First I should say that this weekend is an event I’m very excited about: Intercoastal Altercations 5, with daily puzzles running all week. Get on them now if you haven’t. The meat of the event is Saturday.

I struggled with this Gaffney with life being a bit hectic lately. According to Matt’s comment at The Crossword Fiend Blog this one had 351 correct entries, but you wouldn’t know it from the difficulty I had. It took me 17 minutes for the grid and almost 50 minutes on the meta.

The puzzle can be found at http://crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/2011/10/mgwcc-175-friday-oct-7th-2011-hunt-for.html and my log is after the cut.

0:00:00

Printed puzzle, looking for a fruit, let’s go

0:00:55

SEA, ASHRAM, TEA, ATM, MAT up top

0:02:23

stuck a bit, then 25D NCIS, 30a MACY 34a RITZ, then stuck a bit.

0:03:06

21 SCYTHE,SALTS

0:03:26

SAYAH 9d, then 23a MACNCHEESE, with 2 elided letters, which I wanted it to be earlier.

0:04:10

10d AZALEA, our 2nd Z.

0:04:41

YAXIS puts XY near each other and there’s a y near the other Z too

0:05:44

top right: SIS, AXEL, CARIBOU (jumping over to 24), ELK

0:06:32

oh, YAXES to get DRESSER and top right is done.

0:07:07

37A -SHIRT, REI,ENE,ZINE,not REI, REX, EXCOP. (another X. hmmmm)

0:08:10

CARAFE, OSIRIS, PHASES, ALFIE

0:08:49

AUSTRIA, BLESS, TELL, STAB

0:09:38

ENABLE, OWL, JOG, OWE in bottom middle

0:10:23

GUS, STEVE YOUNG, ALOE

0:10:53

45d AVAITE 56a SHINS

0:11:23

53d ENDED, 66a TWEED, 41d CATSHOW (ha)

0:12:01

AHEAD, FORTE, HEARHEAR, oh, 44A MAMA, so SAMEHERE for 37D.

0:13:03

33D MALAYS, 42a SLOB, 38d ROLO

0:13:37

DEM, IDA, DEFS and just top left is left.

0:14:08

ARRID, 3d RUNNER?

0:14:48

18d TIM? 14a HOUSE?

0:15:19

22a SEE, 17 IKNOWTHAT, 5d MEWS

0:16:50

and all done, with KINDSIR and SHRUM being the last two

0:17:30

XYZ didn’t really continue… elided letters, not really…

0:18:30

lots of clues in quotes… answers IKNEWTHAT, SEE, GEE, SAMEHERE, (those are the full clue in quotes, no blank to fill in)

0:19:23

SEE and GEE are letter homonyms, any others?

0:19:39

SEE, (ENE?), GEE, (across), TEA, OWE, … CTOG… is there a fruit with those?, oh there’s a another SEA, so CCG, TO

0:28:51

I don’t see anything interesting in the longest answers. well, 11d and 37d seem curious

0:30:45

TEA is in JOBSTEARS, SEE backwards is in MACNCHEESE… (this seems like nothing)

0:32:43

long ones are 9,10,11,10,9, writing them stacked like that. maybe i’ll put the 8s on top and bottom too

0:36:24

hmm. he just did a last words pattern … but let’s try THAT, CHEESE, SHIRT, YOUNG, TEARS

0:38:42

Googling around, found ” In Zimbabwe and Britain the guayabera is called a Safari shirt.” … hmmm

0:40:36

Job’s tears have like 10 names… I like Adlai…. no other sign this is a vice president puzzle

0:43:14

Hmm, they’re from Malaysia, and Malays is in the puzzle…

0:43:59

From google, COCONUTs are on a ‘fruits of malaysia’ page, and I have TEA, OWE, SEE, and SEA. I also have GEE though… and I’m missing O and U (ENE might be N?)

0:45:11

DURIAN would be a fun answer, but it would just be a wild guess.

0:49:58

all the EX’s are kind of interesting. but all on the right.

0:52:03

how about the answers made up of letters (or including letters)

0:52:16

ATM,RCA,ENE,NCIS, and I Y N hmmm

0:57:42

threw ATM,RCA,ENE,NCIS into an anagrammer, with 0% expectation… MACE CANNISTER… is probably not the answer

1:03:51

well, there’s HEAD, EARS,

1:04:56

maybe STEVE(YOUNG) and JOBS(TEARS) points to APPLE? hmmm

1:05:23

ok, I, MAC, and SAFARI. so I needed first words. it’s APPLE.

I think the leading “I” kept me from looking at first words at the point where I looked at final words. That’s the kind of mistake I often make (“Don’t try X, that one piece of data doesn’t work in that case.”)