Title: Fairy Rings
Prompt: The meta answer is a literary character.
Answer: FRODO
Explanation: there are five starred entries in the grid. Each of these entries is still a valid word if you remove all of its Os (it’s just a coincidence there happen to be exactly two in each), and those new words match other clues in the grid. Like so:
22A [*Baltimore bird] ORIOLE -> RILE -> 1A [Provoke, with “up”] FIRE
28A [*Performing without backup] -> SOLOING -> SLING -> 15A [What David used to kill Goliath] ROCK
36A [*Cuddles and kisses] CANOODLES -> CANDLES -> 21A [Some aromatherapy paraphernalia] OILS
51A [*Like dark clouds or silent woods] OMINOUS -> MINUS -> 44A [-] DASH
59A [*Makes a decent living] DOESOK -> DESK -> 51D [Workspace] OFFICE
The first letters of the grid answers to those other clues spell FRODO, from The Lord of the Rings, our contest answer. A couple solvers noted that they initially put RILE instead of FIRE at 1A while they were solving the grid, which helped nudge them towards the meta path.
There were 100 correct answers – a new record for ACL! – and one incorrect submission this month. Solvers seemed to have a fun time with this one based on the comments people sent in with their answers!
Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Karen Spencer of Morgantown, WV! The prize this month is a copy of a thematically apt novel embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. I didn’t want to go with the obvious choice this month, so instead I came up with the prize via a journey of free association which will no doubt be understandable to meta solvers: Fairy Rings… well we covered the “rings” part with the puzzle itself, so what about books about fairies… books featuring fairies… well there’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell but that’s a million pages long and took me fully two months to read* so I don’t feel great about sending that to someone else… oh what about the other book by the author of JS&MN, which is a way more reasonable length**… and now we have arrived at the prize for this month: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Congratulations, Karen!
* Goodreads is telling me it’s actually 1,006 pages, but I’m not lying about the two months. It’s an impressive book, but you gotta be ready to make a commitment. If you want a slightly less intimidating commitment but still a pretty lengthy fairy-related book (563 pages), I also recommend The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker.
** 272 pages, according to Goodreads.
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 9:13 AM EST on February 1. The White Rabbit Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received last, goes to Mark Q., whose answer came in at 11:27 PM EST on February 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 February’s contest! And thank you to Madison Shultz for this fun puzzle! If you are interested in constructing a puzzle for ACL, please visit our Submit a Crossword page. See you in March with another contest from another guest constructor!
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