Grid: 20 minutes; meta: 1 more
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Aftermath” — Conrad’s review.
This week we’re told: The answer to this week’s contest crossword is a six-letter math term. There are six long theme entries:
- [17a: Its role is keeping a check on medical research]: ETHICSCOMMITTEE
- [22a: Police, quaintly]: BOYSINBLUE
- [34a: It’s celebrated seven Sundays after Easter]: PENTECOST
- [43a: Try]: PROSECUTE
- [52a: “That was only a rhetorical question”]: DONTANSWER
- [60a: Pablo Escobar and his kind]: NARCOTERRORISTS
WSJ Contest – 09.17.21 – Solution
The title and final across entry (TRIG) indicated that each of the six themers contained one of the six trigonometry functions, with the subsequent letters forming a math term:
- ETHICSC(O)MMITTEE: Cosecant
- BOYSIN(B)LUE: Sine
- PENTECOS(T): Cosine
- PROSEC(U)TE: Secant
- DONTAN(S)WER: Tangent
- NARCOT(E)RRORISTS: Cotangent
The letters following each trigonometry abbreviation spell OBTUSE, our meta solution. We’ll end with this classic by Sam Cooke.
Easiest one from Mike in a while I thought! Figured out the trick after the first themer, figured out the answer after the third. Then again, I’m a physics teacher so I use trig a lot…
Each of these six is a ratio–thus RATIOS seems to be an appropriate answer
FWIW, “obtuse” is not a math term, it is just an adjective. “Obtuse angle” is.
I’m okay with OBTUSE.