XWord Muggles Forum

MGWCC #751 - Saturday, October 22nd, 2022 - "Tales from Decrypt"

GUEST CONSTRUCTOR COLLAB:





This week’s puzzle is a collaboration with the great Jeff Chen. Jeff wears many hats in the crossword universe: he is first and foremost a top-level constructor who won my old Crossword of the Month award twice in the three years it ran, and was nominated many other times.

He’s also an author, who took over the outstanding site xwordinfo.com from Jim Horne after Jim stepped down from his lead role there a few years ago. Jeff blogs the New York Times crossword there every day, with insights that only a top-tier constructor can give. Imagine Wes Anderson writing weekly movie reviews…that’s pretty close.

He’s also a mentor, having collaborated with an incredible number of constructors, both experienced and just-getting-started. As you can see here, he’s by far the person who’s co-written the most NYT crosswords with another constructor.

In non-crossword life, Jeff lives in Seattle with kiddos Tess and Jake and wife Jill, with whom he has also collaborated on a number of NYT puzzles. And finally. he’s also an accomplished author of young adult novels such as this.

Glad to add my name to the list of Jeff’s coauthors! Here’s what we came up with…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is what you might find the META ANSWER to be.

NOTE: Contest deadline for this puzzle is Wednesday, October 26th at noon ET. Since I’m announcing this deadline very late, please e-mail me (crosswordcontest@gmail.com) if you rushed an incorrect solution because you thought the deadline was Tuesday at noon.


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


WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CROSSWORD CONTEST?:
MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page.
A subscription costs $3/month.

Darn. I was hoping to get a start on this during the Yankees' travel day.

If you're already done with Matt's WSJ contest puzzle, I just posted my monthly meta. (Was scheduled for yesterday, but I didn't finish it until this AM and I never want to post mine anytime near when MGWCC comes out, so I was wondering what to do... Until the MGWCC postponement email hit my inbox.)

http://www.lexicondevil.live/2022/10/go ... ntest.html

Looks like a lot of West Coasters will be starting this puzzle late.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 1:17 pm Looks like a lot of West Coasters will be starting this puzzle late.

I was just thinking this; even the noon Saturday ones are too early for me! How about a midnight (9 PM PT) release once in a while? :-)

Laura, you are my kind of person. I’m a retired night owl and even the normal time is borderline early for me.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:12 pm Laura, you are my kind of person. I’m a retired night owl and even the normal time is borderline early for me.

Night owls for the win!

(Also, please tell your Yankees to beat those Astros.)

They are not a team built for the post season. Their hitters feast on bad pitching and struggle against good pitchers. As you get into the post season all you see is good pitchers.

Got this one nice and early. Loved it!

I can't enter my answer -- what gives?

Never mind; just saw it in my email.

Solved in 32 minutes! Wow! Never happen this fast with a week 3. (Well, I think I have at least!)

The Leader board is updating now.

1-Across for now. Hope it holds with the web issues - I had to keep refreshing until I got an entry form.

Beam me up, Matty!

For some reason, I found this one... I'm not going to use the 'E' word. So never mind.

Edit: #22. Definitely my best showing. Not sure how that happened!

Also, the more I think about it, the more impressed I am with the construction.

That was a lot of fun! Awaiting the beam. Week 3 or 3.5, I'd say.

Now, come on Phillies and Yankees!!

I emailed mine in before the website was fixed, so I'm eager to see where I end up on the leaderboard (assuming I got it right).

Fun one. On the board at #56

Loved it! Board hasn't updated but I hope to beam up soon.

Edit: It looks like there hasn't been an update for ~4 hours, maybe submissions are still broken? I wasn't sure whether to submit by email or on the site, but it seemed to go through normally. I guess I'll give it until tomorrow...

Edit 2: All is well, it did update eventually :-) (#64)

A nitnoid perhaps and I have confirmed with my friends in the navy but nowhere on an aircraft carrier exterior (or any other ship) are the letters in 7A. The only place they might be is on a plaque or other document inside the ship. The name of the ship is on the stern and the number of the ship (71 in this case) is on the island on both sides.

Beam me!

Thanks, Matt and Jeff!