2014 Wrap-Up

This was a great year for the MMMM. Two puzzles were among the highest-rated of the year at Amy Reynaldo’s Crossword Fiend and one of them won Matt Gaffney’s Crossword of the Month. I want to give a special shout-out to people who helped make this contest happen. First, thanks to Sue Keefer (aka my sister), for her ongoing feedback and her help brainstorming themes. Thanks to my invaluable editor Frank Longo, who catches far more mistakes than I thought I was capable of making. Thanks to Charles Montpetit for his test-solving and great musical clue suggestions. Thanks to meta-megastar Matt Gaffney for his unqualified support and encouragement, including blogging every MMMM at Crossword Fiend. And last but not least, thanks to Jeff Balbien, who always helps when my ambitions for this website exceed my coding skills.

I also want to say thanks to all of you for your great feedback. It wouldn’t be fun to create puzzles if people didn’t have fun doing them. As a solver myself, I love the feeling of thinking “there’s no way I’m going to solve this puzzle,” and then suddenly getting the flash of insight that makes everything fall into place. I aim to give that experience to MMMM subscribers (now numbering close to 800!).

As requested by a number of subscribers, there’s a customary end-of-year Tip Jar to the left. It will remain on this page for one week. Please don’t feel obligated in any way; but if you like, you can click on the Tip Jar icon to donate via PayPal. Everything you donate will be given to charity (Robin Hood Foundation or Math for America…please specify if you have a preference.) Thanks!

I’m plan to add a “Testimonials” section to the site. If you’re comfortable writing something (short is great!) about why you like the MMMM and are OK with your name/city/state being used, please email me.

The final 2014 Leaderboard can be found here. A total of 40 solvers are eligible for the MMMM Grand Prize drawing, having gotten at least 9 of the 13 metas. Abby Braunsdorf (once again) had the highest point total, and was one of two solvers (along with Dan Feyer) who solved the mega-meta earliest. Abby did prove fallible, though, as she missed two of the monthly metas. Jeffrey Harris (Jangler) correctly solved each of the metas, but was one month behind in solving the mega-meta. Five other solvers Brent Holman, j, jasters, Andy M, and Steve Williams managed to get 12 out of 13 of the metas.

Instead of awarding the Grand Prize to the highest point total, I do a random drawing where solvers’ chances of winning are proportional to their total points. This year’s randomly selected Grand Prize winner is Andy M of Lafayette, CA (aka jeremiahsjohnson). Congratulations Andy! Andy wins a free entry to the ACPT or $100 in cash.

The 2015 MMMM will follow the same structure as last year’s contest. There will be a mega-meta and some tricks designed to throw solvers off the track, like last year’s red herring. One slight scoring change: Guessing the mega-meta early will earn you 5 bonus points, plus 2 points for each month remaining in the contest, plus 5 bonus for the first solvers to crack it (this replaces the 50/25/15/10 awards which made the first solvers to get the mega-meta almost impossible to catch). Full scoring details can be found here. The 2015 contest will once again start out relatively easy and grow in difficulty over the course of the year. The first puzzle will come your way Tuesday, January 20.

If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up in the box at the right and start receiving the MMMM via email. Existing subscribers don’t need to sign up again for 2015.

See you in a week!