#617 - "Game Time"

[Al Sisti]

This week’s contest answer is a famous athlete.

[Al Sisti]

STOP THE PRESSES!!! JANGLER'S STREAK IS OVER!

[FrankieHeck]

Man, I have so many great ideas for this one, but I doubt that any of them are the ideas that Matt had.

[Al Sisti]

I had one right away... even rationalized myself into believing it. If I didn't have a streak going...

[Al Sisti]

Glad I waited. Awesome puzzle; one of my favorites this year.

[TMart]

STOP THE PRESSES!!! JANGLER'S STREAK IS OVER!

Just pulled up the puzzle and haven’t started yet - but I saw that and thought I wasn’t reading it right. Wow! The world really is turning upside down!

[Hector]

That's unlikely enough that you have to weigh the odds of a Jangler fail against a Gaffney error here.

A regular solver's surname is in the grid; they'll get a kick out of that for sure.

I definitely have something like a first step, . . .

[tonyrobots]

Nothing except the faintest glimmer here...is it a false hope? Time will tell!

[billkatz]

I'm 99% sure I have it. Really clever construction.

[Tina]

I see nothing. I am hoping this does not require much sports knowledge, or I'm lost.

[Laura M]

I went ahead and submitted although not 100% sure. It seems to me like this is another one that could be open to interpretation, but there may be a layer I didn't see.

Update: Beam me up, I'm on the board!

[Laura M]

I see nothing. I am hoping this does not require much sports knowledge, or I'm lost.

Little to none, I'm a sports ignoramus myself.

[Cindy]

I believe I will be on the board soon.

[spotter]

I found the site on the web: http://derekslager.com/puz/ where you can drag and drop a .puz file to solve on the browser. I don't have admin privileges on my work computer so can't actually download AcrossLite.

Solved the grid on this, but still trying to gain traction on the Meta!

[oldjudge]

Got the grid in a reasonable amount of time, but am struggling on the meta. Have some ideas, just not good ideas.

[Tina]

Did some weeding, then came back to the puzzle and revisited one of my earlier ideas. This time I applied it in a different way. I got an answer out of it. Is it the right answer? We shall see.

[Tina]

Update: I'm on the board!

[Thurman8er]

My second Week 4 in a row! I am inordinately pleased with myself.

[LesY]

Think I have it. Just submitted 9 minutes after the first board update in 5 hours. Oh the suspense!

Edit: Beam me up! I can see one or two ways Jangler (may have) missed. Hope we find out the story.

Also curious what alternative answers others came up with - there’s one I can kind of force, but it might require not really thinking about one piece.

[Meg]

I’m on the board. Not a solo solve. I can’t believe the news about Jangler!! Maybe he will post a few words on the forum.