Ariadne’s Crossword Library, February 2025

 

G’day, it’s benchen71 here, with another selection from Ariadne’s Crossword Library. Let’s see what Emma Oxford has for us this month. February’s puzzle was indeed constructed by Emma Oxford and is entitled “How Can You Read This?”. It comes with the meta prompt: The meta answer is a novel.

There are 7 starred clues:

• 1A {*Be overprotective toward} BABY
• 2A {*Confront} FACE
• 3A {*Suffix for some musical instruments} PHONE
• 43A {*Big ___ (fast food option)} MAC
• 75A {*What the sock you just pulled out of the dryer is probably missing} MATCH
• 76A {*Once around the sun} YEAR
• 77A {*Dominate} RULE

So what now? Given the size of the grid (it’s 17×15) and the fact that most of the starred entries are at the very top and bottom, I’m thinking “alternate answers to other clues”. And one jumped out at me almost immediately: 31D {Apple creation} SIRI. That clue had struck me as odd at the time. SIRI is not the first thing you think of; why not one of those common cruciverbalist fill words IPAD or IPOD? Anyway, a MAC is also an Apple creation. [Fun fact: the first computer I ever bought was a PowerBook, but at the time we just referred to all Apple computers as MACs.]

To confirm the mechanism let’s see if we can find what BABY links to. OK, here’s one that could work: 67A {A parent may look at one nostalgically} ULTRASOUND. But I’m not having much luck with the others, though. I guess RULE could link to 24A {It might be checked for guidance} SYLLABUS? But I’m finding nothing for FACE, PHONE, MATCH, or YEAR. [Fun aside: I kept coming back to 52A {Word whose meaning doesn’t change if you add an F in the middle}, but FAFCE and YEFAR really don’t work!]

Wait a sec… if I add BOOK to FACE, it goes beautifully with 58A {Social networking site} LINKEDIN. And very quickly I can see that the remaining three work by adding BOOK too. But why a different mechanism for BABY, MAC and RULE? Actually, now I stop to think about it, you can add BOOK to those as well! [And this makes much better sense of “nostalgically”!]

• BABYBOOK > 67A {A parent may look at one nostalgically} ULTRASOUND
• FACEBOOK > 58A {Social networking site} LINKEDIN
• PHONEBOOK > 41D {Resource where you might find a local business} YELP
• MACBOOK > 31D {Apple creation} SIRI
• MATCHBOOK > 36D {A visitor may take one as a souvenir} SHELL
• YEARBOOK > 33D {Certain end-of-semester output} ESSAY
• RULEBOOK > 24A {It might be checked for guidance} SYLLABUS

The first letters of these new entries spell what can only be the contest answer: ULYSSES, a novel by James Joyce. This was a fun meta that unfolded nicely for me. While I didn’t get the full mechanism immediately, adding BOOK to entries really does fit beautifully with the title: how can I read this? Make a book of it! [It’s also possible that this is a deliberate dig at the fact that Ulysses is notorious for its difficulty: how can anyone read this?!? Not for nothing does it top Goodreads “Most Difficult Novels” list!]

Now to submit my entry and hope my name is drawn out for the prize! If you haven’t already, you can sign up to the ACL mailing list at the bottom of this page.