WSJ (Contest) Grid: 20 minutes; Meta: an hour 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Go West” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re looking for two eight-letter U.S. states. If you solve metas or cryptic crosswords, you know that “west” often indicates that you should go right to left. That’s what I did, and I found four state capitals:
- BOSTON -> THATIS(NOTSOB)AD: [“Come on, you can handle this!”]
- DOVER -> BELVEDE(REVOD)KA: [Booze pitched by John Legend and Chelsea Handler]
- SALEM -> CAR(MELAS)OPRANO: [She looks a lot like Nurse Jackie]
- TOPEKA -> T(AKEPOT)SHOTSAT: [Attack unfairly]
WSJ Contest – 05.30.2025
I dutifully listed the states that matched the capitals:
- Massachusetts -> Boston
- Delaware -> Dover
- Oregon -> Salem
- Kansas -> Topeka
The answer was staring me straight in the face, but I decided to run down a bunch of dead rabbit holes. I looked at a map of US state capitals, scanning east to west. I scanned the grid for Ms, Ds, Os, and Ks. Other fruitless efforts followed. I finally looked at my notes, and my aha/duh! moment hit: MD OK. Maryland and Oklahoma. Two eight-letter U.S. states that are also our contest solution. Solvers: please share your thoughts. I’ll end with the greatest song ever written about Massachusetts.
I kept trying to do something with the rest of the letters in the two-letter state abbreviations, and finally, about 20 minutes before the deadline, realized the first letters gave me MD and OK.
I saw the backwards capitals and thought about the associated states.
But with Boston and Dover in the top half and Salem and Topeka in the bottom, I looked for eight-letter states in between those pairs of cities. That gave me Maryland and Colorado. (Yes, I know my reasoning was pretty weak.) Maybe I should get half a mug?
Thanks for the Jonathan Richman, Conrad. It helps ease the pain of my continued streak of WSJ contest failures.
go west from Delaware gets Maryland [8 letters]
go west from Kansas gets Colorado [8 letters]
go west from Oregon gets Hawaii [not 8]
go west from Mass get New York [not 8]
qed
Glad I’m not the only one who convinced myself this was the way to go.
I actually think that was clever.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
I am firmly in the MARYLAND (west of Delaware) and COLORADO (west of Kansas) camp.
We’re a camp now? Cool!
If we keep using the “go west” theme, then Maryland and Colorado is the most obvious answer!
“Go West” suggests a bygone time in America where settlers went West for a better life. Many of them took the Oregon Trail.
We saw the backward (West) state capitals confirming the West theme. The “hint” of having Salem in the grid solidified the Oregon Trail connection in the solution.
Topeka, Kansas is also on the Oregon Trail.
We also recognized that several states along the Oregon Trail had cities with the same names as the ones in the grid. For example, Boston (Missouri) and Dover (Idaho).
As we head West on the Trail we start in 8-letter Missouri. The only other 8-letter state we pass through on our journey West is Nebraska (adjacent to Missouri).
So there you have it: Missouri and Nebraska begin our journey West and should provide our contest answer.
Your answer died of dysentery. :)
It’s comments like these why we need LIKE buttons on this site.
never got past MADEORKS. huge facepalm.
As a non-US person, I was *almost* persuaded that SARUMAN had to be a US state. Sadly, it only had 7-letters…
You win, Ben
I like my solution, too. Just west of the backwards Dover is the two letter postal abbreviation DE, for Delaware. Just west of the backwards Salem is AR, the two letter postal abbreviation, AR, for Arkansas. AND THERE IS A SALEM IN ARKANSAS!! So my answer is Delaware and Arkansas. Perhaps this should be mug worthy as well.
My experience is about the same as Conrad’s. At first however I was looking for a multitude of state abbreviations in the grid thinking I would find eight of them and maybe make two answers out of the 16 letters (using the post office system.) That led nowhere. But BOSTON popped out at me and I soon had MA DE OR KS as well. Took a while before MD OK hit me. Fun puzzle and hats off to Matt for figuring out such long theme entries. TOPEKA must have been a challenge.
PS Another video possibility would be GO WEST by the Village People.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
I also tried to make this puzzle more difficult than it needed to be (MADEORKS, scanning clues for state abbreviations, etc.), until I realized there was absolutely no need to assume two-letter abbreviations of the states.
I took a simplistic approach. Horace Greeley said “Go West etc.–I did and came up with Greeley, COLORADO and Horace, NEBRASKA,
Nice!
My brilliance explained: There is exactly one G in the grid, and attached to that G are two O’s. Not too unlikely, but since “Go” is in the title, worth looking at. Then I noticed that opposite those O’s were two state abbreviations – IA and PA! Coincidence? I think not. If you Go West from Iowa? Nebraska! West of Pennsylvania? West Virginia! So the answers are Nebraska and Virginia – so obvious!
When I looked at the four reverse capitols, only one was in an eight letter state: Dover, Delaware. If you go directly west from Delaware, you get to Maryland, also an 8 letter state. So I submitted Delaware and Maryland.
I’m sorry, Conrad, but this is the best song ever written about Massachusetts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvUMV1N7eGM
I saw your comment on my phone before I had a chance to see the video and expected to see some Sweet Baby James nonsense. Needless to say: I was wrong. Thank you, Tina!
There is more than one defensible, good solution to this puzzle. More than one mug should be awarded.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2.5 stars
Well, I saw that Delaware was 8 letters, and felt that we had to pick another no obvious state to go with one of the other city names. Topeka is only in Kansas — scratch that. Boston exists as a ghost town in Colorado, so I ignored that. But…
… Salem exists in no less than five 8-letter states!
Maryland, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Missouri. How to choose among them?
Since we got started with cities, I looked to see if there was a city mentioned in the clues.
40 Down — Cold in Columbia
Yes, there is a Columbia in Kentucky, so I submitted Delaware and Kentucky.
If there had not been a match with Dover and Delaware (an 8-letter state), I would not have gone down this road.
Columbia, MO is far better known, though.
The Bee Gees and Arlo Guthrie also did songs written about Massachusetts.
And this…https://youtu.be/Es1xpUxrMhU?si=OY28pVPdHEb48cxb
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2.5 stars
Too many correct possibilities for the meta, so I’m taking half-a-point off.