WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: 20 more 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Keyboarding” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a marine feature. Mike gave us a big nudge in the center entry:
SANDWICHISLANDS, clued as Hawaii, formerly.
Mike is famously literal in his metas, so I interpreted the center as find full top/bottom island sandwiches in the grid. I stuck out. When stuck: look to the clues. Mike gave us half island sandwiches.
WSJ Contest – 11.16.2025
There were four six-letter islands named in the clues:
- SAKI: Rice wine on Honshu
- BALI: It’s across the Java Sea from Borneo
- ETA: H, on Rhodes
- ACER: Computer maker based in Taiwan
The four islands sandwiched our contest solution in the grid:
- HON/SHU – OCE
- BOR/NEO – ANC
- RHO/DES – URR
- TAI/WAN – ENT
The sandwiched islands spell our contest solution OCEANCURRENT. Mike contimues to amaze. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
The last words of six clues are ocean islands:
Honshu
Borneo
Rhodes
Taiwan
Abba
Whiskey
Yes, there are islands named Abba and Whiskey.
The first letters of the answers to those clues, when anagrammed, spell SEA BED. While it’s a less elegant solution, it deserves half a mug or a tea cup.
Wow!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
I came, I saw, I solved. I’ve seen the various thoughts on the title. For someone who is so literal in hints and directions, what the heck is with the title?
+1
(With the caveat that I didn’t succesfully solve this one…)
“Key” is a synonym for “island.” So there are “keys” forming sandwich boards.
I believe 42D is SAKE, and 55A is ELS. As always, thank you, Conrad, for doing this.
Agree!
Fixed, thanks!
Fun one! Very Shenky. I am also wondering about the signifcance of the title?
The closest I can think is that a KEY is an island
And perhaps also that sandwich boards exist?
+1
I loved this meta. It’s clever and fun. And since I got the correct solution, I suppose I am biased in its favor. :)
My first thought was there are two SEAs in the clues, which seemed unusual. But then I thought about the centerpiece entry, SANDWICH ISLANDS and I took it as an imperative. I switched from looking for SEAS to looking for ISLANDS and spotted RHODES (which had struck me as odd earlier because most clues these days match the letter being sought with the clue. For example, H for HOMER.
Re SAKI/SAKE, I always put in SAKI first by rote. I swear when I first went to a Japanese restaurant they spelled it that way on the menu and it has stuck in my mind every since.
It helps to know that the authentic pronunciation of the rice wine is not with a long-e sound. https://forvo.com/word/sake_%28%E9%85%92%29/#ja
It’s also helpful to know that SAKI was the pen name of HH Munro, and that there is a genus of monkeys, Pithecia, known as saki monkeys.
Dang, I noticed the islands in the clues but somehow didn’t think to look for those same islands in the grid. I went a down a rabbit hole of thinking it was significant that each island mentioned is the largest in its chain (e.g., Hawaii is the “big island”).
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I was way WAY off on this one.
My German is nonexistent, so I was convinced that NEIN was correct for 4 down.
That gave me SHITS for “Prevents access to”. That seemed double-wrong since it didn’t fit the clue and, also… y’know… WSJ is a family type site…
But there is such a thing as taking a bite of a SHIT SANDWICH, so I could never free my thinking.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I don’t think the title is helpful at all in figuring out how to solve this. It’s one of those that makes sense after you solve it.
I note that Sandwich Islands has Hawaii embedded in it, leaving behind a bunch of consonants.
Here is Mike Shenk’s explanation of the title, given to Joe Ross and posted on the Muggles forum.
“I guess it was too subtle (or just plain bad). “Key” as an island (though, granted, none of the islands in the puzzle are small enough to be keys), and “boarding” as in: The contest answer is boarding/getting into the islands. Of course, the perfect title was the revealer SANDWICH ISLANDS, so “Keyboarding” was the best I came up with.”
Missed it….alternate title…maybe…Long Ones and Short Ones
Late to the party, but am I the only one who didn’t notice the islands in the clues at all? I thought about SANDWICH ISLANDS and went from there no problem.
I didn’t notice them in the clues either.