My two main testers here at MGWCC are those I have called Consigliere and Supertester, each preferring the cloak of anonymity to the blinding, unrelenting spotlight of MGWCC fame.
But no longer! Today we reveal the identity of Supertester — he’s today’s Guest Meta writer, Yossi Fendel.
Back in 2014, MGWCC #296 ended up being significantly more difficult than I anticipated. A few days later, I got an email from mild-mannered guy offering his assistance with “difficulty calibration” on future puzzles, and from that day forward he’s been known to me by his hero name, Supertester. Over the past eight years, Yossi’s been helping make tweaks to titles, instructions, and other aspects of MGWCC puzzles to help me keep the difficulty estimation in line with the release week. He’s so good at this that I coined the term “Fendelian Adjustment” for these clever doses of fine-tuning, and they’ve improved many of the metas you’ve grappled with over the years.
Yossi was born in Berkeley and still lives there today with his wife Tamar. They have three children (Shoshana, Ari, and Amir). The baby in second photo is Amir, whose Bar Mitzvah is next month; the top pic is what Papa looks like 12 years later (i.e. now). And when he’s not testing meta-crosswords, Yossi works in data analytics for Kaiser Permanente Human Resources.
Yossi has constructed cryptic crosswords, but until today he has never published his own “non-cryptic” crossword puzzle. So I’m thrilled to share his debut — let’s get to it!
THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:
This week’s contest answer is the two-word phrase you seek.
Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.
WANT TO SUBSCRIBE TO MY CROSSWORD CONTEST?
MGWCC is available only to subscribers at my Patreon page.
A subscription costs $3/month.
Yet another guest constructor success!
