April 12, 2017 - "There Oughta Be a Law!" - Byron Walden, edited by Ben Tausig

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Dear friends: 

This week's puzzle, Byron Walden's "There Oughta Be a Law!," is 3/5 difficulty.

Congrats to all who submitted an answer (or answers) to the BEQ meta last week. Second prize, which goes to a solver who got just the first part of the meta, was randomly won by John Garvey, who'll get a three-month subscription extension. First prize, for someone who solved both parts of the meta, goes to Keith Blackman, who wins his choice of either a copy of Brendan and Francis's Drunk Crosswords OR Brendan's old air-conditioner, which he's trying to unload (winner must be willing to pick it up). Congratulations to both winners, and to all 190 people who played! Please see below the spoiler space under my salutation for some notes on the meta, and about the answers we accepted and didn't accept.

Francis is up next week, with ANOTHER meta.

Best,

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

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The answers we meant to invoke were "Loser," by Beck, to the start of which one letter can be added to derive "Closer." The term "alternative cut" hinted that the song we intended was the one by Nine Inch Nails. But we accepted as correct any other song called "Closer," including submissions that did not specify the artist. Many people for instance mentioned a song by the Chainsmokers called "Closer" which I don't know what the hell that is but I guess it exists, so good work. However, we did not accept answers that included the word "closer" in longer titles, such as "Closer to You" or "Closer to Fine."

On a final and probably controversial note, I was really struck by how weak NIN's "Closer" sounds in 2017, especially since I've grown to love a lot of their catalogue way more than I did in the '90s. Sorry to any Reznor partisans! I also made the horrible mistake of reading Tommy Lee's comments about the song, which admittedly may have poisoned the well 🙁