Grid: quarter-hour; meta: wanted a nudge 

Matt Gaffney’s Wall Street Journal contest crossword, “Interior Design” — Conrad’s writeup.

This week we’re in search of a five-letter phrase. There have been 5 lengthy numbered theme entries, right here they’re in numeric order:

• [Game of pool? (1)]: MARCOPOLO
• [“It Happened One Night” Oscar winner (2)]: CLARKGABLE
• [Some hold pickles (3)]: GLASSJARS
• [Lowland between mountain ranges (4)]: RIFTVALLEY
• [Prime minister until his death in 1964 (5)]: JAWAHARLALNEHRU

WSJ Contest – 01.13.22 – answer

I spun my wheels on this one, with too many rabbit holes to say. OK, I’ll point out just a few. I labored a ROOM/home theme for some time, AROOM and BATH (room). Then GLASS (homes). And home of seven GABLEs. Also: RIFTVALLEY/RV (cell house), and many others., and many others. With the Fiend deadline looming: I requested for nudge from a fixing pal. He inspired me to concentrate on the primary letter of every two-word theme entry. Then I noticed it: Those letters have been shut within the alphabet, and the in between letters mapped to a different grid entry:

• (M)ARCO(P)OLO: M[NO]P -> HARDLY (“That’s a false statement!”)
• (C)LARK(G)ABLE: C[DEF]G -> ETYM (Dict. data)
• (G)LASS(J)ARS: G[HI]J -> AHOY (Casual greeting)
• (R)IFT(V)ALLEY R[STU]V -> RINGO (First title within the Beatles)
• (J)AWAHARLAL(N)EHRU J[KLM]N -> TWA (Letters seen on hundreds of plane over the a long time)

The first letter of mapped entries spell HEART, our contest answer. I believed it was a terrific meta by Matt: clear, troublesome (for me, nevertheless it’s all relative), and really gettable in hindsight. Solvers: please let me know if and the way you discovered the rabbit for this one, and describe every other rabbits you chased.