XWord Muggles Forum

MGWCC #825 — Saturday, March 23rd, 2024 — “Take a Little Off the Sides”

Dear Solver,

258 of you found the answer to last week's challenge. Read about it here.


Today's puzzle is Week 4 of 5 in March.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This puzzle's contest answer is a Top 10 hit of the early 1990s.

NOTE: Due to the late post, the entry deadline for this week's puzzle is Wednesday, March 27th at Noon ET.

This week’s contest answer a Top 10 hit of the early 1990s.


2023 MGWCC MEDALISTS:

The following solvers puzzled out the answer to between 47 and 51 of 2023’s MGWCC Metas. Each will receive a MGWCC pen and notepad set.

2023 GOLD MEDALISTS:

The following two solvers were unstumpable in 2023, going 51-for-51 on MGWCC’s. Wow!

Jeffrey Harris — Nashville, Tenn.

Bennett Washburn — Aurora, Colo.

2023 SILVER MEDALISTS:

The following sixteen solvers got 49 or 50 of 2023’s 51 metas. Not easy to pull off, but they did it!

Rich Bragg — Los Altos, Calif.

Ameet Brahmavar — Vancouver, Wash.

Neville Fogarty — Newport News, Va.

Mike Graczyk — Chicago, Ill.

Hector — San Francisco, Calif.

Travis Hime — New York City, N.Y.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Jeremy Horwitz — San Francisco, Calif.

Jasters — Seattle, Wash.

B.K.

J.M.

A.M.

A.S.

J.S.

Vraal

P.Y.

2023 BRONZE MEDALISTS:

The following solvers found 47 or 48 of last year’s meta answers. Much respect!

David Bael — Minneapolis, Minn.

Andy Nelson — Baton Rouge, La.

DJB — Sydney, Australia

Rich Pardoe — Houston, Tex.

Jason Rau — Campbell, Calif.

David Squire — Flagstaff, Ariz.

Maggie Wittlin — New York City, N.Y.

Congrats to all our winners! Your prizes are on their way.


NEGRONI’S COCKTAILS:

Bumping this from last week since I posted it late *and* because it’s getting rave reviews from solvers:

Attention cryptic crossword fans: Martin Reinfried has a new Patreon up called “Negroni’s Cocktails.” It’s a series of six variety cryptic crosswords in 2024, one every two months, each with a meta. There is also a final meta for the entire year. Check it out!


--Matt

This was a fun one...savoring the bronze medal! Now...back to the brackets!

On board at number 11. Seems to be playing rather difficult.

Got there with help of the Discord crew. Would have been tough solo.

ETA: amazing puzzle

One of Matt's best!

Congrats to all the supersolvers! I'm on at #17, just in time for Mikey's and some spring training baseball.

With a little help from my friends (not the meta answer) on Disqus… but still a ton of work. Probably would have gotten there on my own, but there would have been zero time left this weekend for much else! ( : Awaiting beam.

Meg wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 2:24 pm Congrats to all the supersolvers! I'm on at #17, just in time for Mikey's and some spring training baseball.

I didn't know you were a baseball fan! What's your team??

Waiting for the beam!

Does anyone know a way to see how many puzzles you solved in 2023? I'm honestly surprised mine was evidently less than 47, I only remember whiffing one week. But I trust Matt's stats more than my colander of a brain!

Were yours all "solo" solves? Maybe he filters for that. Actually I think he must, because there are folks with longer than 51-week streaks who are not on the lists.

schmidzy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:11 pm Waiting for the beam!

Does anyone know a way to see how many puzzles you solved in 2023? I'm honestly surprised mine was evidently less than 47, I only remember whiffing one week. But I trust Matt's stats more than my colander of a brain!

Awaiting beam! Got initial 59-Across from the discord crew and finally figured out what I needed to do, though it still took me a while to find everything.
Great puzzle!

ETA: Beamed at #28

MMe wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:17 pm Were yours all "solo" solves? Maybe he filters for that. Actually I think he must, because there are folks with longer than 51-week streaks who are not on the lists.

schmidzy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:11 pm Waiting for the beam!

Does anyone know a way to see how many puzzles you solved in 2023? I'm honestly surprised mine was evidently less than 47, I only remember whiffing one week. But I trust Matt's stats more than my colander of a brain!

Entirely possible! I don't recall how many weeks I took a nudge last year. Now I know there's notepads on the line, maybe I'll be more strict this year...

Awaiting beam but it must be..... Loved this puzzle. happy weekend all

Okay Matt now you're just showing off.

I was in the right church but the wrong pew. I needed direction from a couple of Discord ushers. That plus help from Google. Probably not too many others around here are similarly unfamiliar with the song.

And once again, I marvel at the congruence of mechanism and answer, week after week.

Great puzzle Matt.

Awaiting the beam... [Not wanting to spend ages on this puzzle, I peeked at Discord just long enough to get a nudge in the right direction!]

... and I'm beamed at #56.

There is nothing worse than seeing the mechanism and still being unable to make it come together. Of course my total lack of knowledge concerning pop hits of the 90's doesn't help. Plod on......

Submitted...

EDIT: ...and

*sigh*

I just can't anymore with his late-month ones.