Small Business

[hcbirker]

First guess wrong, second one right. Thanks Jay!

[whimsy]

Will get to this tomorrow -- meantime, not peeking at spoilers!

[Bird Lives]

On Day One, 36 solvers crowded into the room -- what the French call a ménage à trente-six (solvers familiar with the TV show in question will understand)
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Presumably, others will come knocking while there's still candy to be given out.

[jhseeman]

Needed the first nudge, then it hit me.
Thanks for the puzzle.

[Cinny]

Finally Sssolved with a bit of help. Thanks, Jay.

[DrTom]

Took longer than it should have, at least one guess and then the most depressing of spoilers, but hey I SSSolved. Thanks Jay

[ajk]

Had the idea quickly, but was trying to do the wrong things with it. In the end the first nudge bailed me out. Clever one, thanks.

[whimsy]

SSSolved --

Not only does he like to watch, just try getting the remote away from him.

Thanks for the antidote to last week's puzzle, Jay!

[Bird Lives]

Since Monday’s report, another dozen solvers came trick-or-treating.

37. Berto
38. JHSeeman
39. lbray53
40. Cindy Heisler
41. DrTom
42. Laura M
43. Mikey G
44. ajk
45. DCBilly
46. MarkWoychick
47. whimsy
48. Mr Tex

I’ve still got a dozen more more bags of candy left. Really. Either the demographics around here have changed, or kids are finding other things to do. So in case other late arrivals are still trying to find the solution, here is one more nudge.

The introduction cops to the derivative nature of this puzzle. Basically, I stole if from Matt Gaffney’s WSJ puzzle of last Friday. The answer shares an important element with the answer to that puzzle. So does the mechanism.

[Bird Lives]

The final total is 50. For some reason Crosshare had judged the correct answers of two solvers (BethA and Tyrpmom) as incorrect.

The answer is “Three’s Company.”
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All of the border entries and the two three-letter across entries are the names of companies.

Several solvers had SNL as their first guess, but that is merely an abbreviation. The show, as you can see in all the TV listings, is “Saturday Night Live.” The companies in the grid may have started out as their full names (e.g., Radio Corporation of America), but they are now known officially by their letters. Other wrong answers: “FBI“ (logical, I guess), but also “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “Mork and Mindy.” Go figure.

Thanks to all for the kind comments.

[BethA]

The final total is 50. For some reason Crosshare had judged the correct answers of two solvers (BethA and Tyrpmom) as incorrect.

How strange! Crosshare must have it in for me! It told me last week that my answer to Abide’s “Cheeky Dude” was incorrect, too!

Thanks for the puzzle!