Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Eton Must Change” — Conrad’s writeup.
I groaned when I saw the title, and knew the answer would be Elon Musk. I pondered skipping the grid and submitting that answer, but I had this write up to complete, so here we go.
This week we’re looking for a famous name. There were six theme entries comprised of two four-letter words. Swapping one letter in each word turned them into famous people:
- B(E)AD PIT(A) -> B(R)AD PIT(T)
- ALA(S) ALD(I) -> ALA(N) ALD(A)
- AN(T)E RIC(H) -> AN(N)E RIC(E)
- S(C)AN PE(O)N -> S(E)AN PE(N)N
- VER(B) WAN(D) -> VER(A) WAN(G)
- (J)ETE R(I)SE -> (P)ETE R(O)SE
No obvious connections between those names, but my one second answer remained correct. There had to be a confirming mechanism, so I looked for it. I found it by noticing the swapped R and T in BRAD PITT, reminding me of RTS in the grid. I focused on three-letter grid entries, and there they were:
WSJ Contest – 01.12.2025
- RT[S]: B(R)AD PIT(T)
- NA[P]: ALA(N) ALD(A)
- NE[A]: AN(N)E RIC(E)
- EN[C]: S(E)AN PE(N)N
- AG[E]: VER(A) WAN(G)
- PO[X]: (P)ETE R(O)SE
The third letters of the matching three-letter entries spell SPACEX in theme entry order, confirming my one second answer: Elon Musk. Setting aside my thoughts on the subject matter: this could have been a solid meta, except that the title gave the answer away. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Rigged, Welcome to the United Banana Republics of WSJ
Yeah. I was hoping it would be Lady Gaga but alas, Alan, it was not to be.
I submitted SpaceX. What would be the point if you could get it just by looking at the title?
Absolutely agree!
Maybe this is just a rare, flawed puzzle and they should send everyone mugs. ;-)
Oh. I didn’t see anything from the pairs of swapped letters; thought about checking the 3-letter entries but didn’t and just submitted the obvious answer from the title.
We figured the list of two four-letter names in the theme entries just demonstrated the mechanism of swapping out two letters. We applied this to the two four-letter words in the title, which, as everyone else has mentioned, was obviously Elon Musk. The three-letter confirmations totally evaded us but were unnecessary. (Coincidentally, we spotted ONEL in the grid, an anagram of Elon.)
I did the same thing, would never have gotten this without that title.
The fact that the prompt was “name” and not “person” was why I went looking in the grid. When Matt doesn’t put his hint in the grid (a few usual places – last or first Down/Across or a center clue), the mantra is to check the title. For me (and others) the TITLE was the confirmation of the GRID answer.
Yeah, the title was already obvious. Then the top left corner was easy and I got 16-A right away, confirming the rabbit. Seeing I had a good chance solving the meta, I focused on the puzzle.
Then it all went downhill. So many proper nouns and names. Spent thirty minutes even with the help of wikipedia and dictionary.com clue solver. Spent time pondering whether it was SPAM or SCAM. Out of 5 stars I will give this -3 stars.
And several comments on the website gave away the answer. Don’t they have moderators watching for that?
I also saw Elon Musk immediately. However, I submitted Sissy Spacek as the answer because it applied the same mechanism as the other themers. I went back and forth, but I felt that Elon Musk was handed to us and Spacek was more of a puzzle.
Anyone else?
Or Kevin SPACEY!
I vote for Kevin Spacey! Drop the x from spaceX and change the word to a famous name–Kevin SPACEY. Gaffney frequently has puzzles with multiple steps!
At first I thought we might be looking for baseball players as in JETER. So it was ironic that answer became Pete Rose. The odd assortment of octal celebs had me scratching my head. I wanted GEORGE ORWELL to be the solution because he went to Eton. But he was 12 letters. I started looking for ETON in the grid. ENTO made me ponder maybe we were doing one of those tired ladder themes. But then ELON MUSK suddenly jumped out at me (boo!) and I then spent too much time seeking the third step or mechanism one expects. I never found it. Good for Conrad to save us the trouble. Thank you!
Hmmm, sorry this one didn’t land well. I was a concerned about people getting it from the title, and would be curious to know what % of people did so. Sort of like when you’re playing hide-and-seek in the house and you hide behind the door of the room the finder is counting to 10 in — they might see you right off the bat, but if they don’t then they’ve got a big head-desk moment coming later. Would be interested to know the % that saw it right off the title. I had the prompt read “name” instead of “person” to reduce the # who did so.
The intended path was precisely as Conrad outlined above.
You can’t win ’em all. Elon Musk was so obvious to me that I immediately dismissed it as the answer.
Same!
+1 for ET(L)ON MUST(K) matching the pattern, with SPACEX merely confirming it.
I did not see it right off that bat. I submitted SPACEX, and then realized the title fit the pattern so considered that as an extra click.
You could’ve made SpaceX the answer (prompting for a company); that way the title doesn’t give it away.
As one who rarely gets the answer to these contest puzzles, I thought this was gett-able. Saw the Elon Musk change and changed all six answers but then I was looking for a famous name (not person as you stated) by using the first letters of said answers. Obviously this went nowhere after much deliberation. Why would I look for three letter words?
I did not see it directly from the title – I followed the intended path, names, 3 letter grid entries, SPACEX, Elon, and then saw how it fit into th e title as a final confirmation.
For me it was more like hide-and-seek where you immediately see the person (in this case Elon Musk) hiding behind the door and think, “that’s too obvious, I’m going to look for something more interesting,” and then you do find something less obvious and that required much more searching.
Like Conrad, I saw the name in the title immediately. However I considered it as a near-gimme clue just to get us going. Submitted SpaceX which is a name (of a company).
I’m not sure I ever saw a meta which resolved from the title+instructions alone with zero need for the grid and clues.
This is just further proof that Elon Musk ruins things.