"Double Trouble" March 24, 2023

[Bob cruise director]

Sorry for the delay! The contest answer is TAKE CUES.The four theme answers sound like plurals of letters: E’s I’s, T’s U’s, C’s P’s and O’s B’s. Find the one grid answer with each of those as a double letter: TEEN, ALII, KITT, EQUUS, COCCYX, UPPERCUT, EBOOKS, SUBBED. The first letters spell the contest answer.

Geez, this was a tricky puzzle--but lots of solvers cracked it. We had 1889 entries, about 90% correct, a much higher percentage than usual. We had 10 partial-credit votes for BE UTOPIC (rearranging the letters in the theme answers... not sure that's a word, though). Plus USE CUES (24), USE PENCIL (8), EASY PEASY (4), BE WISE, and several others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Sharon Mequet of San Marino, Calif.!

@MikeMillerwsj Utopic is a real word and I was going to enter BE UTOPIC however a little birdie told me to dig deeper. But I like my first answer better than the preferred one.