Note: Several solvers, searching for the hidden word in the grid, came up with unexpected answers – art, astronaceous, box, decorous, enigma, gem, pastries, present(s), star, strip (möbius), tag, taster, trip, and truce. As I suggested to these imaginative people, I am not as devious as they suppose. When I hide a word, it's always in plain sight.

December Puzzle Solvers
(The first ten are listed in the order their solutions were received, the others alphabetically)

1. Lewis Gee – Poway, CA
2. Carolyn G. & Robert M. Smith – Massena, NY
3. Dina Fertig – Cherry Hill, NJ
4. Gerald Hurtubise – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
5. Kris Green – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
6. Judy Adamski – Jenison, MI
7. Steve Tice – Great Falls, VA
8. Elizabeth and Keith Falkner – Sarasota, FL
9. Mary Lyndal Nyberg – Manhattan, KS
10. John Gliessman – Seattle, WA

Al Backiel – Ridgewood, NJ
Judith Bagai – Portland, OR
Jim Baker – Dunnellon, FL
Mark Baur – Hudson, WI
Peggy Bedell – Northampton, MA
Jonathan Belsky – St Louis, MO
Robert Brown – Albuquerque, NM
Jim Christenson – Port Townsend, WA
Charlene Coates – Coatesville, PA
Henry Cook – Chicago, IL
Patricia Coppersmith – Venice, FL
Al Damm – Marshall, WI
Norman W. Davis – Englewood, NJ
Matthew Field – London, UK
Stan Francuz – Forster NSW, Australia
Dwight Freund – Sacramento, CA
Michael N. Geselowitz – Cedarhurst, NY
Max Goodman – Chicago, IL
Paul Gordon – Northbrook, IL
Vicki Homer – Philadelphia, TN
Grace Janeshek – Lake Jackson, TX
Al Kahn – Houston, TX
Dave Kaplan – New City, NY
Rick Kasten – Alexandria, VA
Eliot Kieval – New York, NY
Stan Kurzban – Chappaqua, NY
Mike Lessie – Douglassvile, PA
Richard Letourneau – Bonita Springs, FL
Carol Marsh – Greensboro, NC
Allan Mayoff – San Felipe, Baja Norte, Mexico
Roy McLeese – Washington, DC
Daniel J. Milton – Vienna, VA
Paul Noack – West Bloomfield, MI
Priscilla Olson – Framingham, MA
Patrick D. Phillips – Bainbridge Island, WA
Ned Robert – Los Gatos, CA
Joe Rogers – Old Greenwich, CT
Charles J. Rohrmann, Jr. – Scarsdale, NY
Carolyn Roosevelt – Cambridge, MA
Mordy Rosen – Berkeley, CA
Dexter Senft – Bedford, NY
Donald Stanley – Denver, CO
Edward Stejskal – Raleigh, NC
Claire Trazenfeld – Crownsville, MD
Ed Wallerstein – Prairie Village, KS
Margaret Webster – Medford, MA
Thomas Wilson – South Williamsport, PA
Jay Winter – Farmington Hills, MI