MGWCC crossword 2:04
meta DNF 3 days 
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hello, and welcome to episode #902 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, a week 2 guest puzzle from Rick Kennedy called “Beam Me Up!”. this week, we’re looking for an eight-letter word. what are the theme answers?
… well, i wish i knew. based on the title, i’m guessing that 49a SCOTTIE is relevant, although it is clued in a non-star trek context as {Terrier type}. i know the star trek character is spelled “scotty”, but this is really the only straw i can even grasp at. otherwise, it’s totally unclear what or even where the theme is—there are no long answers in the grid, and no clues that are flagged as thematic. i’m not used to week 2 puzzles starting out so directionlessly.
okay, well, what else—how about kinds of beams, maybe reading upward in the grid? i don’t see much. there’s IONIZE with an ION beam (not reading upwards, but at the top, which is something)… but nothing else that i can see. maybe we’re not looking for beams.
what about the “me” in the title? there are four M’s in the grid, and each one has an E below it… yeah, this could be something: those four down entries containing ME are MEANT, CHIME, STAMEN, and FORMED. it is extremely interesting that they could all be valid entries without the ME: ANT, CHI, STAN, and FORD. we’re onto something here.
okay, better yet: the answer directly above each ME answer can take on a ME to become a new word: THE -> THE(ME), FAD -> FA(ME)D, AND -> A(ME)ND, and GAS -> GA(ME)S. this is definitely the mechanism. but what’s the answer? taking the first letters of the new words gives TFACAGSF, which is garbage no matter which order you read it.
can it really be that there are eight more theme answers hidden in the grid—the old “this clue could also satisfy this other answer” trick? oh gosh, it does look like that’s what’s happening:
- {Revise} EDIT, but also AMEND.
- {Eminent} NOTED, but also FAMED.
- {Fun stuff} REC, but also GAMES.
- {Greek letter} ZETA, but also CHI.
- {Detroit auto name} EDSEL, but also FORD.
- {“South Park” kid} ERIC, but also STAN. (this could also have been {Love to pieces} ADORE, i think, but that’s a slightly less precise synonym for STAN.)
- {Small insect} GNAT, but also ANT.
- {Core concept} IDEA, but also THEME.
the first letters of these are ENRZERGI, which i think must be the right letters in the wrong order. can we get ENERGIZE somehow? that would be an apt answer. yes, if we just take those eight letters in the grid in normal grid order instead of by across and then down clue number, it does just read ENERGIZE, so that’s our answer.
that is a very, very cool meta mechanism. pretty tough for a week 2, right? but very elegant—i love the idea of literally interpreting “beam me up” to mean transporting the bigram ME from one down answer into a higher one in the grid. and ending with the ENERGIZE command as the final answer is a chef’s kiss (perhaps it makes the puzzle more guessable, but i don’t mind that at all).
there’s a slightly curious interaction here between the elegance and the difficulty—with 16 different answers participating in the theme (4 to lose ME, 4 to gain ME, and 8 others to match the clues for the altered answers), there’s a huge amount of constrained material, which means that of necessity, those 16 answers had to mostly be pretty short. (even with short themers, the puzzle clocked in at 80 words, a bit higher than you normally see in a 15×15.) the lack of long themers as a starting point for what to look at definitely contributed to my initial bewilderment with this meta. it certainly could have been made easier by starring the clues to the initial foursome of ME-containing answers, but i think only at the cost of some of the puzzle’s elegance. overall, i think i wouldn’t have changed a thing about the way the puzzle was made, but perhaps just run it as a week 3 instead.
whatever week it was, i loved this puzzle. looking forward to seeing the next offering from cap’n rick! beam me up, indeed.
what did you think?
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
brilliant!
Thanks, e.a. I think your 6-minute solve was even more brilliant!
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
I noticed the title’s connection to SCOTTIE (which as joon noted is actually spelled Scotty in Star Trek), but I wasn’t able to make the leap to the ME bigrams and got nowhere in this puzzle.
I was really fixated on 43A TIC-TAC-TOE [Game of X’s and O’s] being a thematic clue, but of course it wasn’t and that idea didn’t pan out. The omega across clue [Funny Foxx] having a double X in it seemed to weakly confirm that idea; but that was about it.
Thank you, Adam. Yeah, SCOTTIE and IONIZE (along with the + and – signs in the black squares) were just Easter eggs. I can see how TIC-TAC-TOE and FOXX could have tripped up a few solvers.
Amazing. I don’t know if constructors use an acronym like this but I think of this as a WITT puzzle (Wish I’d Thought of That).
Thanks, Evan. I’m pretty sure I’ve had the same reaction to some of your puzzles. 😄
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
This was 100% a WITT, haha. And Rick’s wit is wonderful to see. Love his puzzles and his friendship!
Outstanding meta!!
Thanks, Mike. I always enjoy your friendship and puzzles as well. You are the punniest guy I know! 😄
Super cool idea! (Didn’t get it — my only real idea was trying to do the “beam up” thing with the letters in SCOTTIE somehow.) And very impressed with the construction, with so many entries part of the meta!
Thanks, Seth. Yeah, SCOTTIE turned out to be a “red herring egg” for more than a few solvers.
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 4.5 stars
Loved the mechanism but I needed multiple hints from my co-solver to get it. Would definitely call it a week 3.
Thanks for solving, Margaret. When Matt asked about difficulty, I estimated it at week 2-3. One reason we decided to run it last week was because September 8 was the 59th anniversary of the original “Star Trek” TV series.
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
Very nice puzzle. I figured out part 1 but I needed a nudge from my favorite dentist to get part 2 and solve the meta.
Glad you enjoyed it, Scott. I have to say, though, that I don’t think I’ll ever want my dentist to nudge me! 😄
Awesome job, Captain Rick! 276 right answers this week. Cool mechanism.
Thanks again, Matt, for giving me the opportunity to be a guest constructor on your awesome site! Let’s do it again sometime!
If you’d like to see more of Rick’s meta crosswords, look here:
https://crosshare.org/rakennedy16
Smooth fill and elegant metas are regular features.
Thank you, Barbara!
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
My notes:
MGWCC #902 Sept. 12, 2025
STAN, CHI, FORD, ANT
Eric, Zeta, Edsel, Gnat = EZEG
Amend, Theme, Famed, Games
EDIT IDEA NOTED REC = ENRI
EZEGENRI = ENERGIZE
Highlight 1A 5A 8D 24A 37D 61D 66A and 67A and that spells ENERGIZE in grid order.
———————————————————————
The first two steps (removing the ME, associating the result with other clues) was bagged by a co-solver. The second two steps (BEAMing the ME UP, and associating the result with other clues) was solved by me.
Lots of moving parts. Very satisfying to solve!
Great teamwork, Garrett! Glad there were enough moving parts for both of you to enjoy!
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
As Joon said:
“…okay, better yet: the answer directly above each ME answer can take on a ME to become a new word: THE -> THE(ME), FAD -> FA(ME)D, AND -> A(ME)ND, and GAS -> GA(ME)S…”
Funny story…
At first I took these 4 new words (read from left-to-right) as: AMEND THEME FAMED GAMES which led me to think that the hint to the meta solution was being modified and that the 8-letter word might be “Olympics”
But that is way too Meta! (Hopefully Matt won’t get the idea to use answers in the grid to change the hint)
Eventually reality set in and I did get ENERGIZE.
Thanks for solving, Pete!
And whoa, AMEND THEME FAMED GAMES = OLYMPICS! I wish I had thought of that mechanism! If Matt doesn’t use it someday, maybe I will. 😄