As you all know, the puzzle was an attempt to predict the winner of the elections in the United States and that The Oracle was clear that the winner is D….

In typical double speak of The Oracle, this could mean Democrats or Donald Trump!

The party is now over and you would have heard that the Republican Party has won, as was predicted in this grid:

As you can see, there were two possible answers for some clues:
1 Down, being the predicted winning party (Democratic/Republican), along with its crossing lights,
1 Across (Dope/Rope),
9 Across (Mater/Pater),
12 Across (Catty/Batty),
18 Across (Abraham/Ibrahim)
22 Across (Isis/Apis) and
20 Down had to have two answers as well (Abid/Ibid) to accommodate 18 Across.

So, depending on how you voted..the grid looked like this..

You would have, no doubt, astutely noted the presence of theme words like Elephants and Donkeys (with their Bray-ing), reference to President Obama’s daughter Sasha, topic raised during the run up to the election (ISIS) and some others that cannot be named in order to be politically correct. The destination of the elected candidate was given in 17 Down in a slot symmetrically opposite the winner in1 Across.

Here are the annotations..

Welcome to the Party – Annotations

Across:

1 a. R(ed) OP E or b. reD OP E
3 MU(TIN)EERS* RESUME*
8 BEE = loBstErmEn
9 a. Pm ATE R or b.pM ATE R
10 TETHERS* = (THE REST)*
11 AT ONE
12 a. BATTY or b.CATTY (Nod to NYT predictive crossword at the time of Clinton/BobDole election),
14 Hollywood’s Amorous (Husband) Actress,
15 =(PYJAMAS-MAJ<)* 18 a. IBRAHIM in Quran and b.ABRAHAM in Bible 21 KHAN* 22 a. A Pharaoh IS or b. I Sphinx IS 23 POETS ID* 25 DAD O 27 AFAR (Telescopic) 29 Indian Railway IS H 32 BRAKE 33 COR(eRODe)E 34 A(DIE)U 36 EL ECTIONS* NOTICES* 37 STYE = (YETIS-I)*

Down:

1 a. REPUBLICAN or b.DEMOCRATIC party which display elephant or donkey, respectively, as appearing as 6 or 23 in 10
2 P(ET)IT
3 METONYM = (COMMENTARY-CAR)*
4 TOTE UP = TUT POE*
5 NOT CH
6 Elephants Double Definition
7 SASHa
8 B~ (from 8 Across) RAY
13 TEA = ThErA
16 South American Valley Explorers
17 WHITE HOUSE = HOW I USE THE*
19 RE IN FORCE
20 a. I BID or b. A BID
23 DON(KEY)S
24 O(A)R
26 A(London)BEDO* ABODE*
28 ROO ST
29 RAIN*
30 IDI TO< 31 ACHE (Telescopic)

And finally, Here’s the link to the Hall of Fame

A special thanks from me and The Oracle to all those who participated and Congrats to Ramki Krishnan who won the contest.