April 19, 2017 - "That's My Cue!" - Francis Heaney, edited by Ben Tausig

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Dear friends: 

This week's puzzle, called "That's My Cue!," is by Francis Heaney, and is 3.5/5 difficulty. Plus it has a meta!

Here's your instructions: Seven characters are in costume. If you sneak backstage, maybe you can get a peek at their real identities. Send what you get to mycue@avxword.com for a chance to win a prize. The deadline is end of Sunday, April 23.

Talk soon,

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

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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 🙁