Grid:8 minutes; Meta: 12 more
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Under Wraps” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for what you might experience when opening a gift. There were no clear theme entries, but Mike parked a clue in his usual spot (last horizontal entry): SANTA, clued as Secret ___ (office gift exchange).
We were looking for secret Santas. I saw none in the grid so I turned to the clues. I noticed the similarity and oddness in Pheasant attribute and Pleasant area. I had the rabbit: there were eight clues containing SANTA:
WSJ Contest – 12.22.2024
- 1a: SIDES -> What those who are parti(san ta)ke
- 19a: UPON -> Conver(sant a)bout
- 21a: RINGNECK -> Phea(sant a)ttribute
- 26a: PENGUIN -> Flightles(s Anta)rctic inhabitant
- 42a: ROLL -> Crois(sant a)lternative
- 50a: ITALIAN -> Pi(san ta)lk
- 55a: SCORPIUS -> Constellation that contain(s Anta)res
- 70a: EDEN -> Plea(sant a)rea
The entries hiding secret Santas in their clues spell our contest solution SURPRISE. A very Shenkian puzzle: a classic nudge in the lower right, and SANTA spanned two words in varying ways. Solvers: please share you thoughts.
Huzzah! I was looking for “SECRET” in the clues at first (anagrams only) then realized I should be looking for “SANTA” instead. A much better gift than last week!! (for me,anyway) Merry Christmas to All!
I got there eventually, but found the title extremely misleading.