Liar’s Paradox – Solutions, Annotations & Results

Stats – We had 52 submissions – a fabulous response for this delightful puzzle.  Of those who submitted 42 managed to complete the grid with zero errors and 32 went on to get the maximum possible score of 147. Here’s the completed grid.

The following question had to be answered by the solvers..

Connect the title to the puzzle – A: There is a NINA (hidden message), starting from the bottom right and all along the perimeter that says “There is nothing hidden here” – which is contradicting itself – hence its a Liar’s paradox.

You can access the Grid with solutions Here – Clicking Reveal ALL will show you the solutions, annotations and the answer to the bonus question.

Here’s the Score Card (sorted by total and then alphabetically). Congrats to  the 32 solvers who maxed the score and to every one who participated. Very well tried.

Grid Rating: The puzzle got a fabulous score of 8.83 – same as our previous grid. It got 16 perfect 10s – i.e 31% of  those who submitted thought it was perfect. The minimum score was 4.

Top 3 Clues:  The most favorite clues were for “IODINATE” with 21 votes, “SMART ALECKS” with 11 votes and “AMERICAN DREAM” with 10 votes each.

Hope you all enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks for all your support and wonderful comments. Like you all, we are also looking forward to more grids from Mac. Sharing these comments with our readers..

Comments from solvers:

1. Great to see a grid from Mac again!
2. A very interesting and engaging puzzle. What made this stand out for me was that despite not being overly difficult, the clueing was smooth, technically sound, innovative, on occasion devious, and raised some chuckles. A well constructed grid with NINA. Bit unfortunate I felt that ATTACK/ATTACH had so much of the string plainly given, could have been avoided. One might say something similar of APOLLO’s LYRE..etc., but here the interrelated elements in surface wordplay made it more palatable. Spoilt for choice in picking top 3. Look forward to more of such puzzles
3. –
4. This is the first MAC grid I’ve done, clever ,smooth and not that simple – looking forward to more grids from Mohsin
5. Brilliant stuff! Loved the hidden paradox
6. There are some slightly odd definitions which look like Wikipedia references (or similar) e.g. SHIPWORM = CLAM and GUE = LYRE, which don’t sit well if say Chambers Dictionary were the sole reference, but these are minor qualms of an otherwise very good and enjoyable puzzle with some unusual and interesting entries.
7. Enjoyed the puzzle!
8. crisp and fairly mind churning exercise
9. Nice clues
10. nice puzzle
11. Very enjoyable. Light Sunday entertainment
12. This title is wrong.
13. Very smooth clues – the final reveal was excellent.
14. Lovely puzzle. We want more from MAC
15. fun..Think there is a mistake in 2dn Gigantism not Giantism
16. Excellent clues!
17. nice grid!
18. I did not submit the puzzle.
19. superb
20. Super puzzle.
21. Loved the theme and the Nina. Excellent work.
22. Superb Mac! Keep coming here
23. superlative grid, every clue. lovely comeback Mohsin let’s have more and more.
24. Very beautiful puzzle. Wish Mac set more puzzle and be more active in crossword fora
25. Good
26. Very intricately devised puzzle
27. Easy puzzle. Good surfaces
28. Classic Mac!
29. Very nice grid from Mac after a long time too!
30. Wonderful clues and nina!
31. Very good clues. Very enjoyable puzzle.
32. Nice one to solve, but difficult question to answer
33. Really enjoyed it , several aha ! moments
34. Commendable creation.
35. Beautiful puzzle Mac! Lovely clues.. thanks for the great Fun!
    “36. Nice construction. A few answers I don’t fully understand.
    22Ac. Aren’t NARCOS the ddealers not the drugs?”
36. Some good clues but 12 out of 26 clues are anagram-based, a tad too many imho.
37. Lovely clues, smooth surfaces! In 8a, “gue” was obscure and took me a while, but was perfect, nonetheless. One quibble though: the use of an offensive and derogatory slang term in 20a was uncalled for.
38. Excellent grid/ each clue has been crafted well
39. Aha !
40. Needed multiple trips to dictionary. Setter used many words that I’d never heard of (gue, shipworm, durance, hegira etc.) and comes across as a 13-across as a result 🙂 That said, clues were super-fair and answers derivable from surfaces.
41. Great job. Nice smooth surfaces and clever clueing.
42. Nice puzzle, not too hard, but all clues have very effective surfaces
43. Loved the title and the connection to the puzzle. Well done.
44. Super settings
45. Excellent
46. Good for a newcomer but needs to tighten up some of those definitions.
47. Simple and elegant clues, and nice concept!
48. Really clever and fun clues. Indicators chosen to surprise and to make great surfaces. I enjoyed the sprinkling of math. logic, CS/EE and Greek mythology
49. Very nice grid
50. Entertaining grid
51. Everything that makes a super puzzle was here. I particularly like the well-chosen anagrinds.