105. Call Letters

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Hello hello! Olympics have basically been my entire personality for the past two gymnastics, and it was so cool to see the Swedish pole vaulter set a new world record! He took the sport to new heights! (I had to.)

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1. Puzzle #104 answer: V8

Correct entries: 39 (a Level 4, at least)

Shortest explanation: There are 8 Vs in the grid. They occur in the 8 squares with an "8" in it, from 8 to 78 (which is why the grid had to be longer to have the 8 Vs in it). Hence, V8 is our answer.

There was also some shenanigans going on in the clues as well. In the across and down clue that intersected at the "V", per the above graphic, one of the eight vegetables in V8 was "split" across the two clues. This led to some awkward wording on some, which could have also be an in.

(I also attempted to make the middle third of the grid look like an elongated "8," but that was decidedly harder to see than I anticipated.)

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2. In any case, this Week 4 led me to do a bit of retooling; I had a Week 5 planned, but it was playing more like a Week 50, and to paraphrase Mr. Gaffney, it's not any fun if nobody can solve them, haha. As a result, in no particular order, I will try to make the next four a bit smoother sailing.

I tried exploring a bunch of mechanisms for this one, but I couldn't find one that wasn't too convoluted, so you get a nice Level 1.5 this week.

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta, 7 characters long, is a certain U.S. radio station's nickname.