LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Just State the Facts”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a five-letter place name.
Answer: MAINE
Correct entries: 657 overall, of which 636 were solo solves

99.3 percent success rate for solvers last week! A true Week 1. To get there they had to travel to four continents:

17-A: [Large state that’s also a small dog] = CHIHUAHUA. The smallest dog breed and the largest state of Mexico, as the joonmeister pointed out.

23-A: [State where the 2032 Summer Olympics will be held] = QUEENSLAND. Brisbane to be exact; do you know how to pronounce that city’s name? Hint: it rhymes with Portugal’s capital.

37-A: [State where former world chess champion (2007-2013) Viswanathan Anand was born] = TAMIL NADU. If I could have a few beers with any living person, Anand would be on my shortlist. Fascinating person and it pained me a bit to see Carlsen beat him for the world title in 2013 but the time had come. A chess friend recently paid $150 for a few improve-your-game recommendations from Anand on Cameo (cheap!) and it was fascinating (watched it 4 times). OK, I’ll stop now.

54-A: [State named for its dominant geographical feature, which empties into the Gulf of Guinea] = CROSS RIVER. Also, at 10 letters, the longest Nigerian state name.

60-A: [State named for its location in relation to Addis Ababa] = SOUTH WEST

What now? It’s Week 1, so just take the countries those where those states are located — MEXICO, AUSTRALIA, INDIA, NIGERIA, ETHIOPIA — and you’ve got MAINE.

What makes Maine unique? Just ask the commenters at Crossword Fiend. Milo’s comment is mind-blowing; I had no idea that was true, and it would’ve been about my 12th guess.

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR BEN CHENOWETH:

Today’s meta is by guest constructor Ben Chenoweth, who posts a weekly feature called Metas on a Tuesday (MOAT) here as well as here. His personal webpage is here.

Ben was born and raised in Australia, and lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, with his wife and two children for almost ten years. Currently, he lives in Melbourne, Australia, and teaches computing, mathematics, media, and Christian studies at Donvale Christian College. He enjoys reading, writing, music, playing computer games, and constructing meta crosswords in equal measures. He has a particular interest in the intersection between theology and the arts, and has written three novels of historical fiction, a play based on the life of Saul, and a musical based on the book of Esther.

Thanks, Ben! And note that I’ve left the Australian spellings in his clues as they were. They’re not meta-related; I just wanted to keep the puzzle in his voice.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is something you might eat in bed.

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