LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “Sound Alternatives”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a six-letter word.
Answer: CARBON, found by 139 solvers, of which 37 were solo solves

A nice Week 5, if I do say so myself (and I guess I just did). Two of its three steps were both novel and interesting, which is about all you can ask of a tough meta!

First thing to notice is some odd aspects of the grid before you even solve: a) it’s asymmetric and 21×21; b) six entries are starred, and they’re all long downs; c) those long downs are strangely placed, with four of them scrunched so tightly together on the right that a pair of 8’s traverse all four of them. Why not use more of the grid’s territory? Must be a reason.

Insight #1: the six starred entries are single words that are exactly six syllables long. Simple, but surprisingly tough to notice. We’re always counting letters and looking for hidden words, but how often to do we think to count syllables? The title was a hint to this first step. Six entries with exactly six syllables each so we’re probably on the right track.

Insight #2: The clue numbers for these six entries consist only of exactly two numerals, and only the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are used. Big grid so the clues ran well into the 100s, but none of those were theme and none of the 1-9-numbered clues were theme. Also, no 7, 8, 9, or 0 in the six starred clues’ numbers. A second “unlikely to be a coincidence” moment! Again, I was quite pleased with these two first steps, and anecdotally solvers seemed to get a nice Aha! when they sussed these out.

Insight #3: Take the syllables matching with the clue numbers to form a word that can clue another entry in the grid. More standard than the first two, but still nice. For example, take syllables 1 and 2 (because clue number 12) from PHYSIOTHERAPY at 12-down to get “fizzy,” which would work for the clue [Like seltzer water and Sprite]. The answer there was CLEAR, yielding the C for what became contest answer CARBON. See graphic from Gridmaster T under the grid for the others.

Sound those out and you get contest answer CARBON, relevant because the number 6 is our running theme of this puzzle (six theme words, six syllables each, six letters in the contest answer) and Carbon’s atomic number is indeed 6.

Now the reason for the unusual placement of theme entries in the grid is clear: they needed specific clue numbers! Reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes story “The Red-Headed League,” where the criminals went to great lengths to achieve a simple goal.

I like this one more and more the more I look at it. Hope you did as well! I always get some pushback for a sound-based meta and I got a little here, but 98 of the first 100 entrants got CARBON so there was nothing derailing in there. Chapter LXXVII of solvers wanting to restrict what’s permissible in a meta vs. constructors wanting to expand it! Both sides acting in rational self-interest, of course.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
No instructions given here since there are instructions-free solving options this week.