WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 2 days 
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Patrick Berry’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Before the Second Half” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a four-letter word. There were four long theme entries:
- MINORLEAGUE: Not in the top tier
- ACROSSTHEPOND: Where people say “nappy” instead of “diaper,” or “diaper”
- instead of “nappy”
- SANLUISOBISPO: Cal Poly home
- MERYLSTREEP: 21-time Oscar nominee
I was stuck on this meta for two days. There were four obvious themers. I tried to parse “Before the Second Half” a lot of ways, including looking at the first half of each themer (wrong). I thought ACROSSTHEPOND’s clue was overly complex, and therefore a meta clue (also wrong), etc.
I sometimes get meta inspiration in the shower, where my subconscious mind had clearly worked on a solution while I slept, and occasionally blurts the answer into my brain when I’m not thinking about anything in particular. Not this time. (Spongebob voice): two… days… later.
OUT’s clue unlocked it for me: Story that allows one to escape trouble. I spotted it while solving and should have paid more attention to it. That’s a really odd way to clue OUT. I stared at the grid more, and ALIBI arose from SANLUISOBISPO. I assumed that was noise, and then noticed Patrick’s big hint at 58a: ATO: ___ Z (The whole alphabet).
WSJ Contest – 05.10.2026
ALIBI’s letters are from the first half of the alphabet: the rest of the letters in SANLUISOBISPO were N or later. The rest fell quickly. Each word formed from the first half of the alphabet matched another grid entry’s clue. Here they are, in theme entry order:
- SPAN: Distance -> MILEAGE (MINORLEAGUE)
- HURT: Felt sore -> ACHED (ACROSSTHEPOND)
- OUT: Story that allows one to escape trouble -> ALIBI (SANLUISOBISPO)
- WAR: Big battle -> MELEE (MERYLSTREEP)
The mapped letters spell our contest answer SHOW. I wasn’t sure how to fit that answer into the theme. I first thought of: win, place show. That’s third place. Halftime show, I guess. Pretty sure that’s it, but, as always, I may be missing something. Solvers: please share your thoughts. I’ll end with a non-thematic song.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Tricky puzzle by a great constructor. Kudos!
I took the letter before the last word in each of four answers:
MinoR league
ThE pond
LuiS Obispo
WesT coast (which crosses with ONTAP (could mean upcoming)
My solution was REST, what one might do before the second half.
Does this deserve an honorable mention? A tea cup, maybe?
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2.5 stars
I said on Friday that this could be the worst Patrick Berry grid in this decade, and I haven’t changed my mind.
Names. Crosswordese. Odd clues (not just the clue for OUT). Blah.
If you take the first-half letters from SPAN HURT OUT WAR you get AHA!
I saw that too because knowing this was a Berry I expected a continuance of the theme, but it was only 3 letters.
I was sure ATO was a hint and I PARSEd the Alphabet trick since it divides evenly, but I was sure the themers had to be two-word entries. So I used West Coast and Rice Pilaf along with Minor League and Meryl Streep. (Altho Alan Arkin kind of ruined that idea) And failed to figure it out. At least I was halfway on the right path.
I was going to submit NOON out of desperation but it is actually in the second half of the day. I then got into an Oz rabbit hole due to ToTo. :)
Good job Conrad!
I often receive a similar message from my unconscious brain that whispers – “give up don’t bother this one’s unsolvable!”
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3 stars
This puzzle really stresses the Meh in Meta.
While the mechanism itself was clever, the solution was, uh, meh.
I think a more apt (and therefore clever) solution would have been TALK, since there are no more halftime shows, just endless yammering from network talking heads.
And, yes, 58A was a fair revealer clue with its parenthetical “the whole alphabet.” No excuses, I just missed it. I did manage to get the 1st two letters using the incorrect mechanism before running aground.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Great idea and kudos on the execution of a very difficult mechanism. I don’t feel you’re getting the credit due for something I believe takes puzzling wizardry to pull off. That said, the SHOW answer was a little meh compared to your exceptionally high bar for theme follow-through.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
I believe the answer SHOW was perfect because the thing that happens before the second half of a Super bowl game is the Halftime SHOW.
I tried dividing the themers, then the grid vertically and horizontally. Then it struck me that a 15×15 grid has not got two halves; it has 7 rows, a middle row, then 7 more rows (and the same with the columns). Adding to this, the themers were also odd, being either 11 or 13 characters in length. So I asked myself, what in the crossword can be divided into two halves?
I took a break and did the MGWCC grid and meta, and came back to this one Sunday afternoon. After staring at the themers for about ten minutes and saw this for the Nth time, but differently this time:
MINORLEAGUE and what popped for me was:
MI LEAGE
After a few more seconds I said to myself, “The alphabet is divisible by two!”
A-M and N-Z (the sought-after Second Half).
Sure enough, the letters I omitted were NORU — all in the second half.
With great excitement I parsed the other three. When I got to ALIBI I immediately thought of that clue leading to OUT (which struck as odd during the solve) and knew ALIBI was the better answer. In a matter of another minute or two I had SHOW. It took me a long while to appreciate why that was apt, and it then felt like a “lock.”
In retrospect, I agree that the ATO (Z) was a deliberate hint, but I did not pick up on it.
There are two things that I appreciate in a Patrick Berry meta:
1. Grid construction is always very clean.
2. His metas are always very precise, and well executed. He is a lot like Mike Shenk that way.
So, I loved this meta. BTW, I solved the grid in 26 minutes. My usual time for the WSJ Puzzle Contest grids is 30 to 36 minutes. I have no gripes about the fill.
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Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2 stars
Nobody followed me down my rabbit hole: in the first half of each of the 4, there’s a word in reverse (ORCA, ULNA, LYRE, and the 4th was a stretch: ONI). My progress ended there, but it was a much more sensible path then the real one. Glad I stopped early.