructions: