Grid: 8ish; Meta: sameish
Joanne Sullivan’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Overlaps” — Laura’s review
Great to see Joanne’s byline on a meta again! Why she isn’t a regular on the roster is beyond me. This week, she’s asking us to find an eight-letter word.
WSJ Contest – 3.5.21 – Solution
There aren’t what seem to be any stand-out themers, but several pairs of entries have the same clues:
- [18a: Refuse]: SAY NO TO
- [20a: Refuse]: TRASH
- [30a: Light]: IGNITE
- [35a: Light]: THIN
- [46a: Life, for one]: GAME
- [50a: Life, for one]: CEREAL
- [60a: Put down]: ENTER
- [65a: Put down]: REPRESS
Taking those entries, if we look at their positions in the grid, we see that each entry in the pair “overlaps” with its partner (hence the puzzle’s title), spelling out SH IN GL ES, or SHINGLES, which are things that overlap, and also an eight-letter word and our answer.
Psst — [67a: “I’m Not Wearing Underwear Today” show]: AVENUE Q
This one is a little jewel of construction. I admire another level to the theme: words that overlap two unrelated meanings.
Cool way to repurpose a feature (identical clues) and squeeze all the juice out of it!
Joanne Sullivan rules, and I echo Laura’s query!