congrats to austin burns of orlando, the winner of the meta contest! since austin is already a premium subscriber, he's chosen as his prize a year 2 premium subscription.

solution (including spoilers for the puzzle, obviously) after the jump.

this is going to be a long post, mostly to do with my ACPT recap, but i'm going to avoid puzzle-specific spoilers so that the at-home division solvers can feel free to read this. also, i'm making this week's variety puzzle free to the public; i had 350 copies out on the table in the marriott lobby this weekend and they all disappeared by saturday morning. next year i'll bring more copies, but in the meantime, if you didn't grab one in person, have at it now.