Speak Plainly! (Meta)

Well, that was slightly frustrating. Lol. Thanks, Ben.

LMAO. Dude.

Loved it, but 1 and 5 aren't letters :-)

I always loved those letters 1 and 5.

Very tricksy, Ben. I suspect that you've been flooded with Crosshare guesses that contain any number of phrases from the intro. Thanks for the puzzle!

Dang it! I almost typed that in six hours ago, after my third guess "ANSWER TO THE META" didn't work.

Someone has to say it.

And no one has to say this

Okay. Full puzzle. Even if impossible to get. Thanks.

Oh my! Not what I expected, but clever, I guess....

Phew. Light bulb finally went on.

Without the nudges, I found all the idioms and IN NOTE LITERALLY. First I tried BETWEEN THE LINES (which is 15-letters and could be something "literally in a note"). Then I tried IN NOTE LITERALLY. Then I read the nudges and slapped my forehead. Good one, Ben!!!

Hey stop picking on 1 and 5; 1'm 5erious

I parsed the letters correctly and looked for a fifteen-letter phrase that was already on the screen. The long clue for IDIOM, a clue that was obviously a key to the solution, ended with "at the drop of a hat." Fifteen letters. True, it was not "in note" but rather in clue, but it seemed to work.

Well THAT was diabolical! You are right, the "15 letter" was misleading. I think "The meta answer is 15 characters long" would not have been too much of a tip off, but hey it is not my puzzle. But in the end, every cloud had a silver lining; I gave it the old college try even if I banged about like a bull in a china shop.

Thanks for the workout Ben

Oh for Pete’s sake. Starin’ right at it. I needed the nudge about what the “note” referred to .. have never used a puz file.

Like Bird Lives, I picked up on 37A. The "at the drop of a hat" seemed like an extraneous note added to the end of the clue. I submitted that and of course it was wrong. But then, that phrase had 15 letters but was an idiom, so not literal. What does the phrase mean literally?

"Do it immediately" has 15 letters. NOPE.

Well, a quick search yielded that "at the drop of a hat" was how races were started, so I submitted:
The start of a race. NOPE When a race starts. NOPE

I also struggled accepting 15 as a letter.

I think my answers were defensible at least. But hey! No skin off my nose. (another 15-letter phrase by the way)

Ben, you tricky rascal you! This would've made a great April Fools Day meta.

Lol continuing my trek back through this semester's puzzles, and I had the same solving experience as others did a couple of months before me. Instantly got to INNOTELITERALLY but that parsed as gibberish, even when I had it right (i.e. I wrote IN NOTE LITERALLY and then was still lost). Even with the nudge about the puz file I didn't get it. Needed the shove of nudge 6. Not my favorite one of the series. :) But I admire the effort and creativity. :)