WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: 5 minutes 
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Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Backing the Odds” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for a six-letter word. There were six theme entries:
- SWEETCORN: Earful at a summer cookout
- DANCECLUB: Laser lighting site, often
- REENTRANT: Pointing inward
- ALTARBOYS: Service helpers
- EASTEREGG: Target of a spring search
- TRADESHOW: Fair
WSJ Contest – 06.14.2026
Mike is famously literal in his titles. So “backing” and “odds” had to be important. I found the mechanism pretty quickly: note the odd-numbered letters in each clue, and then read them backwards. For example: [S]W[E]E[T]C[O]R[N] == NOTES, which matches CLEFS’ clue. Here are the mapped entries, in themer order:
- CLEFS: Symbols on musical staffs -> NOTES
- ALLOY: Mixture -> BLEND
- SPUD: Starchy veggie, familiarly -> TATER
- ISH: Somewhat, informally -> SORTA
- NOSES: Honkers -> GEESE
- OAT: Cereal grain -> WHEAT
The mapped entries spell our contest solution CASINO. Another masterful meta by Mike: I enjoyed it. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 3 stars
Yep, I know he’s famously literal until I can’t figure out what he’s literal about. This was one of them. Does backing mean a clue above or numerically below? Even with Discord hints, I couldn’t do this one. Seeing the solution now doesn’t make me feel any better. So the odd letters in reverse was the key? Ugh.