WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 15 minutes 
[4.28 avg; 9 ratings] rate it
Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Mark My Words” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a five-letter word often seen in crosswords that we hope you find in this puzzle. There were five theme entries:
WSJ Contest – 05.24.2026
- POKEAROUND: Do a detective’s job, maybe
- RESUMEPLAY: Turn the game back on
- MATESELECTION: Start of the breeding process
- ROSEGARDEN: White House feature
- LAMEEXCUSE: “The cat ate my homework,” e.g.
I tried to parse “Mark” various ways, and CARD’s odd clue (“Item left at a job interview’) helped unlock the meta for me: RESUME (also written as RESUMÉ with an accented final E) made more sense. The first (accented) word of each theme entry matched another grid entry, here they are in themer order:
- EGGS: High-protein dish -> POKÉ
- CARD: Item left at a job interview -> RESUMÉ
- LASSI: It’s often made with cardamom -> MATÉ
- ASTI: Wine choice -> ROSÉ
- TOILE: Decorative fabric -> LAMÉ
The mapped grid entries spell our contest solution ÉCLAT. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Damn! I never made sense of the title, but I hit on the right mechanism about five minutes before the deadline, when the LAMÉ/TOILE connection clicked.
Out of desperation, though, I submitted 52D EERIE as “a five-letter word often seen in crossword puzzles,” taking “that we hope you find in this puzzle” a bit too literally.
I didn’t have time to find the other mappings but probably would have with a little more time. But I also had some leftover birthday cake demanding my attention, and chocolate always wins.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3.5 stars
If I may embarrass myself (and my cousin, who warned me against this):
pokEARound: Earmark
REsume play: Remark
mate selectiON: On (the) mark
rose garDEN: Denmark
lame excuse: Emark (electronic signature)
ERODE
…a word often seen in puzzles.
Honorable mention? Silver medal? Tea cup?
I wasn’t certain, so I stayed away from the beach, but otherwise enjoyed the weekend.
Does annyone appreciate DENMARK?!?
Happy holiday!
I appreciate it! And you could win a mug!
On https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=5&sid=f8b412e1592d714d2f5891cc7f56c1c4
one of the members awards “rabbit hole” mugs to his favorite stories about paths to the wrong answer. Just create an account and post this story there.
Also on that site this week, you can find a bonus puzzle from Mike Shenk that he wrote as a special going away gift for Mike Miller:
https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?t=5249#p245851
Thank you!
We could win!
Another brilliant construction and meta from Matt.
Most impressive is that all of the grid answers leading to the solution involve accented words with the long A sound as the result of the accent, and, so does the meta answer.
It’s a mystery how he manages to create these, so I will just enjoy and marvel at them.
We started out by trying to interpret the hint in the puzzle title. I chose to read it as “mark MY words” and found the answer at three down, “LIKE ME”. I saw that there were 5 “ME”s sprinkled throughout the puzzle, but couldn’t get anywhere from there. Definitely a rabbit hole.
After setting the puzzle aside for a while, we spotted RESUME and noticed that adding an accent “MARK” made it match the clue at 15A. From there it came together quickly. Another great puzzle from Matt!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Would be better if another French word would replace POKE, which does not even rhyme with the other words like RESUME or ROSE.
Pretty sure poké (like poké bowl) is pronounced with a long-a sound at the end, same as resumé or rosé. A lot of people say it like the word “poke,” but technically that’s not correct.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Agreed. Poké rhymes with resumé, etc. Poké not accented in Hawaiian, because it doesn’t need to be.
Poke rhymes best with maté, because the stress is on the first syllable. But if we’re happy saying maté and rosé rhyme despite the different stress patterns, poke is fine.
Am pleased to say I grokked this one pretty fast. MATE was my key because I had never heard of Lassi (I put in LASSO at first thinking maybe they were made from cardamom plants!) and then thought of Mate tea. I have not tried either of them.) Nor poke for that matter. Altho I have seen it on menus with an accent which struck me as odd considering it is a Hawaiian word.
Even sans the meta this was a fun puzzle. Matt has a crunchy style that makes his grids snap, crackle and pop. Altho please guys (and gals) can’t we find someone other than DuVernay to clue AVA? It’s getting to be as common crosswordese as ÉCLAT.
PS — American Viticultural Area (AVA) might work.
I thought this was a terrific puzzle and a very cleverly executed meta! Well done, Matt!
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 5 stars
Simply brilliant.
so we’re all just pretending there’s still a Rose Garden? okay
Hmmm… I didn’t fully get the answer, but I did notice that 50D’s answer pointed to Es (Ease in), which I don’t see anyone else noticing. So, that at least pointed me to the accented Es, although I didn’t progress to the next step.