WSJ (Contest) Grid: 10 minutes; Meta: 15 more 
[4.17 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “It’s All Connected” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re looking for a four-letter noun. I spotted the center horizontal entry: STAPLES (Retailer that sells things like toner, paste, files and paper). Mike is famously literal, and given the title: that was a nudge. I also noticed that toner, paste, etc., were all five letters. Also not a coincidence.
WSJ Contest – 10.19.2025
I saw some anagrammy-looking almost patterns, especially in REAPPROVE (PAPER), but random anagrams are never a meta mechanism. APEMAN was above (it was connected) and I had the rabbit: the grid contained four staples, each surrounding a letter of the solution:
- C -> OZ(ONE)/AR(T)[C](R)ITIC
- L -> PODC(AST)S/(P)[L](E)A
- I -> ONS(ILE)NT/(F)[I](S)T
- P -> (APE)MAN/REA(P)[P](R)OVE
The letters in the staples spell our contest solution CLIP. I loved this meta: it delivered very satisfying aha moment. I have no idea how Mike keeps doing this, but he keeps doing this. Solvers: Please share your thoughts.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I found the four surrounded letters, so I solved the meta, but it didn’t dawn on me that the surrounding shapes were staples. Absolutely brilliant!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I always enjoy grids with visual elements, so this one was quite a treat. The title sidetracked me for a while, when I focused on the word “it.” I was convinced that GET IT and END IT at opposite corners were the keys. Luckily, I eventually stumbled onto the STAPLES clue.
Me too. I spent way too long looking for words with IT. I could have watched the Stephen King mini-series in less time.
“I was convinced that GET IT and END IT at opposite corners were the keys.”
So was I. Unlike you, I never got beyond that and eventually ran out of time. Congratulations on solving it!
Great work Mike!! Very fun puzzle!!
I didn’t know the PIPET spelling of that word, so I tried to “staple” PIPET to TETE immediately below it to create PIPETTE. However, I couldn’t find three other instances of a word stapling, so I abandoned that idea.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Overall excellent puzzle. I like the visual element, which reminded me of a puzzle Mike did a few years back with the title In Formation. In that puzzle the visual element was a Vee.
Although I picked up on Staples as important early on, it took a while to realize the clue was the source of the four key words for the solution.