SF Chronicle Sunday Magazine 08/01/2010 - Merl's Word-O-Rama

[notyou]

Hi all --

I infrequently pick-up the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine when we're at breakfast joint that has a copy or my parents' house.

The inside-back-page features "Merl Reagle's Word-O-Rama".  On at least two occasions the puzzle there was the same as the one in the Philadelphia Inquirer, but this past week it appears it was a "locals-only" puzzle that included a contest about the meta.  To wit:

http://www.sundaycrosswords.com/MYSECRETVACATION.htm

A friend and I could not ferret out the secret puzzle.  Did anybody else, and can you clue us in?  If you think it'd be ok, I can post the grid, for folks who aren't local to the Bay Area.

On a related note, does anybody know the schedule of these "local-only" puzzles?  Maybe I should have my parents start saving the magazine for me.

[Norm451]

Sorry, I recycled my paper already or I'd take a shot at it.  Didn't know the paper sometimes had different ones.  Thanks for the tip.  Just imagine, a weekend with two Merl puzzles!  What a treat.

[notyou]

Well, not sure how often Word-O-Rama runs, but ah, yes, the Philly/syndicated version is in the back of the Pink Section (Datebook).

[Norm451]

Found a copy.  Contest is over, so I assume it's okay to post.  The cities are Dallas, Seattle, El Paso, and Oakland -- running counter-clockwise (on the diagonal) from the D in EDNA at 78A.  Cute.  I assume the airline was Southwest. 

[notyou]

Oh darn, should've checked here first.  Well, I Litzed it, in case anybody else wanted to give the puzzle a try too:  http://www.rudebadmood.com/wordorama.20100801.puz