#713 - “Who Are You?”

[Joe Ross]

MGWCC #713 — Friday, January 28th, 2022 — “Who Are You?”

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a famous American of the past or present.


Clarification on today's puzzle:

Dear Solver,

In the PDF to today's puzzle (MGWCC #713), the second "g" in "Unappetizing-looking" in 26-Across somehow got separated from the rest of the word.

This was just a technical exporting glitch, not part of the meta.

Keep calm and carry on,

Matt


Join MGWCC.




2021 PRIZE WINNERS:

Congratulations to our 68 2021 MGWCC Prize winners! These super-solvers are divided into six groups based on how many of last year’s 52 metas they solved correctly and on how much help they had. Starting with the Solo winners:

SOLO GOLD:

The following two solvers got all 52 metas correct last year without any help from any other solver. Not easy to do, so huge congrats to this august pair:

Paul Melamud — Milford, N.J.

P.S.

SOLO SILVER:

The following solvers got 50 or 51 of last year’s metas correct without any help from any other solver. Extremely impressive!

Rich Bragg — Los Altos, Calif.

Ameet Brahmavar — Vancouver, Wash.

Liz Goff — Toronto, Ont.

Neville Fogarty — Newport News, Va.

Jeffrey Harris — Nashville, Tenn.

Brent Holman — San Francisco, Calif.

Jeremy Horwitz — San Francisco, Calif.

Barbara Koehler — Warrenton, Va.

Peter Washington — Chico, Calif.

SOLO BRONZE:

The following solvers got 48 or 49 of last year’s metas correct without any help from any other solver. Medal-worthy, indeed!

Peter Abide — Biloxi, Miss.

Tyler Hinman — San Francisco, Calif.

Carl Holzman — Evanston, Ill.

Richard Kalustian — Tacoma, Wash.

Jonathan McCue — Seattle, Wash.

David Squire — Flagstaff, Ariz.

Eric Prestemon — Woodside, Calif.

Jason Taniguchi — Toronto, Ont.

Congratulations to our 2021 Solo Medalists! Tough enough solving these even with a nudge, but going totally solo is almost superhuman. Well done!

2021 GROUP GOLD MEDALISTS:

No shame in a nudge if that’s how you roll! And it can be fun to meta with friends. The following MGWCC superfans solved all 52 of 2021’s puzzles with help from other solver(s) on 5 or more of them:

Megan Amram — Los Angeles, Calif.

Evan Birnholz — Drexel Hill, Penna.

Abby Braunsdorf — Lafayette, Ind.

Matt Breen — Madison, Wisc.

Ethan Budin — Deerfield, Ill.

Lisa Cope — Mason, O.

Jared Dashoff — Alexandria, Va.

Todd Dashoff — Philadelphia, Penna.

Zen Dexter — Kellyville, N.S.W., Australia

Adam Doctoroff — Brookline, Mass.

Meg Duvall — St. Petersburg, Fl.

Gideon Fostick — Givat Smhuel, Israel

Lily Geller — Brooklyn, N.Y.

Justin Graham — Oakland, Calif.

Toby Golick — New York City, N.Y.

Peter Gordon — Great Neck, N.Y.

Gutman — Baton Rouge, La.

Peter Gwinn — Chicago, Ill.

David Hill — Nyack, N.Y.

Ben Jones — Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Bill Katz — San Rafael, Calif.

Eric Klis — St. Louis Park, Minn.

Jeremy Koenig — Washington, D.C.

Jesse Lansner — Rochester, N.Y.

Jay Livingston — New York City, N.Y.

KayW — Chicago, Ill.

Scout Mitchell — Bellingham, Wash.

Patricia Miga — Grapevine, Tex.

Jay Miller — Pasadena, Calif.

Rich Pardoe — Houston, Tex.

Rachel Parsons — Chappaqua, N.Y.

Brett Rose — Chicago, Ill.

Seth Rotkin — Los Angeles, Calif.

David Stein — Silver Spring, Md.

Tom Tabanao — Happy Valley, Ore.

Cindy Weatherman — Matthews, N. Car.

Jordan Whitson — Durham, N. Car.

Cynthia Wong

Congratulations to all of our Group Gold medalists!


2021 GROUP SILVER MEDALISTS:

The following MGWCC superfans solved 50 or 51 of 2021’s 52 puzzles with help from other solver(s) on 3 or more of them:

David Andre — San Francisco, Calif.

Bret Baack — Fort Collins, Colo.

Laura Braunstein — Lebanon, N.H.

Tamara Brenner — Elmhurst, Ill.

Sara Dacus — Searcy, Ark.

Dan Echt — Mapleville, R.I.

HeadinHome — Charlotte, N. Car.

Summer Herrick — Seattle, Wash.

Kathy Johnescu — Alameda, Calif.

Andy Keller — Apple Valley, Minn.

Nathaniel Lee — Pleasanton, Calif.

Rich Novo — Sun Lakes, Ariz.

Martin Reinfried

Marcia Rose — Delray Beach, Fla.

Joe Ross — Cincinnati, O.

Coreen Steinbach — Pompey, N.Y.

Dan Valachovic — Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Les Yonce — Richmond, Va.

2021 GROUP BRONZE MEDALISTS:

The following MGWCC superfans solved 48 or 49 of 2021’s 52 puzzles with help from other solver(s) on 1 or more of them:

Tom Burnakis — Jacksonville, Fla.

Steve Blais — Maidstone, Ont.

hashbrown — Scotland

Joe — Cleveland, O.

Katie Hamill — Arlington, Mass.

Julian Lim — Singapore, Singapore

Tina Lippman – Newburgh, Ind.

Mark Russell — Taft, Calif.

Jesse Simons — Somerville, Mass.

Alex Sisti — Whitesboro, N.Y.

Karen Spencer — Morgantown, W.Va.

Congratulations to all of our 2021 prize winners! Target date to send out your prizes is February 28th, so keep an eye out soon thereafter. I’ll announce here when they’re all out.

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a famous American of the past or present.

[docison]

Submitted. And now I wait. Congrats to all the Muggles on Matt's honor roll!

ETA: 6th on the board. Nice to see some familiar names joining me there!

[stmv]

Yay, I'm on the board at #8, which is probably the highest I've been on a Week 4 ever. It's a nice feeling to have (for once) seen the right path from the beginning, with only one minor stumble, especially after crashing and burning on last week's. On the other hand, I think that Matt had pity on us and made this one simpler than the usual Week 4 (or does it just seem that way since I was able to solve this one fairly fast?).

[MikeyG]

I'm still kicking myself over last week's, mostly because clues that span columns are so visually unappealing - and Matt gave me five chances to notice it - and I couldn't. No way in a million years that would be a Week 2 (couldn't believe it!), but I would say this might be a 3.5 and last week's a 4.

Fun puzzle this week!

[woozy]

You know all those times you say "that can't be a coincidence"? Well, that's nothing on all the times I say "That can be a coincidence".

[TMart]

Beam me up at #12. Much better than last week's flail.

[sharkicicles]

Congrats to KayW! Represent the 312! And TomB and Al Sisti and any other muggles I missed.

#20 on the board and sadly my first week 4 in a while. I think Matt took a little mercy on us after last week.

[Joe Ross]

Beam me up, SVP!

[Dannyvee]

Beam me up!
Right between Joe Ross and KayW! Nice

[markhr]

Beamed up. Not exactly easy, but easier than last week, which was downright sneaky.

[RPardoe]

Solved and submitted.
....confirmed.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Beam me up!

Loved it!

I just missed a MGWCC leaderboard update, but I’m confident.

[BarbaraK]

Ditto Chris.

Awaiting an update, but if I'm wrong it's the most incredible coincidence in the history of meta coincidences.

[Meg]

A bit late to the party and awaiting the next update. I can’t believe Matt thought last week's was more like a week 2!
Confirmed.

[KayW]

Beamed up MUCH more quickly than last week.

And 89 Down brought to mind today's Zits

(not a spoiler in any way)

[woozy]

I can’t believe Matt thought last week's was more like a week 2!

I can't believe so many of you think this one is easier.

[ky-mike]

Beam me up.

Lots of fun thoughts on this one, but would probably be deemed as spoilers. Late start, but day 1 finish.

[Laura M]

One to beam up!

Took me about as long as last week's, but my leaderboard position isn't nearly as good (#75). Excellent puzzle, but I can have a real blind spot about some things!

Oh, and congrats to all of the prize winners!

[Guffman]

That was a bit of a workout - and great fun!

[lkeigwin]

Maybe not easier than last week. But it felt like a normal progression.

There may be some nitpickers.