WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: 10 more 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Watch Your Language” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re told, The answer to this week’s contest crossword is what we hope this puzzle doesn’t inspire. There were five theme entries:
- LIEDABOUT: Misreported
- STERNMOST: Last, in a line of sailing ships
- GUTBOMB: Greasy food that’s soon regretted
- TAGTEAMED: Alternated working with someone
- KINDHEART: Caring quality
WSJ Contest – 06.20.2025
I spotted GUT (good) and TAG (day) pretty quickly, and I had the rabbit. The first word in each theme entry was also a German word. Those words mapped back the final word of other grid entry’s clues:
- ARIA: [Diva’s song]->LIED
- NOVA: [Exploding star] -> STERN
- GREAT: [Better than good] -> GUT
- SUN: [Light of day] -> TAG
- TYKE: [Little child] -> KIND
The mapped entries spell our contest solution ANGST. A solving friend mentioned that the German word ANGST translates to FEAR in English (news to me), and some solvers wondered if FEAR was the answer. I’m on team ANGST. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I did look for a clue containing the word “fear.” If there were one, the entry it clued could have been the answer. But there was none, so ANGST it is.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
There were several clues that contained the word “German”, such as “German invader” for GOTH, “German card game” for SKAT, etc., that were the hint to look for something German. At that point I put “gut”and “tag” together for “guten tag”, one of the few German phrases I know, and I was off and running.
As soon as I finished the grid, I saw the LIED in LIED ABOUT and the GUT of GUT BOMB and knew I had the first step. I didn’t know STERN means star, but I knew the others.
It wasn’t until I had ANGST that I noticed the repeated use of “German” in the clues, especially the gratuitous use in the clue for ATARI. Those hints seem a bit like overkill, but maybe some solvers benefited from them.
I thought it was a fun meta.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Notice the theme entries can all be split into two words. LIED ABOUT, STERN MOST, GUT BOMB, TAG TEAMED, KIND HEART. Very principled stuff.
I probably couldn’t solve this meta if the theme entries were something like “lie down” or “sternum”.
I usually leave these puzzles to the last possible moment because I can get quite anxious over them. The less time available, the less stress. My first guess was that we were supposed to correct possible alternative grammar, cued by “watch your language.” I tried LAY ABOUT instead of LIED ABOUT, but it didn’t work with the others. I then lay out the themers (which I wasn’t sure were limited to five) on the page and LIED jumped out at me as a type of SONG (I listen to a lot of lieder.) And I was soon ANGST-free. Fun meta. Nice job Mike.
P.S. I think I should have said “laid out” — my bad. :) Btw, “Marietta’s Lied” from Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt is one of my favorite arias.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3 stars
Meh. You kind of have to already know a little German (GUT, TAG) to even realize that was what Mike was hinting at. Maybe if there was a less subtle hint other than the 3 or 4 clues with German in it, it would have been clearer.
Same opinion here, not a reall accessible meta to most, IMO, though to be fair I know virtually no German. Noticed the German clue references, and figured having two of them upper right/lower left was probably indicative of them being a hint, but got no further.
I predict that to be able to solve this week’s puzzle you need to know Sanskrit.
With “Language” in the title and “German” in so many clues, I guessed “angst,” but never figured out the mechanism. Apparently, “stern” is German for “star.”
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
I liked how all the German words are pronounced differently than in the English phrases. Nice touch.
Hübsch.