A total of 62 solvers figured out this month’s meta, which was the last line of a children’s song. The first three Across entries, CLAP YOUR HANDS, suggest a song involving clapping, but which one? Translating the three cryptic theme entries gives the answer:

ACDC – NORTH – DEPART —> BI – N – GO

TRASH CAN – THOU – HUG —> BIN – G – O

C FLAT – ONE – CHARITY —> B – I – NGO

Any of these lines gives away the song and the meta answer: AND BINGO WAS HIS NAME-O!

Three additional solvers got partial credit (2 out of 3 points) for submitting BINGO instead of the asked-for last line of the song. I find it hard to be too much of a grinch when children are involved.

Some solver comments:

patanga   Very tricky. But a nice aha when it clicks.

Quicks?ilver   Nice one! Really enjoyed the challenging fill and a great a-ha moment!

mathdanmom   It took me forever to think of the right song. Despite being a mom of 2 and leading the preschool class at church, I had to search for lists of children’s songs to find the right one.

Howard B   Having a 2 1/2-year old around has its benefits. (claps for Pete).

Veep   I’m not sure if it was my brain that made this so hard, but it gave me a nice hours long puzzle, with a pleasant aha. I know others got it quickly but it was just right for me. Thanks!

Spelvin   Solved this on the first full day of my honeymoon… thanks for not giving us something where I had to think too long! (Good thing you didn’t marry mathdanmom or Veep!)

ab   I liked this one a lot. It’s totally not lame-o. (Groan.)  ab has been first to get the mega-meta each of the past two years. Will she do it again this year?

Clues that could have been musical department:

Charles Montpetit, who continues to be an excellent test-solver (and always gives me more musical suggestions than I can use!) suggests [Carell/Fey comedy featuring songs by the Ramones and Cee-Lo Green] for DATE NIGHT, [Lenny Kravitz song] for THIN ICE, and [Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent or Lil’ Kim accessories, in more ways than one] for RAP SHEETS.

Evan Birnholz, who regularly publishes a fun crossword here, also suggests cluing DATE NIGHT with a song from the movie.

Two clues that I plan to use in the future:

Stribbs suggests [Anna Kendrick’s instrument of choice] for CUP (google the video if you don’t get it), and

Gwinns suggests [The first two words of the theme song to “Malcolm in the Middle”] for YES NO.

Congrats to Katie Miller from Houston, this month’s free coffee mug winner. The average user rating this month was 4.03 out of 5, the third-highest this year, and users ranked it second-toughest this year in terms of difficulty, at 3.08 out of 5.

Thanks to Matt Gaffney who continues to blog the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, despite his large backlog of work. As a reminder, you can see the solution posted at Crossword Fiend as soon as submissions close on Sunday night; you can rate the puzzle there as well.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!