Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “The Paper Chase”—Laura’s review
WSJ Contest – 7.19.19 – Solution
This week we’re looking for a word describing a good journalist.
- [17a: Jorge Alfaro or Brian Anderson, e.g.]: MIAMI MARLIN
- [26a: Punishment for not paying parking tickets]: DENVER BOOT
- [39a: Sgt. Hank Voight’s show]: CHICAGO PD
- [55a: Music group since 1885]: BOSTON POPS
- [65a: Alma mater of Sam Peckinpah and Trent Dilfer]: FRESNO STATE
We have a bunch of city names, and the title is “The Paper Chase” … wanna bet the meta has something to do with newspapers? Here are the names of major papers published in each city.
MIAMI HERALD
DENVER POST
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BOSTON GLOBE
FRESNO BEE
What to do with these? Well, turns out that there are corresponding entries in the grid that differ from those newspaper names by just one letter:
MIAMI HERALD == [22a: Jimmy defeated him in 1976]: GERALD
DENVER POST == [59a: Act sulky]: POUT
CHICAGO TRIBUNE == [2d: Accolade]: TRIBUTE
BOSTON GLOBE == [6a: Amounts of cookie dough]: GLOBS
FRESNO BEE == [42a: “Lemonade” singer, casually]: BEY
And then if we take the letters that differ from the newspaper names, we get:
GERALD == G
POUT == U
TRIBUTE == T
GLOBS == S
BEY == Y
Yep. Being GUTSY is indeed a word describing a good journalist. Democracy dies in darkness.
I thought this was a fun and straightforward Gaffney offering, maybe comparable to a Week 1.5-2. Your thoughts?
Let’s let [42a: “Lemonade” singer, casually]: BEY sing us out.
I submitted Herald, since each of those cities have, or have had, a newspaper by that name
I got the theme answer and enjoyed it, but the fill for me was no fun at all. Too much trivia again. I guess it’s Gaffney’s and fans’ preference, just not mine.
I did think of another anagram of the letters in the changed answers, GUSTY, or of the letters that had been changed, SHEEN. A pity neither could quite describe journalists.