Marie Kelly’s (Really Mike) Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Recycling”—Dave Sullivan’s write-up
WSJ Contest – 4/22/16 – “Recycling”
- 17a. [Ring up on the holidays?], PINE WREATH – not sure I’ve ever heard a wreath referred to by the type of boughs that it is made of, I would say pine seems the most common type around New England
- 21a. [Album from which the 1968 Top 10 hit “Think” came], ARETHA NOW – I guess another famous singer, EARTHA KITT would give too much away here
- 39a. [Judge at a Wonderland trial], THE KING OF HEARTS – this and the next entry made me think we might be looking at an Alice Through the Looking Glass tie-in for the meta
- 53a. [Witness at a Wonderland trial], MAD HATTER – I wonder why the judge gets a definite article, but not this character?
- 61a. [Diesel engine part], HEATER PLUG – so diesel fuel needs to be heated as opposed to regular gas?
To these, we also have a hint at 49d. [Today’s honoree (and the focus of the recycling in each theme answer)], EARTH.
So, regular meta solvers to this blog should make an initial assumption that if we’re looking for a five-letter word and have five theme entries, each entry should “donate” a letter to the final answer. Here, each entry has a six-letter word with five of those letters taken from EARTH (in various rearrangements, or “recycling”), leaving one letter remaining. Those “left over” letters spell WASTE from top-to-bottom, and I guess can be seen as the byproduct of our recycling efforts.
Truth be told, I would say this is one of my least favorite metas in the WSJ canon to date–the meta mechanism seemed almost too straightforward that I questioned if I missing a deeper level. (It might’ve given a bit more resistance without the hint at 49d.) I also didn’t like the fact that two of the theme entries had a Wonderland vibe, all five or just one would seem more appropriate to this solver. Finally, I had wished that the EARTH letters, when rearranged, would remain contiguous, which is the case for the first three of the five entries. Again, a bit of inconsistency there.
Other bits and pieces:
- I enjoyed the French “Que la lumiere soit!” or “Let there be light!” spoken in The Bible by God, or the French DIEU
- I also enjoyed the connection of the double entries for [Photog’s take], PIC and SHOT
- Nice tie-in with the title with the clue for 38d. [Recycled, perhaps], USED
- Not sure I follow the connection between the clue [Make do?] and STYLE. Are we talking about the verb to style hair?
Hope you did at least one simple thing to save our planet today!
You may have heard that the actual answer to the meta was in fact EARTH, and not WASTE as hundreds guessed, including me. I figured that if you eliminate WASTE from the earth, then your are doing your part. But apparently you, I and hundreds of others were over-thinking it. So if it was your least favorite meta before, I expect it has dropped even further, if that’s possible, with this news.
The Monday puzzle solution confirms WASTE was correct:
http://www.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/731xword20160425.pdf
What makes you think EARTH was the correct answer?
I could have sworn that Mike Miller posted saying that the answer was EARTH, and that roughly half the people who submitted entries were incorrect. I read it a few times to make sure, and I don’t recall seeing the word WASTE anywhere in his post. And now of course the old blog entries are no longer available. But thanks for responding to clarify. I was a little miffed that it wasn’t WASTE, which made a lot more sense to me. Now I can let it go and get on with my life. :-)