A beauty! Saw "Second in Command" right away, and initially took that as- look for sidekicks and/or figure out secondary leadership positions for all organizations mentioned in the puzzle. Fortunately, I took a break before I did too much legwork on that, and the real metanism smacked me in the face right after coming back to it. Phew!
I saw three COM’s symmetrically in the grid and spent a lot of time trying to us .com. Then I noticed the IN in each of those.
Later got stuck on alternate clues pairing SECOND IN COMMAND with SGTS and SECOND OPTION with BESIDE.
What a DOOFUS I am. I saw 5 SECONDS and immediately started looking for alternate answers (there are a few if you stretch). But I got nowhere of course, then I threw out a life line and was told "You missed two!". I had been on the right track at an earlier point, but OINON led nowhere but to tears (and I had to rearrange it to get those!). Typically super Cap'n puzzle, with a straightforward solution if you do not try to complicate it...which I did.
Thanks, DrTom. I noticed that you and a few other folks were having a little trouble with this one. I often go the alternate clues route, so I thought I'd change things up a bit.
HeadinHome 🤓1:39 · 4 months ago
TWO uses of the word “second” to get to the meta.. brilliant!
Friday Football Fun. Thanks as always Cap’n! Wondering if the several two word alliterative clues were meant as rabbit food given the puzzle title. And do rabbits like potato salad?