WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 5 minutes 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Mayday!” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for something that might help to avoid a shipwreck. There were five theme entries:
- 17a BIGSHOTS: Heavy hitters
- 20a SOWSEAR: You can’t make a silk purse out of it, reportedly
- 38a CASINOS: Spots for slots
- 51a SOAKSIN: Savors, as an experience
- 56a: SOBEREST: Least frivolous
WSJ Contest – 05.03.2026
Mike provided a big fat hint at 56d: SOS, clued as Mayday letters you’d to avoid using. Got it: drop the letters SOS from the themers. Mike Shenk is famously literal in his clues. Those words mapped to other grid entry clues:
- COVE: Recess in a coastline -> BIGHT
- HAVEON : Dress in -> WEAR
- ABEL: Son of Adam and Eve -> CAIN
- RELATED: In the same family -> AKIN
- TAM: Floppy cap -> BERET
The mapped entries spell our contest solution CHART. The mapped entries followed grid order, just like the theme entries. Nice touch by Mike. I also love the word bight: I only knew that term from British literature, and then I stayed in beautiful Trinity, Newfoundland last year. And there I was. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
you’ve got akin and related reversed.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
The danger of starting my writeup at 11:35 PM eastern.
Fixed, thank you!
Well said.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Fun puzzle. Well constructed, solvable meta. Last week I guessed the solution, then proved it. This week I guessed sonar, then proved I was wrong.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Neatly constructed.
Never heard of the word ‘bight’, wasn’t even sure whether it was a word; I actually thought that it might be ‘big ht’. But when I had the other letters and knew I needed a ‘C’ I googled bight, and found it.
I agree with Barry Miller, this was a well constructed, solvable meta.
My first thought was to anagram SINK in ERSKINE and SOAKSIN. But it didn’t go anywhere. Then I thought of compass. And “cove spa blass” on first line of grid seemed to support that. But then I noticed the hint clue 56D (I had filled in SOS only from the across clues) and I got BIGHT. Easy from there (Altho I had not put Casinos down in my list of possible themers). Fun puzzle! Loved all the maritime stuff strewn across the grid!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Classic Schenk meta, hint and all, most enjoyable. Also loved seeing BIGHT, neat old British word, travel through the Caribbean (especially the Bahamas) and you’ll find place names with Bight on most islands.
“Bight” originally meant “bend.” The loop in a rope or string being knotted is a bight. A shoelace is tied with a half hitch followed by a second half hitch of the two bights. At least that’s how a tar teaches it.
And what is a mega-bight? (sorry for the bad pun Martin, but I remember a discussion about bits vs bytes a few weeks ago…)
I can give a nerd footnote. I tie my shoelaces with two wraps of the loop rather than one. It’s much more secure. I had a lot of colleagues using it. All programmers, I dubbed it the “double-bight” knot. This was the heyday of 16-bit computers, so the pun on “double-byte” helped spread the word.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I start out by isolating the letters embedded between the first and last S in each SOS, dropping the O. When that did not make anything, I went back to BIGSHOTS and took the rest, and was thinking for a moment, “What is BIG HT?”
Ha ha. Silly me.
By the time I got the other four, I recalled the word. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it.
Nice meta.
Nice puzzle
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Fun straightforward meta!