LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Opening Number”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is how old my mother turns today.
Answer: 86, found by 229 solvers, 149 of which were solo solves

Using “86” as a verb is a few decades past being in common parlance, but I guess I was so taken with “86” having any special meaning at all that I decided it was a sign to use it as the hook for the MGWCC that fell on my Mom’s 86th B-Day. That’s her with Ada in the pic, getting ready to go over to her party.

15-A: [Boycott’s cousin] = CANCEL CULTURE
26-A: [1998 Disney/Pixar hit] = A BUG’S LIFE
34-A: [Phone game that delivers all the stress and tension of restaurant work, yet people still play it] = DINER DASH
45-A: [It’s been bestowed upon Celine Dion, Mike Myers, and Alex Trebek] = ORDER OF CANADA

With a nudge from the title, successful metapuzzlers noticed that the first words of these entries spell CANCEL A DINER ORDER. The plausible age for my Mom here is “86,” meaning an order is out of stock or the customer has changed their mind and doesn’t want it after all.

There are several theories as to the origin of this term. The most entertaining is this one:

Author Jef Klein theorized that the bar Chumley’s at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village of Lower Manhattan was the source. His book The History and Stories of the Best Bars of New York claims that the police would call Chumley’s bar during Prohibition before making a raid and tell the bartender to “86” his customers, meaning that they should exit out the 86 Bedford Street door, while the police would come to the Pamela Court entrance.

Anyway, if you didn’t know this term then the meta was probably not gonna work, even with Google. So perhaps not ideal.

Burak writes:

To solve this, I had to go to your Wiki page, look at your age, figure out that your mom is probably in her eighties, then look at the theme answers and see anything that can be related to it. Dawned on me really late but still in time! Happy birthday to her!

Not the intended path, but he got there…

Lyle W. says:

I like this answer because my mom turned 86 last month

On the 10th? If so our Moms are b-day twins.

Tyler Hinman writes:

Took me friggin’ long enough.

OK bro but can you please not cuss around my Mom? Thx.

And finally, Megan Amram writes:

I’m going to be honest: I saw CANCEL A DINER ORDER only after I stalked your mother Elizabeth Gaffney of Staunton, VA on the internet and found that her birthday was April 1940 lololol #SorryIStalkedYourMom

Cool. Hey, anyone know a good locksmith in Staunton? Or how to file a restraining order in Virginia? #legaladvice

Week 3 time…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

Today’s puzzle is Week 3 of four in April. Instructions:

This puzzle’s contest answer is a geographical region of the United States. Good luck!

–Matt