Grid: untimed; Meta: five minutes
Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Buy Low” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a 12-letter money-related word. I am writing this post on a long flight to Hawaii so I’ll keep it short and sweet. There were four long theme entries:
WSJ Contest – 08.27.23 – Solution
- [Employing euphemisms, say]: (DIP)LOMATIC
- [Lucky]: SEREN(DIP)ITOUS
- [Body fat, formally]: A(DIP)OSETISSUE
- [Play with the Sphinx]: OE(DIP)USREX
Matt threw us a softball with 69a (DIPS), clued as “Market downturns you might want to buy today.” All four themers contained the word DIP, which reminded me of the of the money-related phrase “Buy the dip.” I looked for the three letters below each DIP and found UNDERCHARGED, our 12-word contest solution. We’ve had a few tough WSJ metas lately and this one played like a nice summer breeze. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I appreciate an easy meta, especially when I solve it.
+1
+2
The last few weeks left me discouraged about my meta-solving skills. This was just the kind of puzzle I needed.
Much easier than the last few WSJ contest puzzles. I think I had a slump of three or four weeks of not getting the meta.
I saw the DIPs almost immediately on finishing. I played around with it for about 10 minutes, mostly trying to make some sense out of the Down letters dropping off each DIP.
When that went nowhere, I took a short break. As soon as I picked the puzzle up, I saw the bits of UND-ERC-HAR-GED and was confident that I had the answer. Probably 10 or 15 minutes, all told, for the meta.
I liked seeing SERENDIPITOUS in the grid. Such a great word, and I don’t think I have seen it in a puzzle before.
Handsome puzzle. Easier than usual and cleverly designed. Loved the clue for Oedipus Rex. :)
+3
Having DIPS in the SE was almost overkill. When I got there, I was thinking “No!! Save the gentle prompts for the tough metas when I need it!!”
I know what you mean. It would have been pretty hard to overlook all the DIPs in the theme answers even if you didn’t have that hint.
Well it might have been pretty hard to overlook all the DIPs, but I was able to accomplish said feat!
Sorry!
Forget I said anything.
I solved the meta pretty quickly. I’ve got to admit that Undercharged as the answer was a little underwhelming. Yeah, it can be about money but the buy the dip feel I got solving the grid had me expecting more.
I wouldn’t want them all this easy, but yeah, it was nice not to grind so hard this week. Got the MGWCC too so it was a satisfying weekend.