WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: 10 more 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Inside Out” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re looking a well-known movie of the 1980s. There were six long theme entries:
- CRADLECORK: [Lovingly hold an item at a winery?]
- DANCESVOWELS: [Moves in the shape of A’s, O’s and U’s at a disco?]
- READYNEO: [Question to Keanu before shooting a “Matrix” scene?]
- EYESTHUS: [Demand to keep one’s peepers just as instructed?]
- TOMORROWSIDE: [Album half to listen to 24 hours from now?]
- SAVINGYARN: [Thrifty knitter’s obsession?]
I spotted the theme pretty quickly: movies with one mangled word and one missing word (CRADLE CORK -> Cradle Will Rock, etc). I tried to map the missing words back to the grid and found nothing. Then I checked the clues and found the rabbit. There were six clues containing a word matching the missing word of the theme movies:
WSJ Contest – 05.16.2025
- CLOT: What blood will do to heal a wound -> Cradle Will Rock
- ONION: ___ rings (they may come with a burger) -> Dances with Wolves
- CHESS: Game whose top player is Magnus Carlsen -> Ready Player One
- ODES: Works on a wide range of topics -> Eyes Wide Shut
- OLEG: Cassini who never let Jacqueline Kennedy down -> Tomorrow Never Dies
- NORA: Wife of private detective Nick -> Saving Private Ryan
The mapped grid entries spell our contest solution COCOON. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Brilliant!
…and fun
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Excellent puzzle from Matt! I recognized early on the missing word from the three letter movie titles could be found in the clues but I had a hard time fiding “with” in the clues. I found it in 3D by back solving. Matt hid it well.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Excellent puzzle from Matt! I recognized early on the missing word from the three letter movie titles could be found in the clues but I had a hard time fiding “with” in the clues. I found it in 3D by back solving. Matt hid it well.
Apologies for the duplicate entry. User error. Ugh!
Among the six entries, ONION is the only down entry, all the others are across
Great work Matt!! Such a fun one! Great puzzle referencing a great movie!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
This was great fun! And a very impressive construction. My only problem was that I had not heard of these movies, except Saving Private Ryan. I vaguely recalled The Hand that Rocks the Cradle but that didn’t fit the meta. So I had to resort to IMDB. It took a little longer for me than it should have, but that only made the pleasure last longer. Kudos to Matt.
PS Ironically the only one of these movies I’d seen was Cocoon. And then only because it was shot in my hometown.
I’m disappointed that I couldn’t solve this one.
I’m a big movie fan and went to the movies often in the 1980s and 1990s. I quickly found all the missing words from the titles. (“Tomorrow Never Dies” took a little to dredge up; Pierce Brosnan was OK as Bond but those movies were pretty bad.)
Then I hit a wall. On Saturday, it occurred to me to try to map “private,” “never,” and the other missing words onto the grid. I didn’t get around to trying it until Sunday afternoon, and as Conrad noted, that didn’t go anywhere.
I did scan the clues, but somehow “private” didn’t catch my eye. (“Private” and “player” were the the least common of the missing words, so I tried to focus on them.)
It’s a very good meta. I’d have enjoyed it more if I had solved it, but that’s on me.
Argh. Got the six words… didn’t find them in the clues.
I got hung up on “Inside Out” as a puzzle title. I guess the missing words are the “inside” words in the 3-word titles, but I’m not exactly sure how Inside Out makes sense??
The answers were “inside” 6 of the clues??
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Movie madness fun!
Finally got enough exposure to xword metas to know to look in the clues when the hanging chads aren’t paying off directly.
Thx!