No new puzzle this week, mostly because the USC Puzzle Hunt is a behemoth. I always enjoy working on it each year, but man it takes a lot of hours to just admin throughout the week. Besides the actual puzzles themselves, we’ve put on an opening show, a recreation of a game show, a cornhole tournament, a scavenger hunt, and a movie night.

However, there was a metapuzzle last week, and its time to show how this metapuzzle works!

We’re looking for a part of the human body, and this puzzle had five clues just named “Part 1” through “Part 5”.

Solving the crossword leads to those five clues being:

LETTUCE TYPE
MELVILLE WORK
GEORGIAN SENATOR
FENCING SWORD
BE FRESH WITH

Keen crossword solvers should recognize that [Melville work] is a pretty basic clue for OMOO, and [Fencing sword] is a standard clue for EPEE. Seeing those two words, it could be assumed that each of these phrases must clue a word that fits the ABAA scheme.

Lettuce type = BIBB
Melville work = OMOO
Georgian senator = NUNN
Fencing sword = EPEE
Be fresh with = SASS

With the title of the puzzle being “We Are The 75%”, you should look at the letter that appears 3 out of 4 times. Those five letters spell out BONES, this meta’s answer.

So, the phrasing “a part of the human body” confused a number of solvers. The phrase “a part of the human body” was picked since I didn’t want to give the plural hint away. Some solvers even question “Are bones a part of the human body?”. I certainly think so, and I think the phrase “Bones are a part of the human body” makes perfect sense.

Everyone who submitted an answer saw that BONES was spelled out, but some people even overthought the meta. A couple of people submitted EAR, since ears notably contain 3 bones. I accepted this as well, since those people did mention having the “BONES” part first.

Thirty-four correct answers came in for the fourth meta, and Eric Maddy was the randomly selected winner. He will join Jon Delfin, John L. Wilson, and Jim Quinlan in a future section of the site.

Thanks everyone. We’ll be back next week with a new puzzle.