WSJ (Contest) Grid: 15 minutes; Meta: 8 less 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Parts Inventory” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re looking for a four-letter noun. There were four body part-themed entries:
- SPARE(RIBS): Barbecue treats
- PRIVATE(EYES): Hammer and Spade, for two
- LADY(FINGERS): Small sponge cakes
- GEAR(TEETH): Clockwork components
WSJ Contest – 07.13.2025
Each those has a specific number of parts: Mapping those counts back to the grid reveals our contest solution:
- B (24) -> RIBS
- O (2) -> EYES
- D (10) -> FINGERS
- Y (32) -> TEETH
The mapped letters spell our contest solution BODY. Mike gave us an easy-breezy well-constructed puzzle this week. I knew the answer would be BODY after spotting the B and O. Solvers: please share your thoughts. I’m in Amsterdam fighting off jet lag, so I’ll end with a non-thematic song that dropped this week.
Just a note that COUNT at 1A was a hint with the clue [Tally of parts].
I submitted BODY because of the word COUNT. (Body Count is a term one often sees in movie reviews, btw.) Did not even think of totting up the number of each item in the human body. I don’t think I’ve ever had 32 teeth. :)
I’ve never had more than 27 teeth. One of my 13-year molars never came in, and the dentist told me I’d never develop any wisdom teeth, either. He was right about that.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Fun indexing meta!
(fwiw never met a creature out there that has any ribs to spare)
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
I liked how the front end of themers mostly worked with parts. SPARE parts, PRIVATE parts, LADY parts, and maybe GEAR parts?
I submitted BODY because I couldn’t think of anything else and because all the parts were body parts. I figured COUNT was a hint, but never noticed that each bunch of parts has a different count (and I would have needed outside help on the number of ribs).
I really didn’t think I had the right answer.