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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Turn On the Radio” by Peter Gwinn
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is an 11-letter phrase.
Answer: MIXED SIGNAL
Correct entries: 195, of which 85 were solo solves

Big thanks to Peter Gwinn for filling in last week after my doubly-delayed Week 4 still wouldn’t agree to work out for me. Update: I finally did get wrangle it into shape, so it will appear later this month!

Excellent Week 4 numbers, so what was the idea? First, notice some suggestively-phrased clues, specifically:

7-A: [Side this answer would be on, if you rotated the grid 90 degrees clockwise] Could just be a whimsical clue, or it could be a nudge.

28-D: [What an O looks like, if you fill it in] = DOT. In all my years of crosswording, I have never seen DOT clued thusly. Probably a hint!

And then, if you were super-eagle eyed and also a clairvoyant, the omega-across clue:

67-A: [Mystery author Colin who created Inspector Morse] = DEXTER. The hint there is “Morse,” but likely too subtle to be helpful in a vacuum.

But what about that DOT clue, and the suggestion to rotate the grid? Eagle-eyed solvers noticed a message in MORSE code emerging, as illustated in the above graphic. I’s in the grid turned on their sides resemble dashes, and if you filled in those O’s as nudged they’d resemble Morse dots. 4 of the 15 grid rows contain nary an I nor an O, leaving 11 that do — which is also the number of letters in the contest answer. Translating those 11 rows into letters spells out our contest answer.

Mikey G says:

Of Morse I loved this puzzle!

Tyler Hinman predicts:

The perfect-year dream will surely die soon, but not this month.

thanman2 says:

Nice! Surprisingly coherent fill given the limitations imposed by the meta.

And finally, Mom writes:

Did you know that you can take the first letters of all radio related entries and unscramble them to get SECULARISED? Instead, you should use Morse Code.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle’s contest answer is how many years old my daughter turns today, as illustrated in *each* of the four theme entries (i.e. don’t add them up!)

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