LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Count to J”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter word that appears in one of this puzzle’s clues.
Answer: YEESH
Correct entries: 217 overall, of which 112 were solo solves
Was this a SAD (Simple And Difficult) meta? Let me give it the explain-the-meta-in-two-not-ridiuclously-long sentences test:
Assign a letter to each of the four words in the theme entries based on its place in the alphabet. Then find the five-letter grid entry whose first four letters matched those extracted from the theme entries. The last (i.e., unused) letters of those four spell Y-E-E-S; do the theme trick one more time to spell YEESH, found in the clue to 8-Down.
OK, so not quite SAD, but SAD-dish. I had guessed 371 correct and Consigliere had guessed 409, and when the five first entries all came in by 12:15 those guesses looked pretty solid:
But that’s a pretty formidable quintet whose quick solves did not in fact portend broader success for our tribe. Things slowed quickly to a trickle after that, and we wound up with just 112 solo solves for the entire 96 hours. Some Week 3s are tougher than others, and this one was that.
Peter Gordon’s A to Z Mini-Crosswords:
9 days to go on the Kickstarter for Peter Gordon‘s A-to-Z “Petite Pangram” puzzles. I backed for $52 which means I got to choose a word in one of the grids.I forget what I picked but it was something obnoxious like ZZZZZZZZZZZ just to make him work for it. Anyway, these are great fun so consider pledging.
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
NOTE: Due to the late post, the deadline for solving today’s meta is 4:00 PM ET on Tuesday, May 31st.
This week’s contest answer is a famous athlete whose name is 12 letters long.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.