WSJ (Contest) Grid: 30 minutes; Meta: 20 more 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Both Sides Now” — Conrad’s writeup.
WSJ Contest – 01.11.2026
This week we’re looking for something you might focus on. The long central down entry stood out: THELOOKINGGLASS, clued as What Alice went through. I thought to look for letters or entries on both sides of the looking glass (aka mirror). I lost some time by focusing exclusively on the outer edge of the grid, but noticed three symmetric (mirrored) letters there: E, M and G.
I gave up on that idea too quickly, wandered around the grid for a while, and eventually doubled down on symmetric matching letters on either side of the central entry. There were nine total, spelling our contest solution SELF IMAGE.
I would have solved this faster if there were 15 symmetric letters. Easy for me to say, since I’m not a constructor. Given Mike’s construction skill: he would have done that if possible. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I, too, focused on letters equidistant from the “looking glass” column. I didn’t think to vary that distance from row to row, nor did I consider the possibility of looking for identical letters per row. This, even, with a ton of Discord hints. Very clever.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Actually, the letters in SELF IMAGE are symmetric, when you include in your count from the central THELOOKINGGLASS the black squares. It’s perfectly symmetric.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
To be fair, the meta having only nine letters makes the grid have less names and naticks than the average WSJ Friday. So that’s great.
P.S. the answer grid has a typo: 45D is PURIST.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Fixed, thanks!
I would argue that the meta requires 33 letters (9 for the left side, 9 for the right side and 15 for the hint). And with that, there are quite a few uncommon names and words (for example: GROFE, LUNETS, PABLUM, TAITO and VIRTU). I expect this, though, on Fridays, so no gripes from me.
This meta ended a 35-week streak for me, but it was fair and clever. The aha moment just never came. I noticed E, M and G mirroring each other on the leftmost and rightmost sides, but that was as far as I got.
After struggling to find NW (both sides of NOW) in the grid, and thinking I spied ALICE passing through the entry Looking Glass via OLAF heading West, I decided the answer had to do with Focusing. As when the hypnotist says “focus on the spinning watch” or whatever. I fell into a deep sleep.
Beautiful symmetry indeed – masterful construction – but I don’t buy that your self image is something you focus on. Unless you have a fragile ego.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Image would have been way too easy to guess. Self Image makes guessing harder. The probable guess most would make would probably be Mirror Image.