Title: Are You Missing Something?
Prompt: The meta answer is a five-word book title which may describe how you find yourself after solving this puzzle’s grid.
Answer: IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME
Explanation: four entries don’t quite fit their clues, but they would if you added one of the letters T, I, M, or E to them. For example, CHAPERONE, clued as [Book opening], should really be CHAPTERONE. The full list:
21A CHAP(T)ERONE [Book opening]
31A HEADWA(I)TERS [Front of house supervisors]
41A ICANT(M)AKEIT [“Sorry, my schedule is full”]
52A B(E)ARCRAWLS [Strength exercises with an ursine name]
Rereading the prompt, how does four missing letters describe how you, the solver, may find yourself after solving the grid? You may find yourself IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, which is the English translation of Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu.
There were 75 correct answers and 10 incorrect submissions this month. People’s mileage varied enormously based on how familiar they were with this book title. Several solvers remarked in comments sent in with their submissions that they were much more familiar with the original, less literal translation of this work’s title into English: Remembrance of Things Past. Thanks to solver Rich P. for going so far as to include a Google Books Ngram of the relative use of the two English titles:
So although In Search of Lost Time has taken the lead in recent years, Remembrance of Things Past has been in use much longer.
Shout out to two extra test solvers this month, Adam D. and Aaron T., who, along with regular test solvers Meg D. and Laura M., helped enormously in work-shopping the title and prompt for this one.
Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Heather Gearan of Acton, MA! The prize this month is a copy of a thematically apt novel embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. This month I’m going with another novel with TIME in the title, although not one that anyone entered as an incorrect submission. This month the prize is A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (which, and this is not a spoiler, in addition to having TIME in the title, also contains references to À la recherche du temps perdu in its plot). Congratulations, Heather!
You can read Ben Chenoweth’s blog post about this month’s contest over at Crossword Fiend, where you can also leave a comment and rate the puzzle.
Dubious Honors
This month’s Tick-Tock Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received first, goes to Alexander M., whose answer came in at 9:27 AM EST on January 1. The White Rabbit Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received last, goes to Matthew M., whose answer came in at 8:38 PM EST on January 5. I have no actual prizes to hand out to these solvers, they just get the satisfaction of BOOKending this month’s contest. Well done!
Can you beat their times next month??
Thank you to everyone who submitted an answer to January’s contest! And thank you to Hannah Binney for her second contribution to ACL! If you are interested in constructing a puzzle for ACL, please visit our Submit a Crossword page. See you in February with another puzzle from another guest constructor!
Ex libris Ariadne
Ariadne's Crossword Library 