WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: an hour or so 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “A-Frames” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a color. Completing the grid was a slog for me, which is usually a sign that it’s getting a meta-related workout. There no no obvious theme entries. Given Mike’s famously literal meta prompts: I focused on A’s in the grid. There were ten (which is low), each paired on the same row:
WSJ Contest – 02.08.2026
- CLE[A]VER ONESE[A]T
- SE[A]M UNCH[A]RTED
- BOBB[A]MON ET[A]S
- HUB[A]BOS CH[A]LICE
That explains the (new to me) HUBABOS grid entry. The A’s framed a famous artist:
- Paolo VERONESE
- Edvard MUNCH
- Andrew WYETH
- Claude MONET
- Hieronymus BOSCH
The first letter of each artist’s first name spells out contest solution PEACH. Fun meta! Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2 stars
I spent like 30 minutes solving the grid, and 25 minutes of that were used on Google, Wikipedia, dictionary, and dictionary.com crossword clue solver.
One of the ugliest grid out there, even by the standard of WSJ Fridays.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
I solved it so I loved it. Odd as it sounds, I hadn’t even noticed that the assignment was to find a color. I had wondered what a peach had to do with an A-frame. I did notice that the center of peach is an A, not a pit. I did recall that Bob Beamon long jumped 29’2” in the rarified air of Mexico City in 1968, at a time when no other athlete had ever jumped 28 feet.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I thought for sure the artists’ nationalities were the key to solving this. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they corresponded to answers in the grid. I finally just checked the first names and voila.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
The write up should say there were 10 A’s in the grid, right? The middle two ‘frame’ WYETH.
+1
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Fixed, thanks!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2.5 stars
Re “hubabos”, because I did a fair amount of digging into it, and I’d spare others the time:
As near as I can tell from my research, the only usage of this word is in a single sentence in a single work in Latin, _De Orbe Novo_, by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera in the early 1500s (and citations thereof). This sentence, translated into English being: “The cantons of the province of Hubabo are Xamana, Canabaco, Cubao, and others whose names I do not know.” In point of fact, the rest of the translation uses “Huhabo” for the province, indicating that “Hubabo” may well have been a typo or similar. And indeed, looking at a PDF of the Latin text (see page 108 at https://archive.org/details/deorbenouopetrim00angh/page/n45/mode/2up), it reads: “In Huhabo prouincia sunt regiones Xamana, Canabacoa, Cuhabo, multaeque aliae quaru nomina nondu didici.”
Setting aside the paucity of the word’s usage, and not wanting to outright dismiss what be a rare documentation of a name that may have come from the extinct Ciguayo language; this mention nevertheless does not seem to indicate that “Hubabo” (or “Huhabo”) was a name for the people of this region.
So, not the greatest word to include in a crossword. And I did try sending a note to Merriam Webster with this information to do with what they will.
Apparently they liked your note :)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hubabo
lol, I also sent in a similar note, as I was pissed off by all the naticks and bad entries in the crossword.
Besides, it’s kinda obvious that some people submit this word to be listed in M-W because they want to use it in crossword construction, but that’s another thing.
“it’s kinda obvious that some people submit this word to be listed in M-W because they want to use it in crossword construction”
……. I’m sorry, but what???
I can’t believe I didn’t see those names between the A’s. I went looking for A in the clues and found only four where the A was one word framed by nearby letters. “Behind in A way” for instance, 7A. That gave me NAW which I then spotted as the clue for 50A. I tried the same with the other three but got nowhere. BrAvo to all who succeeded. I remember watching Bob Beamon in the ’68 Mexico City Olympics. We were breathless not from the altitude but his amazing feat.
Mike Shenk’s puzzles are each a work of art in their own way- clever and elegant. Bravo Mike.
Can someone explain 55A (HUBABOS) to me? I was perplexed by it all weekend, as my Google searches failed to produce any information about it.
Oops. I put HULABOS –it is a native tribe there. Guess I had a DNF. I had SABERS. Haha
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Hubabo
Btw, if you want more info on them look them up using their other name, Ciguayos.
[Breaking this up because you get the penalty box for multiple links.]
The only clue that Hubabos = Ciguayos is the Croatian Wikipedia page.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
So, yeah, it was a tough grid. I get it. That happens sometimes. The META, however, was solid and I enjoyed solving it. Fun puzzle, at least for me.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Same here. Certainly not what I’d call smooth, but I didn’t find the grid all that offbeat, save for a slight grimace at STRAWY and a, “well, at least now I know that” after looking up HUBABOS. Fair trades for a nice Schenkian meta, IMO.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Searching for hubabos on safari on my iPhone failed to find anything. But if I first went to google and then searched it came up! Regarding the meta, we struggled looking for things framing the As but then suddenly it clicked on Wyeth.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
I always do a vowel distribution table if I don’t twig to the meta’s first step right away. Then I highlighted the 10 A’s and it was a snap!