Title: “State of Communication”
Prompt: The meta answer is a novel published in the 1980s whose title would make a good sixth theme answer.
Answer: THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE (by John Irving)
Explanation: each of the five longest across entries contains, in some order, the name of a US state and a letter in the NATO phonetic alphabet. So we’re looking for a book title from the 1980s that also fits this pattern, and as far as I know, there’s only one option: THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE by John Irving. (I also accepted just HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE, no The.)
Many solvers noticed, correctly, that The Hotel New Hampshire doesn’t quite fit the pattern of the other themers because of that pesky “The.” Really, the right answer to a puzzle with this mechanism would be “Hotel California,” but alas this is not the MMMM! I actually checked multiple times to see if Pete Muller had already used this mechanism before I went ahead with this puzzle, but it doesn’t seem like he has. So given the unavailability of the right answer, we’re left with the next best answer that fits the prompt, which gets us The Hotel New Hampshire.
There were 101 correct answers (a new ACL record!) and 2 incorrect submissions this month. So that pesky “The” didn’t seem to hold most solvers back. Several solvers also commented on the tightness of the theme set, and a couple people sent in some other viable themers. Other than “Hotel California,” there’s also Arizona Charlie (one solver submitted this as a wrong answer, and although Arizona Charlie is notable enough to have his own Wikipedia page and appears to be the namesake of two hotels in Las Vegas, he is not, as far as I know, the eponym for a book published in the 1980s) and Texas Tango (thanks to Claudia T. for this one, which is indeed a book, but not one that fits the prompt). Also shout-out to Mike G. who signed his submission email Mike Illinois.
Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Jamie McKnight of Denver, CO! The prize this month is a copy of a thematically apt novel embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. I had a very hard time picking the prize this month but ultimately extrapolated from the clue for SIERRA NEVADA, where some solvers may have noticed the word “California” appears as a nod to that elusive right answer. A novel related to brewing with either a state or a NATO letter in its title, perhaps? In other words, the prize this month is The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal. Congratulations, Jamie!
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/or rate the puzzle.
Dubious Honors
This month’s Tick-Tock Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received first, goes to Adam D., whose answer came in at 9:35 AM EDT on July 1. The White Rabbit Award, which is awarded to the solver whose submission I received last, goes to Eric S., whose answer came in at 11:48 PM EDT on July 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 July’s contest! See you in August, and in the meantime, keep passing the open windows. 😉
Ex libris Ariadne
Ariadne's Crossword Library 