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MGWCC #273 — Friday, August 23rd, 2013 —“That’s Not a Word”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: What did those eight countries in the grid last week have in common? They were SWITZERLAND, MONGOLIA, BOTSWANA, AFGHANISTAN, BHUTAN, LAOS, MALI and MALAWI, all clued only by the...
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MGWCC #274 — Friday, August 30th, 2013 —“Livin’ Large”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Week 3, but it played like a Week 4: just 117 solvers found THREES as the Yahtzee category that served as our meta answer. “That’s Not a Word” read the puzzle’s title, and each of...
View ArticleMGWCC #282 — Friday, October 25th, 2013 — POSTPONED UNTIL SATURDAY, OCTOBER...
Dear Meta-solvers, Due to various uninteresting reasons, MGWCC #282 won’t be posted until tomorrow (Saturday) at 3 PM Eastern time. If you don’t want to wait until then for the solution to last week’s...
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MGWCC #282 — Saturday, October 26th, 2013 —“What Am I Thinking?”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Missing body parts was the link among last week’s six theme entries: 16-a [No fan of Pan] = CAPTAIN HOOK (missing a hand) 22-a [Man with a parrot] = LONG JOHN SILVER (missing a...
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MGWCC #283 — Friday, November 1st, 2013 —“Range Finder”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Last week’s instructions asked for “the only one of the five in the grid” (note mysterious emphasis on the last word). And then the five theme entries all shared the initials Z.C.:...
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MGWCC #284 — Friday, November 8th, 2013 —“Piece Out”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: OU, OV, OW, OX and OY, began last week’s five theme entries. They were: OUIJA BOARD OVAL OFFICE OWN GOAL OX-EYE DAISY OYSTER STEW What two-word region of the United States...
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MGWCC #285 — Friday, November 15th, 2013 —“I See You Got the Promotion”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Week 1 of 3 chess metas, in honor of the World Chess Championship currently taking place in Chennai between champion Vishy Anand of India and challenger Magnus Carlsen of Norway....
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MGWCC #286 — Friday, November 22nd, 2013 —“Title Search”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: What happens to a pawn when it reaches the eighth rank in chess? It gets to promote to any of four other pieces: in order of how commonly it happens, a queen (vast majority of the...
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MGWCC #287 — Friday, November 29th, 2013 —“Today’s Menu”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Week 4 played much tougher than I’d figured, yielding just 63 correct answers. Contest instructions asked for one of newly-crowned world chess champion Magnus Carlsen’s...
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MGWCC #288 — Friday, December 6th, 2013 —“State Lines”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Were you eating LEFTOVERS (58-across) last Friday? Probably. The key to last week’s meta was just that: take the two Turkey Day portmanteaux in the grid, TURDUCKEN and...
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MGWCC #289 — Friday, December 13th, 2013 —“Father Time”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: A new record: 694 solvers found COLORADO as the U.S. state in question last week, smashing the old record from February of this year (which was 645). Our numbers are growing and we...
View ArticleMGWCC #290 — POSTPONED
Dear Solver: MGWCC will go up tomorrow, Saturday the 21st, at noon Eastern time. Big apologies for the delay — rush of holiday activity got me. But we’ll be back on track tomorrow. –Matt
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MGWCC #290 — Saturday, December 21st, 2013 —“December 21st, xx13″
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Which Founding Father did last week’s meta point to? The sentimental favorite (he was a chessplayer, after all!), BEN FRANKLIN, whose “key” contributions to our understanding of...
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MGWCC #291 — Friday, December 27th, 2013 —“It Never Ends!”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Saturday was the 100th anniversary of the first crossword puzzle, as you may have heard a few dozen hundred times in recent weeks. You had to use that first puzzle to solve last...
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MGWCC #292 — Friday, January 3rd, 2014 —“Hiding Place”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Not quite your standard Week 4, as 533 solvers found the PITTSBURGH PIRATES as our meta answer. I promised an interesting story about this meta (and its difficulty level), and...
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MGWCC #293 — Friday, January 10th, 2014 —“Sport Search”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: The four theme entries last week spelled out a current events word puzzle: the meta answer was A NINE-LETTER WORD / THAT FULLY EMBEDS / THIS YEAR’S WINTER / OLYMPIC HOST CITY....
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MGWCC #294 — Friday, January 17th, 2014 —“Slight Chance”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: We were looking for a sport last week — or places where you can engage in that sport, as it turned out. Each of the five theme entries concealed a famous ski resort: LINDA VOSS =...
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MGWCC #295 — Friday, January 24th, 2014 —“What’s It Like?”
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: What American actress did last week’s meta indicate? There were three theme entries: 17-a [When fighters deserve permanent battle reminders, but are denied them?] = SCAR SNUBS...
View ArticleMGWCC #296 — POSTPONED until Saturday, February 1st at noon ET
Dear MGWCC solver, I supremely hate to postpone a puzzle, especially since this is the third time in four months, but this week’s puzzle will go up tomorrow at noon instead of today. I’m at the...
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MGWCC #296 — Saturday, February 1st, 2014 —“>1, x2, x2″
LAST WEEK’S RESULTS: Straightforward, but not easy: solvers were tasked with finding a famous writer whose surname is five letters long. The five theme entries turned out to be: 17-A ["Cat on a Hot...
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