WSJ Crossword Contest (12/31 - 1/3) "The Party Starts at 10"

The Wall Street Journal has a fun series where each Friday (in this case, Thursday), they release a meta-puzzle with a phrase you need to find. This was the WSJ contest to begin the year.

"The Party Starts at 10"

The answer to this week's contest is a four-word phrase you might hear tonight (NYE).

Generally speaking, the way metas work is that there is a clue that highlights what answers are most likely to be useful for solving the meta puzzle. Additionally, the title of the puzzle will help, so something with a "10" may be helpful (whether it is an answer, a clue, or something else is still TBD). Lastly, we use the fact that this is a four-word solution on NYE. In this case, a combination of 66A and 67A give us the solution.

• 66A "Three...two...___..." (last words of the year, often): "ONE"
• 67A Some are ten letters long in this grid: "DOWNS"

66A clues us that we are likely looking for the last three of something given that it is a New Years Eve themed quiz. 67A highlights that we should look at the Down answers with 10 letters, of which there are 4:

• 3D Google co-founder: "SERGEY BRIN"
• 18D A candidate might win by it: "WIDE MARGIN"
• 22D Machinist's tool: "METAL LATHE"
• 30D Governor of Maryland in 1968: "SPIRO AGNEW"

I've bolded the last 3 letters as clued by 66A. But I actually realized this because of the NYE tilt. It seemed too perfect that 30D would end in "NEW", and after looking at the other 10 letter clues, I was able to get the groups of letters which in order will spell our answer "RING IN THE NEW".

The party may start at 10, but I'll give this WSJ only 9 out of 10 new years.