Marie Kelly’s Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Mind the Gap”—Laura’s review
I’m back from Lollapuzzoola and a week-long family vacation. Thanks to Derek for covering last week’s WSJ contest (I solved it post-Lolla in a Chelsea bar with my trivia team after we placed 3rd).
WSJ Contest – 8.24.18 – Solution
We’re looking for a six-letter noun, and the title warns us to mind the gap. Which gap? Let’s take a look at the starred entries:
- [17a: *Post-parade detritus]: TICKER TAPE. Now that stock tickers are electronic, what gets thrown at parades?
- [21a: *“All Along the Watchtower” songwriter]: BOB DYLAN. Recorded in 1967 for John Wesley Harding, but familiar to many from the 1968 Jimi Hendrix Experience cover. And also an important plot twist in Battlestar Galactica.
- [32a: *It may make waves]: CURLING IRON
- [42a: *Heckler from the dugout]: BENCH JOCKEY. This one was new to me. I Learned a Thing.
- [54a: *Bravura performance]: STAR TURN
- [60a: *Selenium-rich snack]: BRAZIL NUTS
Nothing seems to be related from the meaning or sense of the themers, so let’s go to an extraction method from Metasolving 101: Put things in a list, and see what emerges:
TICKER TAPE
BOB DYLAN
CURLING IRON
BENCH JOCKEY
STAR TURN
BRAZIL NUTS
We were told to mind the gap, so in my list I included the “gap” in each two-word phrase. Hmmm, could something go in there? Wait, BOB ends with B, and DYLAN begins with D — in that gap we could put C. Do the other gaps between words work that way? Why, so they do!
TICKER S TAPE
BOB C DYLAN
CURLING H IRON
BENCH I JOCKEY
STAR S TURN
BRAZIL M NUTS
And there’s our answer: SCHISM, which is a kind of gap or break. I thought this was an excellent “advanced beginner” meta — in that, it wasn’t immediately gettable from the entries, but took just one more step of lateral reasoning. Your thoughts?
It took me way longer to see SCHISM than it should have, but that’s because I fell into the trap of seeing HOCKEY split apart by the J in BENCH JOCKEY.
44 Across was also a significant clue for the meta – Gap between words (Space)
Took me about a minute to get this. Usually takes me much much longer! Really fun.
I’ve figured out the meta answer before I even finished the grid. Especially S/SE gave me a lot of trouble. I’m glad that you can simply fill in random letters and submit your answer once you’re sure.
I was glad to see a meta I could solve. I don’t really want the mug, but just the satisfaction.
There is an exact two-letter space between the last letter of the first word and first letter of the second word in each case. That’s bizarre inn itself.