Grid: untimed; Meta a minute
Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Just Doing My Part” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a five-letter proper noun. I struggled to complete the grid, which normally means the grid is getting a meta-related workout. That was true this week. There were four long horizontal theme entries, each containing REDSEA:
WSJ Contest Solution – 07.28.24
- F(REDSEA)TON: Nebraska senator who became Interior secretary under Eisenhower
- COVE(REDSEA)TING: Good spot during a rain delay
- STO(REDSEA)RCHES: How Google guesses what you’re looking for
- EA(REDSEA)LS: Semiaquatic mammals
MOSES, our contest solution, famously parted the RED SEA. Short writeup for a straightforward meta this week. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I spent hours looking for something more complicated. Or at least something making Moses explicit in the puzzle. It couldn’t just be Moses, could it?
I had the same experience—saw the Red Seas immediately, figured the answer had to be Moses, and kept coming back to the puzzle over the weekend to try to find the intermediate steps….
Did anyone else get tripped up by the hidden SEA in 5d and RED 44d? Their placement seemed too coincidental and made me look for the RED SEA actually being parted somehow.
Possibly the easiest meta I have yet solved. I didn’t notice the RED SEAs while solving, but when I finished the grid, I immediately saw the one in FRED SEATON (Who? A minor cabinet member from 60 or 70 years ago?).
It took me a minute or two after finding the other RED SEAs to realize that’s all there was to it.
I suppose that if you don’t know the story of Moses leading the Exodus, this would have been challenging.
Agree. The RED SEA’S were consistent in the theme answers (especially with the obscure Eisenhower Administration Cabinet Official). What else could it be?
Note that all the RED SEAs were parted, ie separate words.
I noticed that COVETING, one of the sins forbidden by the 10 Commandments, is “parted” by the REDSEA in 26A, but this did not turn out to be part of the theme.
I agree with Eric H, this is one of the easiest metas ever. I choose to believe that it was Matt’s attempt to atone for inflicting a week 5 level challenge on us in MGWCC week 3…thanks, Matt, I do appreciate it.
Moses didn’t part the Red Sea…God did. Moses was there, but it wasn’t his doing.
But Moses did his part.
LOL!
100 % right David. It was the Judeo Christian god that did the parting in the fable. Hmmm, Yahweh is 6 letters and Yhwh is only 4. So Allah is the best answer, methinks.
I am seeing July 16 as the date on this. anyone else?
Fun puzzle! Got it quickly. No complaints here. :)
It looks like Conrad made a typo in the date. It happens.
Fixed, thanks!
I have fired the intern.
Lol! (But which one of your many?)
This was so terrible I didn’t even bother submitting. There’s absolutely no reason within the meta for it to be Moses.
He leads the way
We follow
Very slowly….
Moses on a snail.
96% of entrants (1,945 solvers) submitted MOSES, boss. Sorry you weren’t one of them.
Absolutely amazing…absolutely…
The answer makes perfect sense to me. Can you derive it from the grid? No, not if you don’t know the story of Moses and the Red Sea.
Thanks for a fun and easy meta.
Hi Matt – I like the idea that you lob out a softie-Meta every so often because us mainstream solvers lose interest in multi-stage Metas.
Thx for the fun puzzle!
Would EGYPT been accepted s correct?