Contest: Mystery Anacrossword

For more information on the contest, including the secret instructions and what the prize is, you’ll have to solve the puzzle below. For every person who follows the secret instructions and sends adequate proof to glmathgrant[at]gmail[dot]com before the deadline (11:59 PM Central time on January 24, 2020), I will donate $2.50 to the Food Bank of West Central Texas and feed hungry local people (up to a maximum of $50). Up to the first 25 entrants will receive the 10x10x10 Crosswords pack, as well. So get to work!

PDF version: CLICK HERE

Answers are clued alphabetically by length.

4 LETTERS
* Verdi opera
* Rear
* Dayton’s state

5 LETTERS
* Recipient of a monetary gift
* Weary feeling of boredom
* Pretend
* Faux pas
* Bulb sometimes cut into rings and deep-fried
* Little hooter
* “Delta Dawn” singer Tucker
* Partner of Crosby, Stills & Nash

6 LETTERS
* Insult with contempt
* ____ Montana (2006-2011 Disney Channel series featuring Miley Cyrus back when she had a tiny bit of innocence)
* Very fast car: 2 wds.
* Confine, as prisoners of war
* Speaker
* Host
* Facade
* Sift

7 LETTERS
* Merit
* Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 novel
* Journalist Gladwell
* Convent

8 LETTERS
* Francis after whom a wind force scale is named
* Punky ____ (1984-1986 sitcom)
* Green cabbage relative
* Checkers, to a Brit
* Signed the back of a check, say

9 LETTERS
* Common household pest
* The ____ Rabbit (1922 children’s book)

10 LETTERS
* Old, worn-out car

12 LETTERS
* One in a tournament’s top four, perhaps
* 1964 Elvis Presley movie set in a Nevada city (hence the name): 3 wds.

13 LETTERS
* Anonymous love letter author: 2 wds.

14 LETTERS
* Penry the mild-mannered janitor’s alter ego: 3 wds.

16 LETTERS
* Nursery rhyme eater of curds and whey: 3 wds.