Grid: 12 minutes; Meta: 8 more
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Watch It!” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for an outmoded device. There were two long across entries, each containing “TV”. I looked for other TVs in across entries and found five total:
WSJ Contest – 03.14.2025
- TRANSI(TV)AN: Light commercial vehicle from Ford
- PAR(TV): Friday episode of a miniseries, perhaps
- LA(TV)IA: NATO member since 2004
- OU(TV)OTE: Defeat in a race
- ASSEENON(TV): Label for a product hawked on infomercials
ASSEENONTV served as both a themer and a clue to the meta: look “on” the TV’s, here are those entries/letters:
- [RA]GE
- STA[BB]ED
- [IT]A
- [EA]GER
- RADA[RS]
The letters on the TVs spell our contest solution RABBITEARS. Lovely meta; I throughly enjoyed it. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Easiest one in a long time! Seeing the meta helped me solve the NE corner.
+1
I really liked this one!! Plus, I love how precise and literal Mike Shenk is!! It all fits together perfectly. The clue -‘As Seen On TV’ to letters sitting on top the letters TV. To Rabbit Ears -which also sit atop a TV set! Well done Mike!!
Was stumped for a while but then re-read the As Seen on TV entry and the solution hopped out at me. I did think the answer might require one step further — ANTENNA — since the puzzle said we were looking for a device. Not plural. I submitted both. I hope that didn’t disqualify me. :-)
Nice one, Mike!
Another elegant masterpiece Mr Shenk thank you
A pair of letters, sitting atop each TV, like an actual pair of Rabbit Ears? That’s a great visual flourish. No aluminum foil required!
Also, CRT intersects the T in the first TV, and is “on” TV, and is an outmoded device in modern television sets.
While modern TVs may still have an antenna, it would be an HDTV antenna, not rabbit ears.