WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: a day 
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Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Passions Run Deep” — Conrad’s writeup
This week we’re looking for a three-word TV show title. There were five theme entries:
- NATALIEZEA: Cast member of “Justified” and “The Detour”
- ECCODOMANI: Popular pinot producer
- THREEFACESOFEVE: Film for which Joanne Woodward won Best Actress, with “The”
- DRBARNARDO: Irish philanthropist who founded homes for poor children
- SCARLETTJO: “Jurassic World Rebirth” star, briefly
WSJ Contest – 07.26.2026
I got stuck on this for a while, getting nowhere. I focused on the title the next day. Passions unlocked the meta for me: ZEA (ZEAL), MANI (MANIA). And the Spelling Bee famous ARDO(R). The final letters of each themer formed a curbed synonym of passion:
- ZEA(L)
- MANI(A)
- FEVE(R)
- ARDO(R)
- JO(Y)
The curbed letters of each passion synonym form LARRY, leading to our contest solution Curb Your Enthusiasm. Solvers: Please share your thoughts.
Didn’t get it, but I love it! Feels like a fresh mechanism, and the solution perfectly ties into the meta. Chef’s kiss.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4.5 stars
I loved this one. My brilliant cousin got it right away. Took me longer. The answer is inferred, which, in this case, was great.
It’s not too difficult to notice all themers ended in a vowel, so you know something got cut off at the end, but the next step is hard to come by without looking at the puzzle title. And that’s what I did, and after getting LARRY, I need to google things like “larry tv” because I don’t know about TV shows.