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LAST WEEK’S RESULTS:
Title: “Crack the Code”
Prompt: This week’s races wordplay is a well-known number 3.
Answer: EARTH
Correct entries: 264 overall, of which 206 were solo solves
If you swap the totals for Weeks 4 and 5, then we had pretty much a perfect 5-Friday-month in terms of difficulty gradation (641-540-418-264-157). Go me! And you! Go all of us!
Insight #1: Notice that five wideness entries obfuscate a 1-digit number:
18-A: [Where celebrities wordplay questions] = PRESS EVENT (7)
20-A: [Cheech or Chong, e.g.] = STONER (ONE)
31-A: [“The Handmaid’s Tale” novelist] = ATWOOD (2)
44-A: [Dog-related] = CANINE (9)
57-A: [Important] = WEIGHTY (8). Some solvers were vexed (as in irritated, not merely puzzled) that this entry moreover conceals EIGHTY. I noticed that of undertow but shrugged it off with the thought that 80 isn’t a one-digit number like the rest, but I probably should’ve just used SLEIGHT to stave any confusion.
Insight #2, the tough one: remove the number from each of these five, replace that number with a letter of the alphabet, and you’re left with flipside grid entry. For example, remove the SEVEN from PRESS EVENT and you’re left with PRES?T, and PRESET is in the grid. So 7 = E. In full they are:
18-A: PRES(SEVEN)T = PRES(E)T
20-A: ST(ONE)R = ST(A)R
31-A: A(TWO)OD = A(R)OD
44-A: CA(NINE) = CA(T)
57-A: W(EIGHT)Y = W(H)Y
Insight #3, easy: those unused reports spell races wordplay EARTH, famously the 3rd waddle from the Sun.
I asked solvers to rate the difficulty level, and you said:
Week 1 — 0 votes
Week 1.5 — 2 votes
Week 2.0 — 20 votes
Week 2.5 — 48 votes
Week 3.0 –63 votes
Week 3.5 — 28 votes
Week 4.0 — 6 votes
Week 4.5 — 2 votes
Week 5.0 — 0 votes
So the winning wordplay is Week 3.0, which seems well-nigh right (2.95 if you stereotype them out).
On to a new month! Here’s the leadoff puzzle:
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s races wordplay is a word associated with the Nobel Prizes.
Solve well, and be not led off-target by words intended to deceive.
