Puzzle Notes

Hi friends: 

Ben Tausig's latest puzzle, "Taking Names," is here for your solving pleasure this morning, weighing in at 3.5/5 in difficulty.

Congratulations to all 321(!) of you who submitted answers to last week's meta by Erik Agard, most of which were spot-on correct. That's a record for us. The winners, chosen at random, are Carl Schlachte and Stephen Williams, each of whom receive six-month subscription extensions. As always, you can check crosswordfiend.com for a full explanation of the solution, and a review. An answer grid is also attached. Given the high response rate, I guess we'll have to do this meta thing again ... who knows, maybe in the very near future, in the form of a bonus puzzle.

Finally, you pay money to subscribe, for which we are very deeply obliged. We would never ask you to advertise on our behalf, but if you happen to be on the Twitters, we appreciate you following us at @AVCXWORD, and helping us spread the word when you like a puzzle.

Later,

Ben and the AVCX crew [avxwords.com, @AVCXWord]