WSJ (Contest) Grid: untimed; Meta: a day 
[4.08 avg; 6 ratings] rate it
Patrick Berry’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “The Short End” — Conrad’s writeup.
This week we’re looking for an a four-letter word. The Crossword Fiend portal informed me that this is my 300th meta writeup (both WSJ and Fireball). Time flies, and all that. There were four theme entries this week, each ending with a short partial word:
- SOFTWARE(DEV): One who spends a lot of time squashing bugs
- SEMPER(FI): USMC motto
- SHAKY(CAM): Film technique that can induce motion sickness in viewers
- COMPUTER(LAB): Campus facility with many screens
WSJ Contest – 03.15.2026
The remainder of the longer forms of the short words map to other grid entries. Here they are, in theme entry oder:
- LOVER: Romeo or Juliet, e.g. -> DEV(ELOPER)
- EATERIES: Places to grab a bite -> FI(DELIS)
- STAGE: Period of time -> CAM(ERA)
- SPEECH: Keynoter’s offering -> LAB(ORATORY)
The mapped entries spell our contest solution LESS. It took me too long to spot the theme, but it was relatively easy in hindsight. Work/travel/jet lag exhaustion often unlocks my brain’s meta-solving ability (especially for the more difficult ones), for some weird reason. Not this time. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I found this one the easiest in a long time. One slight blind alley was thinking ERA mapped to “RED” via Eras Tour, but I quickly realized I needed another S, so STAGE revealed itself.
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
This time the title of the puzzle is a blatant giveaway. Look at the “end” of the theme entries and notice that they are all “short”, voila.
Also it’s quite probable that this exact metanism has been used before in an older puzzle.
Fun one! Nice job Patrick!! I enjoyed this one!
+1
Puzzle: WSJ (Contest); Rating: 4 stars
Kudos to Patrick Berry for delivering another one of his excellent puzzles. He’s a great addition to the Puzzle Contest team!
Always fun to finish a Patrick Berry puzzle. I enjoyed this one a lot. Perhaps because LESS is more. Kudos to Conrad on 300 writeups! Lucky us.