WSJ (Contest) Grid: 15 minutes; Meta: 5 less 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Animal Sounds” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re look for a musical instrument. There were four long theme entries:
WSJ Contest – 09.28.2025
- KOALAALLIGATOR – Pair that’s half cuddly, half chompy?
- KUDUARMADILLO – Pair with two horns and a tough shell?
- KIANGANTELOPE – Pair with a Himalayan and a Rocky mountaineer
- KANGAROOALPACA – Pair that might give you a woolly jumper?
All of the animals were in K and A order, which leads us to our contest solution KAZOO. Nice puzzle by Matt: easy breezy. I spotted the last horizontal entry after I’d solved the meta: GRID, clued as Part of the crossword where all these animals live; some might also live in another kind of place. That was icing on the cake. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Yes, the zoo.
Good morning Conrad, I believe last Friday was 9/25 (not 9/26). Also, there’s a blank square in your solution (10). Lastly, I believe (although I’m not sure) 43D is ETALII and 60A SPYFI.
+1
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Fixed the grid, thanks!
Oops – sorry, I was looking at a 2026 calendar. Friday was, of course, Sept. 26th.
I enjoyed doing this puzzle, and got the meta solution. My first thought upon filling in the GRID was ZOO, then I thought maybe PETTING ZOO, but I doubt an alligator would be in a petting zoo. lol
That led me to look for a more complicated meta and I spent an hour or so looking at the long themers. Decided to link the K to the next words. I saw KALI in 20A, then KARMA in 25A, KANTELOPE in 41A (also KIANTE, as in CHIANTI) and KANAL in 46A. The fact that Kali appears in the puzzle twice (46D and 51D with a C) led me to believe we were looking for similar words in the clues, which are not in the GRID. Total waste of time.
I then focused on musical instruments and KAZOO popped instantly into my head. Tada!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
After failing to solve four out five metas from the WSJ’s week of metas, it was nice to have an easier one. I initially didn’t get the KAZOO answer, but when I came back to the puzzle later, it was pretty obvious.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I got the “KA” reference from the themers easy enough, but stumbled badly on the 61A hint. The “other” place had to have been in the CLUES! I searched for animals in the clues for a time, then needed a huge push from Discord. I guess I never had considered a kazoo as a “musical instrument”, more of a plastic children’s toy.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I saw the K animals were followed by an A animal, and set it aside. Later, I remembered that the clue for GRID was kind of long, and went back to it. “…some might also live in another kind of place.” Aha! ZOO!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
My experience, too. Saw KA and later, away from the puzzle, KA-ZOO
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle (PDF version). It’s nice to be able to solve on Thursday and have the rest of the weekend to do other things. I thought kazoo early on and 61A sealed it. Unfortunately, my experience trying to complete the grid online was not so enjoyable.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Yeah I was pretty excited to see the WSJ finally updated their online crossword experience, until I started to use it. It was randomly erasing words in the grid. It would even highlight the words in green as they were being deleted. I went from “Yay I can finally shift-tab to go back a word” to “Oh man this is terrible.” Oh well.
It just erased my entire 70%-filled grid. I’ll have to move to the PDF I guess.