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This is my fifth week of writing this crossword blog. However, I’ve been writing puzzles for years now. In my first three years at the University of South Carolina, I have written three incarnations of the USC Puzzle Hunt, which is based on the MIT Mystery Hunt. Puzzlehunts are some of the most fun you’ll ever have solving puzzles, which is why I love writing them. And speaking of the Mystery Hunt, I’m going this year! I bought my plane ticket for Boston earlier this week. I cannot wait to be in the midst of it.

Every fifth week on this site will feature a meta puzzle. To quote directly from Matt Gaffney’s xwordcontest site,

“Each week’s puzzle will contain a sort of puzzle-within-a-puzzle (or “metapuzzle”) that you have to figure out once you solve the crossword. The answer to this metapuzzle will be that week’s contest answer word, and it is this word (or series of words) you must submit to enter the contest.”

That being said, I’m looking for an appropriate 9-letter word. When you think you have it, email me at cking.gow(at)gmail.com with your answer. I’ll accept answers all the way to noon ET on Saturday.

And finally, the picture in this post has nothing to the crossword. The final question of a trivia night I played in recently, which earned our team $200, was the only one-syllable US state. Trivia fans will tell you that’s Maine, so I included a picture of the crossword-friendly home of the University of Maine, ORONO.

Well, that’s one cycle of my crossword blog. Stick around for the next 5 weeks, and we’ll do the same thing again.

Enjoy!