Puzzle 40: This is How You Win The Puzzle War
This puzzle is inspired by the 2019 novel This Is How You Lose the Time War, and the recent events that have made that novel suddenly trendy again. If you know what those events are, you don’t need me to rehash them here. If you don’t, well, there’s no good way of explaining them without spoiling most of the puzzle. Also, if you haven’t read the book yet, you really should. It’s still really cheap at Amazon, but you can also find it on Bookshop.org, or at your local independent bookseller.
Thanks to Ken Stern and Jeremy Koenig for test-solving this. I’ve added some notes below the embedded puzzle, so be sure to check them out after solving.
This story was covered in dozens of publications, including Slate, Tech Crunch, Gizmodo, and even The New York Times. The best way to read about it, though, is to check out either of the co-authors‘s blogs.
A few notes on some of the clues and answers.
- 16-A: Odin (or Allfather) is an important character in Naomi Mitchison’s 1952 novel Travel Light, which is referenced several times in This Is How Your Lose the Time War.
- 34-A: HBCU stands for “Historically Black College or University”.
- 38-A: @maskofbun’s full screen name is Bigolas Dickolas Wolfwood, which is a reference to a character named Nicholas Wolfwood in the manga series Trigun. But everyone has been referring to him by only his first two names.
- 57-A: Do not watch this movie. It’s dumb even by Christmas movie standards.
- 40-D: Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan’s original version of Wavin’ Flag was a moderate success in 2009. The next year he recorded a new version as the “Coca-Cola Celebration Mix”, which was used to promote Coca-Cola at the 2010 World Cup. That version was a top 10 hit in over a dozen countries.
- 46-D: There’s a minor character in Stella Gibbons’ 1932 novel Cold Comfort Farm who is trying to prove that Branwell Brontë was the real author of all the books attributed to Anne, Charlotte and Emily – which is even dumber than the idea that the Earl of Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s plays.
- 54-D: The Mets are in their 15th season at Citi Field. You’d think I’d be used to the name by now.
- 59-D: NTID is the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which is part of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
- 60-D: Shaq is the nickname of former NBA great Shaquille O’Neal. Bayou Barbie is Angel Reese, who was named Most Outstanding Player in the 2023 NCAA basketball tournament. Livvy is gymnast Olivia Dunne, who recently rizzed up Baby Gronk. (If you’re not sure what that means, you can read this. Or just take comfort in not knowing.)