WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 2 minutes 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Prep Work” — Conrad’s writeup.
Short writeup this week because I’m on a plane (again). This week we’re looking for how you’ll feel if you don’t solve the contest. There were seven theme entries, each containing a preposition at the end:
WSJ Contest – 05.17.2026
- STANDING(O)N: Mounting, perhaps
- CALL(U)P: Invite to the majors
- GEAR(T)O: Customize for
- MULL(O)VER: Ponder
- DRAW(F)ROM: Use as a source
- SITS(I)N: Jams with the band
- CUT(T)HROUGH: Quickly dispense with, as bureaucracy
Mike provided a big hint at 33, 34, and 35a: PRE POSIT ION. The first letter of each preposition spell our contest solution OUT OF IT. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Never saw PRE POSIT ION, just saw all the prepositions and done.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Wondered how posit was a clue. Didn’t see preposition all the way across. Nice touch!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
I got there without too much difficulty, although 1-across being an anagram of PREP, and thus resonating rather well with the title, threw me for a few moments.
Conrad,
The theme answer with On is Standing On, not Fallon.
I fired the intern (again).
Fixed, thanks!
You are too polite and funny Conrad!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I saw all the prepositions at the end of the thematic answers, but didn’t realize the first letters of these prepositions spelled something. What a stupid miss by me.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Same here. And I even wrote “OUT OF IT?” in the margin as a guess and tried to find a justification for it. (Also had OUT OF SORTS as an option.) Ah well. Serves me right for over complicating.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 2 stars
I saw all of that except for taking the first letters – it was so obvious, I just assumed the meta requires a second step.
PREPOSITION in the center was totally unnecessary. Even the title wasn’t needed to spot the pattern.
So I kept looking for much more complicated solutions.
Also, CALLUP was not placed symmetrically, and PERP seemed like a hint – awkward.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
The prep/perp reversal led me down a rabbit hole that left me out of it for a while.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
I put left out. I couldn’t see how to make it work with mull or gear but I had standout, callout, draw out, sit out, cut out. Dang! so close!
This was a lot of fun. However I got stuck for a long time because the symmetrical partner of Call Up did not have a preposition. PIERRE. The capital can be pronounced peer. That led me to think it might be PEER OUT or PEER AT. Both Out and At had not been used yet. I stared at that for way too long. Then saw the AT in ATE CROW.
It must be Peer At, I reasoned, thinking of OGLE. This was either a dead-end or a deliberate red herring. Then I listed the prepositions and finally saw OUT OF IT.
I scratched my head a while and then theorized that the missing themer might be what is Out of It. It being the meta. Whatever, I submitted the right answer. Nice one, Mike.
I thought they were looking for a 2 word phrase. The second word being a preposition. I went with ‘let down’.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
Lovely!