Title: “No One Can Divide Them” Prompt: The meta answer is a novel. Answer: WUTHERING HEIGHTS Explanation: The clue for 32A PRIMES is phrased in a suggestive way, given the puzzle title: [You can’t divide them (except by one and themselves)]. Looking for prime numbers leads to the numbered squares in the grid, and taking…

Title: Use Your Inside Voice Prompt: The meta answer is a well-known children’s novel. Answer: THE SECRET GARDEN Explanation: something strange is going on with four long across entries. To make the letters work with the crossing downs, the words ROSE (in MICROSECONDS), RAIN (in EXTRAINNINGS), ZEN (in JAZZENSEMBLE), and HERB (in BUTCHERBLOCK) have to…

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…

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…

Title: Gift Wrapping Prompt: The meta answer is a character associated with the holiday season. Answer: The Grinch Explanation: The three longest across entries don’t appear to have much in common, but they do all have the same trigram, BOW, appearing in them. 69A TOP, clued as [Surface of a gift that the bow goes…

Title: The Ending Places Prompt: The meta answer is a prolific science fiction author. Answer: URSULA K. LE GUIN The four longest across entries are:17A: TROUBADOURS31A: ORIONNEBULA48A: LIVEBOOTLEG64A: KINGPENGUINThe last three letters of each of these entries, read in order, spell URSULA LE GUIN. But wait, didn’t she also go by her middle initial? That’s…

Title: In Search of a Colorful MetaphorPrompt: The meta answer is a metaphor with its origins in American literature that could serve as a fifth theme entry.Answer: WHITE WHALE (from Moby-Dick) Explanation: there are four theme entries in the puzzle:16A {*Absolutely perfect candidate, to human resources} PURPLE SQUIRREL21A {*Hidden-away family member,perhaps} BLACK SHEEP43A {*Awkward suspect…

Title: Don’t Hate the Player Prompt: The meta answer is a Shakespeare play.Answer: HAMLET Explanation: six across entries are all clued the same way: [It’s played by a certain player]. The players in question can be found in six other clues in the puzzle:BASEBALL -> 49A {Hand-___ coordination (outfielder‘s asset)} EYEPOLITICS -> 24A {___-ran (losing…

Title: Shh! This Is a Library! Prompt: The meta answer is a fictional bibliophile. Answer: BELLE (from Beauty & the Beast) Explanation: each of five long across entries (whose clues are starred) contains one silent letter : 18A GASHLYCRUMB29A YETTOCOME38A COULDNTHURT47A HALFHUMAN60A JUSTIMAGINE Those silent letters spell BELLE, as in the protagonist from Beauty &…

Title: Go By Prompt: The meta answer is a science fiction author. Answer: N. K. JEMISIN Explanation: four long across answers are authors who often go by their first initials: G. K. CHESTERTON, P. G. WODEHOUSE, H. P. LOVECRAFT, AND L. M. MONTGOMERY. Four two-word clues in the puzzle match these sets of initials:3D [Good kick?]…