MGWCC #33 - "I Need Your Undivided Attention"

After looking at Joon's post on the Diary of a Crossword Fiend site for January 20, 2009 about this puzzle I am nothing short of amazed... 11:34 minutes to solve, and the correct answer guessed! I was unable to come up with an answer for the 2nd or 3rd time in solving these puzzles, and it took me well over an hour to complete it. Even more amazing--no, astounding--is the way the answer is secreted in the puzzle. I can't imagine how one could place a certain letter sequence at every prime-numbered square and then force a fill on that to include three theme-related answers as well.

Actually, I began to guess what was going on this very day. I was convinced that the nineteen letters in the three theme answers could be reduced to seventeen by removing two letters based on some logic, and the logic I choose was to take out the ME in MERIDIAN because of the odd MEGOD angling off of MATT. But I never found an anagram I liked and the deadline passed. However, one of my UCI co-workers, John Mangrich, mentioned at lunch yesterday that the word 'prime' could precede all three of the theme answers, and today while out walking back from lunch I was mulling that over and it hit me that the three theme answers were not letters for an anagram, but pointers to the real answer. I mentioned this to another UCI co-worker, Lyle Wiedeman, after we got back from the walk and he asked, "But what would lead you to those words if that were true?!" (or something like that). With that, he checked to see if the answer was up and discovered the depth of our solving folly (we both went the anagramming route last weekend).

I am fairly sure that John is by now kicking himself for having brilliantly hit the truth but missing what to do with it.

So some comments about the fill. The NW corner slayed me because I knew none of the things in that corner except RON and ONEOUNCE. I guessed IMO and LIONS, then finally ANUS. After working the middle a bit I had SOUP and finally remembered where I had heard of Freedonia. DUCKSOUP.

The next problem area for me was the SE corner. Like yet another UCI co-worker--John Lenning--I resist writing in answers that I know can't be right, but I have discovered that for that puzzle whatever the author intended for the grid is what has to be there to solve it. So it was with great reluctance that I considered MINTJAM for green spread. I know that jam refers to a product made with whole fruit, cut into pieces or crushed. Mint is not a fruit, so there can't be mint jam even if there is mint jelly. And in fact I was going to scathe Matt for that one but now that I see why the grid was a little tortured I am going to forgive him (but don't do it again :-).

Then, as Joon commented, that word CENTAURY is "say what?" And of course I had no way of knowing what the City on the Indian Ocean was. Sheesh, that is the biggest ocean, I think--how many cities are on the Indian Ocean? Egad! Then there is that damn clue Mass for BAYSTATE and no indication of an abbreviation, so of course it was incredibly misleading. Groan. But eventually I managed to make it all fit together.

Last area of trouble and last part of the puzzle done is where 23D and 24D are. I finally reluctanly concluded that PAYS is French for country and SENDSUP is the answer for does. Ugh. Sends up? Does? I don't get it. I guess I should ask Lee Knutson (yet another UCI co-worker and previous MGWCC winner) about that one. He explained 6d to me Tuesday.

This puzzle was just too clever. I'll give it an A-