IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2015 MGWCC is a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe (or get a free trial month first) here:
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
To my surprise, last week’s puzzle was the lowest-rated MGWCC of the year! I thought it was a slightly amusing and certainly non-controversial meta, but the correct answer didn’t click strongly with a too-large number of solvers. Aside from a paper cut, this is about the worst thing that can happen with a meta. Add to this an undercommunication about difficulty level and we got an unfortunate number of perturbed solvers.
We were looking for a well-known literary work, and the theme entries spell out the challenge:
SHAKESPEARE PLAY / WHOSE NAME HIDES A / FITTING CREATURE
My intended answer, found by 248 solvers, was TWELFTH NIGHT, in which is concealed an ELF. Fittingly, I thought, since both elves and the title “Twelfth Night” are associated with Christmas.
But besides the weaker-than-normal click on “elf,” this was also an easier-than-normal Week 3, so I put a note in the blog last week advising solvers not to expect a tough meta. I’d forgotten that not everyone reads the blog before solving, though, so some solvers were not armed with that information and rejected elf/TWELFTH NIGHT as being too easy an answer.
Long and cringe-inducing comments section here; from the cringing you know I take seriously the meta constructor-meta solver bond of trust, and agonize on those thankfully rare occasions when I breach it!
There were several plausible alternate answers submitted by solvers which I will look at and, if necessary, send to the panel next week. I’ll report back here then with any non-ELF answers that made the grade.
This week’s winner, whose name was chosen randomly from among the 248 correct entries received, is N.N. In addition to a MGWCC pen, pencil and notepad set, N.N. will also receive a 1-year subscription to MGDX.
RENEWAL TIME:
The first year of subscribers-only MGWCC was a big success from my view, and I hope yours as well. All renewal notices will be out by Jan. 1; if you haven’t received one by then, please let me know. Hope to see you in 2016!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is a living, Oscar-nominated actress who would’ve made a good sixth theme entry in this puzzle.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.
IMPORTANT NOTE: As of January 2015 MGWCC is a subscribers-only crossword. The cost is $26 per year, and you can subscribe (or get a free trial month first) here: