Fill-Ins

Very clever! Glad I took the tip to solve on Crosshare.

So many levels of clever here!

Really cool meta!

Fun one, thank you! I think you might have overestimated difficulty given the generous nudges, but I'm not complaining.

I solved on Puzzazz, like shading and circling feature, plus Crosshare a bit glitchy on my phone - but wondering why recommended for this puzzle? Regardless - fun aha moment! Thanks Will!

Fun puzzle!

I like it!

That was a lot of fun, and clever use of a unique feature of Crosshare!

insanely clever construction - loved it!!... thanks for the prompt that it's a plural noun because I originally had EWOK for the space cadet... thinking hmmm chewie is furry and kind of fits the clue but not really so had VIDEO... thinking that there's a blank space music video ... backsolving on the S now...

Thanks, Will!

My box is empty. Thanks, Will.

Nice idea and well-constructed. Thanks.

VERY nice! Haha. I see why you recommend solving on crosshare - I NEVER noticed the alternate wordplay possible at 42 across until after I completed the grid and it started flashing at me.

Loved it.

All the lonely Starbucks lovers helped.

Acyally, I wasn't familiar with the song -- that's how far from being a Swiftie I am -- and with just the entry SPACE, I thought it was going to be about one person in the relationship "wanting some space," as they say. But that's another song, one by Christine Lavin: "If you want space, go to Utah." Oh well, the puzzle had the perfect meshing of mechanism, title, and answer.

Very nice indeed. Agree that it might be a bit easier than advertised, but then I always think that about the ones that I get right away, and it's not always true. Fun as always, thanks.

Fun! Cute!

But I may be missing if there is an significance to BLANK as an alternative answer to SPACE?

Very clever. Took me a bit to see it, but I aVOIDed disaster. Thanks for the puzzle!

Loved it, very clever!

My new daughter-in-law, a real Swiftie, was visiting this afternoon and asked me if I could name a Taylor Swift song. Thanks to this meta, I was able to stammer out "...Space! Blank Space!" So thank you for that

LOVED the mechanism here. Very cool, and great construction with the Blank Space in the middle working both ways.

Didn't do on Crosshare, so I probably made it harder on myself. Space cadet is what started me on the right path.

VERY fun puzzle. At the risk of giving you a meta idea, I noticed early that if I put an L between PICKETT and EWOK I could parse that line to get KETTLE / WOK. And kettle could fill in for a wok. I probably was on that path after seeing SUBS (fill-ins) in UNSUBSCRIBES while solving. I went back and solved on Crosshare and the flashing center entry got me on track. Great execution on this one.

Thanks, Will - excellent puzzle

That was an interesting ride. We had SPACE for the center entry, which works just fine, but Crosshare didn't like it and said our filled-in grid was incorrect. Love how BLANK works just as well for all the down entries. We then assumed SPACE was the meta answer, forgetting we needed a plural noun. Took awhile to see what needed to be seen and get the right answer. Enjoyed this one!

Excellent meta/Schrodinger mashup! This Swiftie enjoyed the aha moment.

Fun puzzle, and right in the difficulty sweet spot, too! So clever :).

now to backsolve the "S"

Oh never mind… I did not know “space opera” was a thing.
And I had totally overlooked the ___ suit clue (didn’t scroll down far enough.). Got it now. This was brilliant, and fun!

Okay - I guessed. I had V-O-?-?-S by putting SPACE into the blanks that worked (____ bar / Vee; ___ station/ Orbiter; ? ; ? , ___ cadet / Scatterbrain). How were the I and D supposed to be spotted? I see that the I and D are Indie (space…film?) and Diaper (space suit), but I would have thought all of the letters would be from filling in blanks (since it says “blank space”). I must be missing something obvious. ?

Great fun. Thanks!

I got VOID and given that it had to be a plural noun, it wasn't hard to complete. What clue becomes SPACE CADET??? I don't know why I can't even backsolve that one.

Really fun, Will -- thanks!

Popping in to enter the answer and make an honest woman of myself, now that I've kicked Crosshare and my laptop to get them to cooperate again. This was lots of fun -- Thanks, Will!

Fun filling in the blanks Will!

Another fun meta...thanks Will!

I bounced around a bit trying to add things to the long words, but ASTRONAUT and DIAPER just seemed so wrong. I mean I know they have MAGs (maximum absorbency garments) they wear during launches and space walks, but of all the parts of a space suit...hey wait a minute! So I did get it AND as an added bonus I found somehting I will steal for a later meta of my own (with a different mechanism). Fun puzzle Will.

What a week, Will--FILLED with meta levels... ironically

Got so caught up in rabbit holes that I missed the five BIG blank spaces - in the clues. After a late nudge to look there, the rest promptly fell into place.