LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “You Can Say That Again”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a four-letter word.
Answer: JINX, found by 547 solvers, of which 533 were solo solves

99.4% success rate for solvers, so a true Week 1 of 5. Not-even-close-to-symmetric grid, so must’ve been a lot of stress on it! Some long entries were theme and some weren’t; the key was noticing that four pairs of entries had exactly the same clue, and always a quote:

16-A and 6-D: [“I’m soooo glad to hear this…” [eyeroll]]

Answers there were the sarcastic THAT’S JUST GREAT and OH, JOY

34-A and 25-D: [“Time for me to throw in the towel”] = YOU WIN and I GIVE

36-A and 28-D: [“Enjoy the meal!”] = DIG IN and BON APPETIT

58-A and 48-D: [“Send that info my way when you can”] = FAX IT OVER and TEXT ME

Now what? Notice that each of these pairs cross each other in the grid. The first two at the J in JUST and JOY, the second pair at the I in WIN and GIVE, the third pair at the N in IN and BON, and the last pair at the X in FAX and TEXT. Those spell out contest answer JINX, fitting since the speakers in the two quotes said the same thing.

docison writes:

Wonder if anyone else will submit in the exact same instant I do!

They did not! You are safe.

Laura M says:

I guess I owe you a Coke?

Andrew A says:

Where do we send the cokes?

And finally, Thurman8r says:

You owe me a coke.

What?? I wrote the puzzle way before you said “Jinx”! And thanks to Gridmaster J for the above solution graphic.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle’s contest answer is an American athlete who has won many medals at the Summer Olympics.

Good luck!