Matt Gaffney posts a crossword-based puzzle every week at http://crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/ . Last week’s was #132, and my first solve attempt ever (I think).

I didn’t solve the grid too quickly, but I aced the meta part.  I did it quickly enough (total time about 15 minutes) that my solving log doesn’t provide much insight, but it’s included after the cut.

The direct link to the puzzle is here: http://crosswordcontest.blogspot.com/2010/12/mgwcc-132-friday-dec-10th-2010-side.html and the answer checker above should work.

Log:

0:00:00

Opening puzzle (never done one before, not quite sure what to expect)

0:00:43

Downloading the puz file. The linux software I use for these is so-so, but should be okay, I guess.

0:02:08

got the top left. Starred entries are ‘hockey team’ and ‘spectrum’… isn’t that the Red Wings? WINGS is a 5 letter sitcom, is that the answer? [I knew I knew the Spectrum from somewhere… it’s no longer in use for hockey, which we’ll say is why I forgot what city it was in.]

0:03:00

Oh, that was the flyers.

0:03:55

wow, couldn’t get SNIPER from “marksman” with ?NI?E?. sad. Needed the S.

0:04:31

great, now INTO THE GROOVE is stuck in my head [I mean “great!” I like the song]

0:05:44

Finished from the center row up (slow, I know)

0:06:33

oh, look. POLITICAL is the word with the start. so HOCKEY TEAM and POLITICAL [I remained unclear whether POLITICAL or POLITICAL SPECTRUM was the starred answer. The latter clearly makes more sense, in retrospect.]

0:07:00

and TOUCAN SAM

0:07:40

and JUMBO JET

0:07:56

is there a word (plus or minus one letter, maybe) hidden in each one. hmm… guess not. back to xword

0:09:20

and WHITE HOUSE

0:09:59

puppet dictator is SATRAP? dunno that one

0:11:24

Done with grid.

0:11:29

starred answers: HOCKEYTEAM, POLITICAL (SPECTRUM may count as part), JUMBOJET, TOUCANSAM, WHITEHOUSE

0:12:24

repeated letters in each… E,I,J,A,(H/E). not it

0:13:46

let’s look at JUMBOJET… has JOB backwards…[JUMBO JET seemed to have the least going on, wordplay, etc, wise, so I focused on it first as a source for patterns to check in the other ones]

0:15:03

well, jets have WINGS, as do the WHITE HOUSE, a HOCKEY TEAM, TOUCAN SAM, and the POLITICAL SPECTRUM.

0:15:29

I’m going with WINGS.