Title: “One More Time”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a word that’s usually shouted.
Answer: FORE, found by 462 solvers, of which 431 were solo solves

Novel concept, though a little on the “crunchy” (i.e., tough) side for a Week 1. Our four theme entries were:

16-A: [Goolagong, Rybakina, or Agassi, e.g.] = WIMBLEDON WINNER

24-A: [Oregon, Hawaii, or Indiana, e.g.] = STATE OF THE U.S.

44-A: [Coolio, Halsey, or Eminem, e.g.] = ONE-NAMED STAR

56-A: [Crowe, Abraham, or Gable, e.g.] = BEST ACTOR WINNER. A little weird to dupe “winner” from the first themer but I couldn’t find a way around it.

What now? The key is to wonder: why those three examples in each case, when there were so many to choose from? Must be some logic to it…and there is! Check out the first letters of each trio, and 24-A especially gives the game away: you add one letter to the end of those three initials to get another valid member of the category. Like so:

16-A: G, R, A + F = Steffi GRAF, another Wimbledon champ
24-A: O, H, I + O = OHIO, another U.S. state
44-A: C, H, E + R = CHER, another one-named star
56-A: C, A, G + E = Nicolas CAGE, another Best Actor winner

Put those together and you’ve got contest answer FORE!, found by 462 solvers. Fitting not because you’ve just struck a golf ball in a haphazard manner, but because you’ve just four #4 of our four theme sets.

MajordomoTom says:

would love to be out playing 18 today in the 50 degree fog

I imagine foggy golf leads to lots of “fore!” shouting.

jmiz says:

have a great weekend

Thanks, I did — we took Tilghman and Ada down to lovely Roanoke, Va. for Ada’s 3rd birthday:

And Ben Kramer writes:

Please trumpet the virtues of anyone who solved this one downs-only.

This turned out to be impossible using downs-only, which irked solvers who tried it that way. I intend the extra solving options (downs-only, no instructions, and downs-only/no instructions) to be a fun thing that adds some zip to easy Week 1’s for those who want it, but this turned out to be irritating for those who tried it downs-only since you need the Across theme clues to make any sense at all of what’s going on.

Not sure what the remedy is; if I say “no downs-only this week” then that’s pretty hinty. Any ideas?

On to Week 2…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a Best Actress Oscar winner of the 1980s.

Note: due to the delayed post, the entry deadline this week is Wednesday, February 14th at noon ET.

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