Solve Me, Get A Prize!

Would you believe it’s been twenty Fridays since this thing started? Incredible. To mark this milestone, I’ve compiled a list of 20 notable things there are 20 of.

1. Humans are born with 20 baby teeth (RIP, mine all fell out)

2. There is a 1/20 chance of rolling a Nat 20 on your D20

3. There are 20 Century Foxes (what happened to the first 19??)

4. Someone with perfect vision can see 20/20 letters on the eye chart (I personally find it’s not worth reading after E / F P / T O Z / L F B D)

And there are 16 more that I definitely wrote but will save for another time. You can ask me for one if you run into me in person lol.

This crossword is a special one! If you are able to solve it, there is an extra special prize - the puzzle will reveal how to claim it. Have fun, and good luck!

Discussion (and spoilers!) below the break.

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Solve Me, Get A Prize! by Brandon Cathcart

Discussion

The alternate title for this crossword was “Rick’s Gon’ Give It To Ya” but I worried that was too leading. They (used to) say that trends resurged every 20 years or so (that’s reportedly shortened due to the internet, etc), so Rickrolling was due to come back around 2027 - I’m a bit early, but hey, who’s counting?

This was a really fun puzzle to make - I was in a goofy mood and I think a lot of the clues show it.

Today’s Theme

After the puzzle has been solved, you can follow the instructions in 16-Across […go to ___ (16-Across) DOT ___ (18-Across) SLASH (The circled letters and numbers, from top left to bottom right, all lowercase)!]. Which gives you:

TINYURL.COM/yf7xbjfh

And I think you know where it goes from there. Hopefully you wrote the number 7 instead of the letters “seven” - I was worried about that, but you gotta take risks, you know?

Behind the Clues

11A. Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire was truly a boon for pop culture. It was a great trilogy that spawned memes on memes on memes, so it’s fitting that the very meme-able Willem Dafoe got in on the action as Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin.

24A. [What Calvin & Hobbes make a lot of in winter, usually doing ridiculous things] references one of my favourite comic strips - it has such a goofy, positive energy to it. I' love the recurring bits like Calvinball’s lack of consistent rules and, important here, the numerous SNOWMEN.

33A. I don’t know how to describe Alex Honnold - he’s a marvel of humanity, and also completely insane. The [Mountain face climbed by Alex Honnold in "Free Solo," for short] is El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California, or EL CAP for short.

7D. As a noted pinball enjoyer, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put this in here. [The main target in one of my favourite pinball machines, "Attack From Mars"] is what those dang aliens keep coming down to earth in - a UFO. Arkadium in Sherwood Park has an Attack From Mars machine, and it’s tough but so fun.

15D. I think Reddit user Burgermeister8 said it best - “Why are dried cranberries called Craisins but dried dried grapes aren’t called Graisins?” Truly a mystery for the ages. We do know, though, that [Craisins before they're dried, briefly] could be called CRANS.

20D. [___ Messenger, the chat app all my friends were on in 2006] was MSN and it was everything when I was in junior high. I begged my parents to let me have an account - it was a huge source of FOMO. I did finally get on, and I attribute it almost solely to my ability to touch-type today (sorry Mavis Beacon).

I hope you enjoyed this puzzle!

Until next Friday,

Brandon