Grid: quarter-hour; meta: wanted a nudge 

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

This week we’re trying a five-letter phrase. There have been 5 starred theme entries:

• 17A [*Fit to be tied]: APOPLECTIC
• 22A [*Hardly solemn]: FLIPPANT
• 35A [*Likely to be damaging]: HARMFUL
• 51A [*Crafty]: SCHEMING
• 55A [*Counterfeit]: FRAUDULENT

I had the appropriate concept fairly shortly: imprecise clues typically result in synonyms or alternate solutions. I noticed IOUS (connecting to “Chit”), and I figured we had a examine or IOU-themed meta. I spent a *lot* of time Googling synonyms for every themer. Then… I bought caught. Juggling three metas didn’t assist (that’s on me), however I’ve to say: this was a powerful meta by Mike. My pal Gideon bailed me out and nudged me in the appropriate course, and I lastly noticed that grid entries plus IOUS shaped the synonyms that had eluded me:

WSJ Contest – 09.16.22

• Fit to be tied: FUR(IOUS)
• Hardly solemn: UNSER(IOUS)
• Likely to be damaging: NOX(IOUS)
• Crafty: DEV(IOUS)
• Counterfeit: SPUR(IOUS)

The mapped -IOUS entries spell FUNDS, our contest resolution. In hindsight: NOX was my apparent entry into the rabbit gap (it’s odd fill that I don’t bear in mind seeing earlier than). If you didn’t clear up it (like me): let please let me know the way shut you bought. Solvers: let me know the way you discovered your entry into the rabbit gap. I bought nudged and didn’t submit for the mug, so everybody’s possibilities of profitable are roughly 0.1% larger. Good luck!

I ran out of time to discover a thematic track, and The Cardigans‘ You’re The Storm has been enjoying rent-free in my head since I heard it on Radio Paradise just lately, so I assumed I’d share.