January 22, 2014 - "Members Only" - Patrick Blindauer, edited by Ben Tausig

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Dear subscribers: 

Enjoy Patrick Blindauer's attached "Members Only," which is 2.5/5 difficulty.

Meanwhile, I mentioned a book related to Aimee Lucido's "War! (Huh) What Is It Good For? Nifty New Inventions" from two weeks ago. This is it. I won't say anything more here lest it be a spoiler for those who haven't gotten to it, but if you've solved the puzzle it'll make sense. 

Finally, the solution to the bonus contest associated with Brendan Emmett Quigley and Caleb Madison's "Rap Mixes" from last week is given below the spoiler space. Congratulations to solver Steve Rubin, whose name was selected at random from among the correct entries. Steve wins a complimentary year of AVCX subscription time.

Yours,

-Ben and the AVCX crew [avxwords.com]

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In addition to the five theme answers in "Rap Mixes," which were anagrams of rappers' names, the following seven were hidden in the grid:

ACTUP (TUPAC)

CITE (ICE-T)

PAINT (T-PAIN)

RAKED (DRAKE)

SAN (NAS)

VEE (EVE)

ZAG (GZA)


The majority of submissions uncovered six out of seven, although the missing rapper varied.


In addition to the intended easter eggs, some of you also managed to find ALI, which is legit, as well as the Chinese rapper MINOS, the stretchy ONEAL (as in Shaq), the obscure LILDAP, and the totally made-up IFON and the OY G'S, among others.


Thanks to everyone who entered.