Grid: 15 minutes; meta: 5 more
Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “What Should I Where?” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a four-letter part of the body. There were four numbered theme entries, each containing a piece of clothing:
- [17a: 1989 World Series MVP who also pitched a no-hitter in 1990 (1)]: DAVESTEWART
- [11d:Eponym of an Australian island (2)]: ABELTASMAN
- [57a: “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben-Hur” co-star (3)]: MARTHASCOTT
- [28d: Whose Line Is It Anyway?” host since 2013 (4)]: AISHATYLER
Those four pieces of clothing matched a grid entry containing a body part once one letter was changed:
- VEST -> CHEST-> CHES(S)
- BELT -> WAIST -> W(H)IST
- ASCOTT -> NECK -> N(O)CK
- HAT -> HEAD -> HE(E)D
The changed letters spell SHOE, leading to FOOT, our contest solution.
Also, the entry FOOD is one letter off of FOOT, which seals the deal.
Great catch, I missed that. FOOT was such a lock that I stopped looking. Makes the puzzle even more elegant.
I think Matt put the numbers in the 4 theme clues because the letters also spell HOSE, which is also an article of clothing – which would have let to LEGS which is also a 4 letter part of the body. The numbers ensure that SHOE is the answer.
8D: Ada Blackjack has quite the biography and is worth reading about here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Blackjack
Thanks for that link. What an interesting story. I’d never heard of her.
Thanks to Mike for leaving Ada Blackjack in. I went looking for other ADAs for the clue, read her story and…wow
There was also TEE in the grid. Indicating, perhaps, the switch in FOOD from D to T.
This was one of the easier ones for me. I’ve only gotten the solutions a few times but this one came faster than the others. I think because the word NOCK stuck out at me and when I saw ASCOT, I immediately thought of NECK, and I was off to the races, pardon the pun.
STEN is in the grid (one letter off from VEST), along with TOAST (ASCOT), and ACH (HAT). Nothing for BELT, but I couldn’t get out of that hole.
Also, COAST was a clue, but nothing doing there, either.
I got as far as finding the pieces of clothing (which was pretty easy). Just didn’t notice the neck/nock waist/whist stuff, even though NOCK and WHIST are uncommon grid entries.