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Hey everyone, and welcome to Week 90! This puzzle is coming to you live from Cambridge, Mass as it is Mystery Hunt 2017 weekend! If you are at MIT this weekend, let’s try to meet up! I’ve met a few of you (some for the first, some as a wonderful reunion), but would love to see anybody else.I’m supposed to be working on setting up HQ right now, so let’s cut to the chase.

For this eighteenth meta, I’m looking for an alumnus of MIT who would make a good seventh theme entry to this puzzle. 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 late Saturday, January 21st. Note: Google was used as a primary source in this puzzle.

Bonus points for anyone who solves it at MIT before noon Friday. Prove to the world you have other things to do than get ready for Kickoff!

I’ll be back next time with pictures and anecdotes. It oughta be a good one!

Be sure to email me your answer!

Chris

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Hey everyone, and welcome to Week 89!

Around a year ago, I wrote a tribute puzzle to Ernie Banks, and about two years ago, I wrote a tribute puzzle to Casey Kasem. Sadly, 2016 was a hell of a year, and I wanted pay tribute to the great Gene Wilder.

Last year, the 2016 USC Puzzle Hunt was all about Operation Golden Ticket a pseudo-espionage job involving five kids invading the chocolate factory. Today’s puzzle was written for the Veruca Salt round. The entire hunt took place before the passing of Gene Wilder, but I’m proud of the work I did with all those puzzles, and I like to think it was a great memorial to the man who had an amazing film career.

Today’s puzzle has an answer, and feel free to shoot me an email at cking.gow(at)gmail.com with the answer to today’s puzzle.

Y’all, I’m heading back to Cambridge this weekend for the MIT Mystery Hunt! I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope to see some of you guys in person. And since my usual Chris Words entry would land smack in the middle of Mystery Hunt, next week’s puzzle will go live on Friday at 9am. So, in case you’re setting up your HQ and need something to do before Kickoff, we’ll be live.

Thanks everyone, and good luck solving!

Chris

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Solution

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to Week 88!

New year, new themeless. Lots of neat entries in today’s puzzle, and I hope you enjoy them. Favorite clues are 8D and 36D.

Also, you need to buy Food for Thought Crosswords by friend-of-the-show Erik Agard. I’ve got my copy, and I’m already 1/3 of the way done. And I promise, you won’t have to worry about counting calories when solving them.

Also, pick an easy resolution for the new year, like “solve more puzzles”. That way you won’t hate yourself when you realize working out isn’t fun. And a way to keep your new resolution? Buying Erik’s book.

Happy 2017 everyone! May she be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we all be home before she’s over.

Chris