Grid: 10 minutes; meta: an hour 

Mike Shenk’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Position Statement” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re searching for a six-letter phrase. A six-letter reply typically results in six theme entries and the lengthy horizontal entries supplied six candidates. Mike is known for utilizing the central and/or ultimate horizontal grid entries as a part of the meta and the central entry ABUSERS (clued as “They’ll walk all over you”) struck me as thematic. I contemplated alternative ways to parse “Position Statement,” resulting in the next useless rabbit holes:

• RELO, END, and PUTS appeared position-relevant
• NICELOOKING and CAPTAINCAPTAINEMO contained KING and CAPTAIN
  • Lieutenant UHURA (ultimately promoted to captain)
  • PRINCESS (standalone entry) was additionally within the grid

The title/rank rabbit gap was too disjointed, so I deserted it. I spun my wheels and saved ABUSERS, noting the positional preposition “over” within the clue. I scanned the opposite potential themers: 4 of the six lengthy entries additionally contained positional prepositions. I knew I had the correct rabbit gap after I seen the theme clues additionally contained homophones of letters:

WSJ Contest – 08.19.22 – Solution

• NICELOOKING: Easy on the eyes -> on the I’s
• PONTNEUF: Landmark over eau -> over O
• ABUSERS: They’ll stroll all over you -> over U
• PRINCESS: Character who slept on a pea -> on a P
• CAPTAINNEMO: He traveled 20,000 leagues below the ocean -> under the C

Five themers, and we wanted six letters. NICELOOKING supplied two: R and E had been on the I’s. M was over the O in PONTNEUF, A was over the U in ABUSERS, R was on a P in PRINCESS, and Ok was below the C in CAPTAINNEMO. The letters above/beneath the theme entry letters spell REMARK, our contest answer. Mike’s on a roll; I liked the “aha”second. Solvers: let me me know what you thought, and the way you discovered the trail to the correct rabbit gap.