March 19, 2014 - "Tight Squeeze" - Caleb Madison, edited by Ben Tausig

Difficulty ● ● ◐ ○ ○

Puzzle Notes

Dear subscribers: 

Attached is Caleb Madison's latest, a 2.5/5 difficulty puzzle called "Tight Squeeze."

We have two winners to announce this week from our recent bonus contests. The first, chosen at random, is Michael O'Donnell, who submitted "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" by Genesis as his current favorite prog song. Michael added that "the song has everything that I love (and people can't stand) about prog rock: 1) goofy lyrics about a plant overrunning England (and eventually the world), 2) odd time signatures, 3) a faux-jazzy breakdown with lead flute solo, 4) the (arguably) first instance of recorded hammer-on guitar work 5 years before Van Halen did it, 5) some of the lyrics are in Italian(!), 6) an extremely pompous ending, and 7) Mellotron." Congratulations to Michael, who wins a free copy of the collection "Yes Is the Answer," featuring an essay by celebrity cryptic co-author Wesley Stace.

The second winner, also chosen at random, is George Dakis, who correctly solved the "Spin the Bottle" meta and who wins six months of added AVCX subscription time. We received more than 30 correct solutions before the deadline--impressive considering the difficulty. Thanks to all who played. The solution(s) to the suite are attached.

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