The August MMMM challenged solvers to find an alternative rock hit. The title “Come See About Me” tells you what to look for. The letters ME are in the exact center of the 14×15 grid, and there are ten letters encircling ME. Starting in the northwest corner and proceeding clockwise, these letters spell out B-A-S-K-E-T-C-A-S-E, or Basket Case, the 1994 hit by Green Day, and this month’s meta answer. GREEN DAY also appears in the grid, clued as [Alternative rock band with four Grammys].

The original title for this puzzle was “Help, They’re Surrounding Me!” After my first two test solvers got the meta instantly, I changed the title to the current one. In addition to making it a bit harder to figure out what you’re looking for, the letters SEE go around the ME in the grid, creating a bit of a red herring.

Meta Song:

Missy Soltero joins me for a slowed-down cover of “Basket Case.”

Selected Solver Comments:

AZ   My first one! I can’t believe I solved it.   There’s nothing quite like your first meta!

malmo   Thank you for making this solvable even for a musisaurus that never heard of this “hit.” 

Mlessie   I liked how both SEE (title) and the answer were “about” ME.

TomB   For the first time, I think the meta was easier than the actual puzzle!

Darrell   Tough grid, easy meta, great song. Dookie was the first CD I ever bought.

Maggie W.   Serious middle school throwback here. Nice unconstrained grid!   Thanks!

patanga   Can’t wait to hear/see you sing it.   This one was really fun to learn.

Alternative Music Clues:

Flipperista suggests cluing LATER as [“Save It for ___” (English Beat song)] and KEN as [Nordine of “Word Jazz”].

Mike W suggests cluing TO LET as [What rooms are, according to Roger Miller].

ERO suggests cluing UMA as [“___ Thurman” (Fall Out Boy hit)].

fheaney suggests that lots of people will mention cluing ARIGATO with a reference to Styx’s “Mr. Roboto,” (only one other person did), but then provides an amusing alternative: [“Thanks for tuning my shamisen!”].

Evan suggests cluing CREDO as [Movement in many a Mozart Mass].   I learned something new!

pbfrommn suggests cluing ESP as [Miles Davis album].

Groaners: (lots this month!)

MGNYC   Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me… but not this month.

Shawn P   Tre cool!   (Green Day’s drummer)

Jwaan   Do you have the time to listen to me whine about the semi-red herring of SEE around ME in the middle? Probably not.

Sam   Seems too easy for August, which makes me think I got it wrong? I guess I’m cracking up?

Laurabrarian   Sometimes I give myself the creeps, sometimes MMMM plays tricks on me.

mlangschwager   I doubt I’ll be in the “Minority” in getting this answer correct, but at least I won’t feel like an “American Idiot!” Your puzzles offer evidence that nice guys don’t always finish last.

Gezi   The title of this one really grabbed me by the wrist and directed me where to go.

BrianMac   Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it!

Cindy N   Finally, a puzzle that’s about me, since I’m often a basket case when I finish!

A total of 282 solvers found their way to the correct answer this month. The average rating for the puzzle was 3.96 stars out of 5, and the average difficulty rating was 2.63. This month’s randomly chosen winner of an MMMM coffee mug is Deepak Bal from Montclair, NJ. Thanks to Matt Gaffney for blogging the puzzle at Crossword Fiend, where you can rate the puzzle (thanks!) and/or leave a comment.

Thanks for playing and see you next month!