First off, BIG THANKS to everybody – to the puzzlemakers, but especially to the solvers/voters. Part of what’s fun for me about this contest is seeing a LOT of user names I don’t usually see (or even recognize) in the comment field.

Hello, Mostly Silent Solvers!

Last time we did this (http://www.tanga.com/crossword_puzzles/2094-2-27-2011), the answer pool was much smaller: about 80 Best Picture Winners. So I figured with 200 possible answers to choose from, we wouldn’t get many duplicate answers, if any. And that proved to be the case for the initial batch of submissions…

But then, for some reason, everyone wanted to do Texas Instruments :) Maybe because the idea for it seemed simple enough. And also maybe because it was company #200. Luckily, most of the authors’ other submissions were just as good, if not better.

Once again, just like the last two times we’ve done this, EVERY clue got votes… which is cool. But mostly because we had 26 clues – 7 more than last time! – the individual vote totals were smaller, since they were more spread out.

And once again, the winner of the popular vote was far enough ahead of the rest, that I didn’t need to worry too much about making sure no one voted twice (though, of course, I was casually checking for that as I tallied things up).

It’s been said that when you wanna have something get liked on the Internet, you can’t go wrong with cute animals… and that’s kinda what TangaAl did with his FedEx clue. Cute dogs, a funny “aha”… no one else had a chance :)

In fact, he didn’t just win the popular vote, he also won the Puzzlemaker Vote – a first for this contest, as in each of our last two (here’s the Beatles link: http://www.tanga.com/crossword_puzzles/1192-12-15-2000), the Puzzlemaker winner was a different author than the Popular Vote winner.

Congratulations, Al!

Consolation Prize: For it’s simplicity in both idea and design, it’s number of votes, and well… it’s also gonna look nice, I’m making JimboTab’s Kraft Foods the future thumbnail for this puzzle.

Again, thanks to all who participated.

Top Popular Votes
40 FedEx
24 United Parcel Service
24 Fannie Mae
22 Kraft Foods
21 Texas Instruments
17 Procer & Gamble
16 Fluor

Top Puzzlemaker Votes
11 FedEx
9 Fannie Mae
8 Kraft Foods
8 Procter & Gamble
6 Texas Instruments
6 Nike

The Clues
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS (200) – Duckpond
GAP (185) – Philana
PROGRESSIVE (169) – Lynmarieco
PNC (165) – Poohbear
COLGATE PALMOLIVE (155) – SJHunt
APACHE (154) – Randiman
WHIRLPOOL (147) – Sykottik
EXELON (145) – DJSchwartz
NIKE (136) – Murdoctor
AFLAC (128) – Jewelia
FLUOR (124) – AdamMcD
TRAVELERS (112) – Tommer
MCDONALD’S (107) – DharmaRN
TIME WARNER (103) – Scoutmom
GOOGLE (73) – Speedgitano
FEDEX (70) – TangaAl
WALT DINSEY (66) – MagicalMusicMan
LOWE’S (54) – Patanga
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE (52) – Dragontrainer
KRAFT FOODS (50) – JimboTab
MICROSOFT (37) – Rocketeer
ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND (28) – ForNoReasonHeresApu
PROCTER & GAMBLE (27) – Jebediehard
APPLE (17) – Sonjahi
FANNIE MAE (8) – LakeLivin
CHEVRON (3) – Must67

The Hypercross
https://www.tanga.com/crossword_puzzles/2724

And where it all started:
https://www.tanga.com/forum/blogs/ea04b10bf9/feb-2013-hypercross-contest