Jam Nine
Next week sometime, you can meet the Dalai Lama, take a trip to the Arctic and hear about the charisma of men in lab coats. You can also do a peculiar crossword.
Sophie Cunningham, the editor of Meanjin, inspired the idea. To help celebrate the 70th birthday of this literary quarterly, she wanted a puzzle, and no ordinary puzzle. Together we conjured up the crossword you’ll see the March issue, due out soon, where two separate stories hold two separate sets of clues for two separate grids.
Confused? You won’t be, once you dive into the challenge, though you may be pushed to solve every corner of the Cryptic Story or the Straight Story, depending which yarn you choose. But there’s a reward at the end, with the winner being the clever sausage to best sprinkle the 22 answers into their own literary composition.
If your eyebrow is slowly rising, or your pencil finger itching, I suggest you pester your beloved bookseller for Meanjin Volume 69, Number 1 – the March edition. You’ll even hear how Maurilia Meehan dropped out of flying school, which should be worth the cover price alone.
Good luck. Don’t forget the parachute.