The answer to the meta is my personal favourite of the last 39 across
This puzzle marks a milestone in my career as a puzzle creator. But, not wanting to spoil anything - any more than the puzzle title already does! - you're just going to have to jump in and start solving. The answer to the meta is my personal favourite of the last 39 across. (Let me know in the comments if you agree!) Answer and explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=102065#p102065
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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Schmeel 🤓14:34 · 2022-08-02T11:28:17.273Z
Happy anniversary!
Thanks for the puzzles.
I can't really say I've solved them all, and I don't always remember who constructed which puzzle. So I can't remember which was my favorite - but if not for anything else, it has certainly been a lesson in Australianisms over the past year!
Since they are already completed, I can tell you that there is still lots of fun to come!
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2022-08-03T13:06:08.546Z
I can't believe you have the next 52 completed. Wow! I wish I had your ambition!!
whimsy 🤓16:03 · 2022-08-02T15:42:49.949Z
Have to disagree even though the answer to that one was my name. I solved the meta, but I didn't really "get" it, having never read those books. My memory as to the many puzzles you've done (and for which I thank you, Ben!) isn't great either, but skimming over some in doing this puzzle, I recalled that I really liked "Arborealty."
Happy anniversary! Looking forward to another year!
I K Snamhcok 4s · 2022-08-02T20:27:38.729Z
Ben, for someone who hasn’t been at this for all that long, your puzzles are amazing! In fact, they’re just plain amazing anyway — no matter how long you’ve been at this. Thanks!
Feeling dim, I had two wrong submissions because I didn't take the idea far enough (or really anywhere), and I didn't remember the answer puzzle until reviewing it in the forum. Anyway, thank you for a year of great puzzles! Ones that stood out for me were (not a complete list, but the ones I can remember that I liked just from seeing the titles): Expanding Brackets; Yellows and Greens; Social Media. Looking forward to more!
Happy Anniversary - and thanks for a year of meta fun!! I must have tried 10 different ways to enter your SECOND puzzle as the answer before it dawned on my to try something different. What's that old definition of insanity? LOL so NO, I was not just starting to enter each one of your meta titles until I got it right.
Tyrpmom 2s · 2022-08-04T00:15:41.490Z
Fun mechanism. Happy Anniversary.
ReB 3s · 2022-08-06T01:29:22.760Z
Hoping for another glorious year for you. I probably didn't need the second nudge, but was feeling impatient. 2nd was enough. Clever variation on a common convention, but you did clue us in...
Dow Jones 3s · 2022-08-06T01:46:59.474Z
Thanks, Ben for the puzzle. You got me again, but I love the challenge.
Bbaack 19:21 · 2022-08-06T04:42:42.826Z
Thanks Ben, and congratulations on reaching your one year milestone!
Billy Joel album, "Fifty-___" (but spelling out the first part and abbreviating the rest)
12A
Hot-tempered
13A
"Go the ___" (do something beyond the demands of duty)
14A
Male cat
16A
Piece of asparagus
17A
Inappropriate for office viewing, briefly
18A
"___ Baba and the Forty Thieves"
19A
Where you come in order to win silver medals
21A
Available from, for a price
24A
Australian rock band, ___/DC
26A
Lumberjack's tools
28A
Third level of a building in Australia (really!)
29A
Misgiving (yes, I know this one is usually pluralised, but I didn't have room!)
33A
Opposite of 73 across
35A
"Straight Outta Compton" group
36A
Flood barrier
37A
Golfer's bagful
39A
How many puzzles, including this one, that I have constructed and released (one per week for a year; you do the math)
44A
"The game is ___!" (Sherlock's catch-phrase)
45A
"You've got mail" addressee
47A
Bae
50A
TV program or series aired for a subsequent time
51A
"I prefer the alternative"
53A
Star Wars Episode IV, but with "new" dropped for easy cluing reasons
55A
With 57 across: Less important than just one other
57A
See 55 across
58A
"Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need," according to the Once-ler
60A
Answer to my puzzle "Hot Breakfast", but spelled the US way
64A
Period of time in Tolkien's chronology characterized by the rise of Sauron in Middle-earth, the creation of the Rings of Power and the Ringwraiths, and the early wars between Sauron and the Elves
65A
"Look at me! I'm ___!" (what Mike Teavee might have said after being shrunk down by Willie Wonka's machine)
67A
Tear jerker when diced? (yes, I'm repeating clues from past puzzles, and this is not the first one, too)
70A
"If you ask me" in an SMS (and I'm not feeling humble)
71A
What gets planted after harvesting something else on the same land earlier in the season
72A
Subsequent time through a series of steps
73A
Opposite of 33 across
74A
A loooooooooong time
75A
New Zealand parrots
Down
1D
No ___, ands or buts
2D
Nurse one's gin and tonic
3D
Penetrate slowly
4D
___ Mountains, the range in Russia that separates Europe from Asia
5D
Long-tailed South and Central American wildcat
6D
"It's my turn!"
7D
South Holland municipality that is home to Keukenhof, also known as the Garden of Europe
8D
Mystifying (to an Australian) Christmas decoration, "___ on a shelf"
9D
Uses a needle and thread
10D
Play for time
11D
Ratted out
15D
Cat sound
20D
Middle section of the famous trigonometry mnemonic that sounds vaguely like a volcano in Indonesia
22D
Unconventional
23D
La-la lead-in
24D
The Braves, on scoreboards (see, my clues don't have to only refer to Australian stuff)
25D
Fancy French word for a cook
27D
Song for one person
30D
I really wanted to use the Jamaican singer best known for the earworm "Cheerleader" here, but it'll have to be the Cuban singer-songwriter born Ovidio Guzman instead
31D
Union of European Football Associations (abbr.), and it wouldn't be a benchen71 puzzle without at least one of these!
32D
Escape
34D
"Fee, fi, fo, ___!"
37D
100 lbs.
38D
Classical portico or roofed colonnade
40D
Personal pronoun that has been duped in the clues many times
41D
"___ avail" (unsuccessfully)
42D
Sarcastic alien from an 80's sitcom
43D
The part of your trousers that you sit on
46D
Anagram of NOR
47D
Magician's rabbit concealer
48D
OHHAI (call-back #1 to my guest MEOW puzzle)
49D
NONGMO (call-back #2 to my guest MEOW puzzle)
51D
NLMVPS (call-back #3 to my guest MEOW puzzle)
52D
"__ of little faith" (Matt. 8:26)
54D
What you are not supposed to do when stung by a jellyfish (with "it")
56D
"Hey, that's ___! No 2 letter words in a crossword!"
59D
"No ___!" (Not gonna happen!)
61D
Guy Ritchie's first movie, "___, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"
62D
One-named singer, who has appeared in too many of my puzzles to count
63D
Musical (and now movie by Lin-Manuel Miranda) by Jonathan Larson, "___, ___... Boom!"