LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:

Title: “MGWCC #894 — “Back and Forth They Go”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a noted American crossword puzzle writer.
Answer: NATAN LAST, found by 184 solvers, 80 of which were solo solves

Five theme entries in last week’s challenge, so let’s take a look-see there:

17-A: [Actor in the “Spy Kids” movies] = DARYL SABARA
24-A: [Cynthia Nixon’s character on “Sex and the City”] = MIRANDA HOBBES
38-A: [TV character who looks an awful lot like Deacon Frye from the 1980s-90s sitcom “Amen”] = GEORGE JEFFERSON. Since they were both played by Sherman Hemsley.
53-A: [She played Phoenix in 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick”] = MONICA BARBARO
64-A: [“The Beekeeper” actor, 2024] = JEREMY IRONS

Now what do we notice? With a nudge from the title, you might discover that you can replace each of these surnames with a palindromic surname to get a famous person. Like so:

DARYL HANNAH
MIRANDA OTTO
GEORGE SOROS
MONICA SELES
JEREMY RENNER

Gotta be the right track, but the next step was tricky! It was: find each of these new surnames hidden in a clue:

72-A: [It’s stronger than “nah” or “nope”] = NEVER
9-D: [Away from the bottom of a map] = NORTH
28-A: [They’re less prestigious than Grammys or Oscars, briefly] = AMAS (that’s American Music Awards)
48-D: [Senseless hatred] = ANIMUS
31-A: [Children nervous about Pre-K, say] = TOTS

Put those in grid order and you get also palindromic NATAN, suggesting the contest answer. Sorry Bob Klahn (RIP), Anna Shechtman, and future crossword writer Ada Gaffney! NATAN’s name worked best this time.

Note also that Natan has a new hardcover book coming out in November titled: “Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle.” I also note in passing that Natan and I share a birthday (November 13th). I wish I could say we also shared the year but I’m sure Natan is glad that we don’t.

Week 4 of 4 in July beckons! Here we go…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s 7-word contest answer is something meta-writers try to do every week.

Good luck!
–Matt