Grid: 10 minutes; Meta: 30 more
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Joint Filing” — Conrad’s writeup.
WSJ Contest – 04.11.2025
This week we’re looking for someone who might file a joint return. There were no long theme entries, but the center entry provided a clue: HINGE (Analog for a body joint, where the two parts bend). I had the right idea immediately: look for knee, etc., in the grid. I quickly found KNEE bending around the corner T. Then I found ANKLE and ELBOW. I backsolved SHOULDER after realizing I had …ATE, and MATE was the likely solution, so I looked for the M. Here are the four joints, each bending around one letter:
- M -> SHOULDER
- A -> ANKLE
- T -> KNEE
- E -> ELBOW
The joint letters spell our contest solution MATE. Another amazing puzzle by Mike: fun and intricately constructed. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Same here on finding ATE and back-solving for the M, although the letters for ELBOW were the first ones I discovered.
I went down a few rabbit holes, but ultimately I noticed the word “shoulder” going right to left and down, and I was off to the races.
I thought the idea and the construction were excellent and this was one of my favorites.
I also saw HIP at 40A giving extraneous L but it doesn’t bend the same way as the others so it can be excluded on those grounds.
I saw the HINGE hint but not the rest. With the plethora of marijuana clues in all sorts of crossword puzzles these days, I was thinking maybe JOINT had another meaning. Nice write up, Conrad!
I had to backsolve a little as well, after I realized I had the wrong bend in “elbow.” Curious that it could bend at the “b,” but that doesn’t work like the others. My other sticking point was “shoulder.” Knees, elbows, ankles, fingers and toes are hinge joints. Shoulders are ball-and-socket joints.
Another work of artistry by the master. Thank you Mr Shenk for the happy harmless addiction you so skillfully enable.
And notice that all of the joints bend in the grid like they commonly do in the body! Very elegant touch.
Point of consideration: only the elbow and knee are analogous to hinges. The shoulder is a ball-and-socket and the ankle is a mortise and tenon.
Most sites that list hinge joints include the ankle, but definitely not the shoulder. The ankle is both a type of hinge joint and the only mortise and tenon joint in the body.