WSJ (Contest) Grid: 25 minutes; Meta: an hour or so 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “60/40 Split” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a five-letter word. I backsolved this one, but I suspect that I have a lot of company on that front. There were five long theme entries:
- SAMPLEERROR: Poll skewer (WWII area)
- POPPYSEED: Bagel option (Kid of note)
- HAWAIIANGEESE: Nenes (some action figures)
- ALANAHAIM: One of Taylor’s besties (useful connection)
- DADDYISSUES: Netflix series starring Aimee Lou Wood (activist Barkan)
Each clue had two parts. I wasted a lot of time looking for action figures called nenes, before realizing that the parenthetical clues were separate. I wrote the classic crosswordese ETO (WWII area) next to SAMPLEERROR. But: that entry lacked a T. Activist Barkan has one possible grid entry: ADY, which is almost in D(ADDY)ISSUES, assuming you skipped the extra D. The theme entries all had two sets of doubled letters: except for A(LAN)AHAIM. But that entry contained LAN, which is a great answer for useful connection. The theme entries were 9, 11, or 13 letters long, and there was no obvious way to apply 60/40 to them.
The puzzle looked like a mess, so I knew that I was missing something. I plodded along. I had E(T)O … … L(A)N A(D)Y in my notes. T..AD based on the middle letters. I backsolved TRIAD, which lead me to find (another crosswordese favorite) Kid O(R)Y. I searched for the missing I, and wrote G(I)S in my notes. I was least sure of that one, since GI Joes would be a better answer, and nobody calls them GIs. So… TRIAD, I guess.
I would have sent TRIAD in as my answer and called it a day, but I had to write this up for Fiend: meaning that I need to actually explain the mechanism. “TRIAD, I guess” doesn’t do that. I continued my backsolve.
60/40 had to be relevant. I realized that each theme entry contained a 5-letter word, each with three (60%) repeated letters. Deleting those letters left two (40%). Then add the missing letter to match the parenthetical second clues:
WSJ Contest – 02.15.2026
- (E)RR(O)R -> E(T)O
- P(O)PP(Y) -> O(R)Y
- (G)EE(S)E -> G(I)S
- A(L)A(N)A -> L(A)N
- D(A)DD(Y) -> A(D)Y
The added letters spell our contest solution TRIAD. As in three.
This meta was a shaggy dog for me. I see the idea, and (if my answer right) it all technically fits. But… yeah. I certainly may be missing something. Solvers: please share your thoughts. And let me know if you backsolved TRIAD, and then found the mechanism, or if you followed intended mechanism, leading you to TRIAD.
I thought it was cool because you take the remaining 40% of the letters from the five letter words in the theme answers, then you _split_ those letters. I wasn’t confident in my answer until I realized that was the full meaning of “60/40 split.”
Ohhh that definitely makes me appreciate the title a little more! I thought that the split referred just to “splitting” the 3 letters away from the other two.
I solved it mostly as intended, but didn’t love it. The fact that LAN and ADY have their middle letters there already is a bit inelegant. And I had to google for ETO and ADY. And even googling for Kid ORY didn’t work, so I backsolved that and then looked up who he is. And I had to google ALANA HAIM’s name to get the crosses with CROATAN and KON. That corner would be even Natick-ier if you don’t know RIPKEN, a name I know because I grew up in MD rooting for the Orioles when he hit his big streak, but I can’t imagine that’s a super well known name at this point.
I believe the fact that 3 out of 5 did not contain the middle letter while 2 already have the missing letter was another intentional 60/40 split.
Hi Conrad, I believe you have the following typos: 18D should be EPA and 24A FLAWS, 11D should be ARIETTAS and 35A ADS.
Fixed, thanks!
Normally, I am a big fan of Matt’s puzzles, but this one fell flat for me. Having to subtract 3 D’s from Daddy, then add one back? Clunky and confusing! Not a fan of this one.
+1
Also, I had no idea who the “kid of note” could be, so I asked an AI and it came back with Poppy. That plus red herrings:
ETO is embedded in APPEALTO
GIS is embedded in TIGRIS
Never heard of Kid Ory. I still don’t get it. I have to ask why we had these double phrases as themers if we were just looking at 5 letter words? I spent way too much time trying to get 60% of the first word and 40% of the second to come up with answers. It didn’t help that I saw EUROPE in Sample Error (because there was no T for ETO) and OPIE out of POPPY SEED (OPEE). GI JOES for the HI nenes. AN IN for Alana Haim, and nothing for ADY.
I must admit, shamefully, that for the first time ever I asked AI to help me. It was pretty funny. It came up with some completely nonsensical replies — about KID ROCK (Kid of NOTE) and kangaroos named Joey (for GI JOE) and A Bell for ADANO for WW2 Area, that had me laughing so hard I forgot about the puzzle.
I did not solve it…I was stuck on why clue 51a had noodle dish in parentheses, making it a sixth clue.
I was looking for things divisible by five for the 60/40 math to work. (Did you notice the grid was 15×15?). There were only two five-letter answers in the grid. That’s when I spotted the five-letter words in all the long ones and I was on my way. I love puzzles when your aha moments come when you are nowhere near the puzzle.
Grids are almost always 15×15. Glad you got there eventually anyway!
I quit early knowing this was going to be another puzzle tailored for those with a certain kind of neurodivergence very distinct from whatever is going on in my own head. But I always appreciate the work of our puzzle creators.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I had pretty much given up on this one, but my mind didn’t. I got ADY and LAN, but couldn’t quite get the other three, because I assumed they might follow the same pattern. After I put it down for good late yesterday, I mentally dropped the identical letters and realized the first word had to be ETO (common crosswordese). And GIS was next, which I had figured early. Needed to look up ORY; never heard of him. Finally got to TRIAD. Whew!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I’ve done x-word puzzles for over 2 decades so I have come upon Kid Ory in fill, but its been a very long time and I would never have thought to pair that with Kid. The only one I was fairly close on was HAWAIIANGEESE for GI Joes, and i even thought perhaps just GIs? but it seemed far feteched. Even that idea relied on the first word for the I’s in my failed thought process. Saw all the doubled letters (as Conrad) and then the fourth themer blew that up. I didn’t pick up that there were 3 in each word, not just 2. This is why i’m a second-rate meta solver. Nice meta, Matt!
Am I crazy or is 57A just… wrong? Not only is Daddy Issues certainly not produced by Netflix but it doesn’t even seem to be available on the platform.
This is such a good catch. It looks like there is a film on Netflix with the same name (https://www.netflix.com/title/81122669). It doesn’t appear Aimee Lou Wood’s series is available on Netflix.
Does 18D still fit the clue? (Oops. My politics are showing.)
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
You explained this really well. I was so lost on this, but now it makes sense to me, having read what you did. I think that, without knowing of someone named Kid Ory, and the abbreviation ETO, someone such as myself would have a hard time getting TRIAD.
I never got past the fact that four of the theme entries had exactly two pairs of double letters, while the mess of obscure proper noun crossed with several obscure proper nouns at 52 didn’t appear to follow that pattern. I rarely solve these friday contests, but this one was especially annoying. If you can’t reasonably know a theme entry (Alana Haim?! Or it could be Alan Ahaim for all I know.) is right even if you guess it correctly, isn’t that a bad theme entry?