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Congratulations! You have SOLVEd the mystery of the missing link! The video below explains what to do next. Give it a listen, and then scroll down the page for the final instructions.

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Oh, were you expecting a contest that you could enter to win a special prize? Sorry, but there is no contest. I did what Mr. Astley said I shouldn’t do: I told a lie. Hopefully I didn’t hurt you.

But to make it up to you, I hid two other features in the puzzle:

  1. The first letters of the clues to the 11 thematic Across answers, in clue order, spell out what just happened.
  2. There’s a familiar two-word phrase hidden diagonally in the puzzle that explains why I did it.