Grid: untimed; Meta: 20 minutes
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Hear, Hear!” — Conrad’s writeup.
This we’re looking an apt 10-letter phrase. There were four long two-word theme entries:
- TAILGATE: [Site for a pregame party]
- NEWWORLD: [Dvoák symphony subject]
- REINDEER: [Comet, e.g.]
- FOREPAWS: [Dogs offer them when asked to shake]
Mike’s title prompted me to look for homophones. I didn’t find much in the grid, so I turned to the clues. IDOL’s clue “Beloved one” struck me as odd: DEAR was a better definition. I had the rabbit: DEAR is a homophone of DEER. I worked out the rest of the matching entries fairly quickly:
WSJ Contest – 10.27.2024
- YARN [Story] -> TALE (TAIL)
- ONAIR [Way to walk] -> GAIT (GATE)
- RHINO [Serengeti beast] -> GNU (NEW)
- EDDIED [Went around in circles] -> WHIRLED (WORLD)
- REIN [Occupy the throne] -> RULE (REIGN)
- IDOL [Beloved one] -> DEAR (DEER)
- TEN [One of a pair of numbers before “good buddy”] -> FOUR (FORE)
- EJECT [VCR button] -> PAUSE (PAWS)
The mapped entries spell YORE RITE, a homophone for our 10-letter contest solution YOU’RE RIGHT. I thought this puzzle was methodical, but classic Shenk. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
The problem is, “dear” is also the answer to the clue “Hard to find” (i.e., scarce), so I was stuck on “yore rste.” And, before that, “dear” is also the answer to the clue “Casual greeting” (i.e., “hey”), so I was stuck on “yore rhte.” Never connected “dear” with “Beloved one.”
I don’t see that as definitional. Scarcity is an observable quality, whereas dearness is something that is ascribed to things. You may hold something dear or precious because it is relatively rare, but that isn’t the same thing at all.
I spent too much time thinking about what’s a homophone for “world”, until I checked the wiktionary.
You have to imagine whirled peas.
It was new and gnu that did for me for a while.
I got it but boy, I would have gotten it a lot earlier if I had ever heard of the expression “Ten Four, Good Buddy.” I only know of Hang Ten (I know, hang is not a number.)
I thought maybe the word was FOR instead of FOUR and “A Big Fan of” seemed to fit that. So I had INTO at first, but that gave me two I’s, then switched to GUEST (“Member of the Party) which gave me OREREIGY. Could it be IGOR EYER (thinking maybe this was a Halloween theme, so I came up with the answer THE MONSTER. haha. I’ve been watching too many horror films of late.)
Later out of desperation I decided to look up the phrase Ten Good Buddy in Google and FOUR popped up. I had the T.
All of this is by way of saying that it took me FORever to get YORE RITE (You’re Right!) because I had never heard of “Ten Four Good Buddy.” But perseverance indeed pays off!
Mission accomplished even though I missed the GNU sighting.
All around a GRATE THYME!
Not gonna lie…. I was expecting Nirvana’s “You Know You’re Right” to be the song of the week. It’s been earworming me whenever I’ve thought about this puzzle this weekend….
P.S. Conrad
That should be REIGN up above in the list of changed words.
Fixed, thanks!
I got the answer, but for some reason, I completely didn’t see EJECT for PAUSE. Now that I think about it, I believe I had an incorrect letter in my finished puzzle. That could have been disastrous.) I knew it had to be YORE RITE though. (Conrad, EJECT is not highlighted in red as all the other words are.)
Really cool one and a fun get. I had some issues looking for 2 more homonyms to go with the 8 since we’re looking for a 10-letter answer. Luckily I was able sea the lite.