Home Bound

I must admit I kinda fell into home plate rather than gracefully slid. Home Page is to me the better answer to 20ac than just Page (and a good alternative answer to 1ac giving us the S), and Home Econ is a better answer than just Econ (which is still taught in schools!) - but is not a good alternative answer to 42ac, more the other way around. Similarly Home Port is a good alternative answer to 61d giving us the D, but not a better answer to 57ac. So I think I’m missing the elegance here and tripped & face planted onto the plate lol

Berto's was pretty much my experience too. I wasn't sure if the idea was words that required Home to fit their definitions (such as Home Page and Home Econ) or words that may have Home before them. And I wasn't sure if the alternative answer were examples of the home entries (EAGLES is a Home Team) or an alternative (Latin is a class no longer often taught). I got IDEA, DUTY and EAGLES and in order spell I-D-E and I figure I need two more and was able to figure with the with the baseball meaning of home that SLIDE would be a good guess.

14A having "home" in the clue puzzled me a bit.

Difficult one. Thanks, DrTom.

I thought it might be "tag up" and my wife though it might be "slide". We got the S__DE and then backsolved for the L and I.

I enjoy this kind of metanism! While I found too many possibilities for PORT, ALARM and IDEA seemed a good match and then ECON paired nicely with STEERAGE ("Cheap way to travel"). Then I thought PAGE might fit "Olde workforce" (thinking medieval times)... and EAGLES was even a HOME TEAM!... so I had T/G/D? with I S E E. I figured I only had 2 or 3 correct and ended up guessing. ;) It was fun, and I'm eager to check the answer key. Thanks, DrTom!

LOVED this! Perfect balance of Dr. Tom clues and hints to help along the way. Metas should be fun and this one was. Loved that I had to puzzle out the alternative answers.

Let me say "mea culpa" to everyone who had to struggle through finding the alternates. I screwed up in that I went back and forth between the two "possibilities" for HOME Econ and LATIN as well as HOME Port and DUTY STATION. If you were to look again at the Crosshare version you would see that I changed those two. I did not announce that there were clue changes because that would certainly tip the solution, I just tried to amend it for future solvers.

This one was created some time ago and then I got back from my car trek and needed to put one up. If I had read through it again I might have found the problems (I emphasize might because one seldom sees the problems because of familiarity with the puzzle - confirmation bias!) and corrected it beforehand. I deserve any and all criticism for the faulty "connections".

Cluing great fun as always! Meta choppier, but 4 out of 5 letters was enough to go aHAH. I still do not know what the D is. home port is a good place to begin a quest just like Start, home economics is outdated like Latin, home alarms will keep you awake like Ideas , .... home page something something something, and the home team is the beloved birds in Philly, Eagles.

The intent was to have people see:

AHA! Thanks for the nudge. I needed a change in direction but at least my initial wild guess TAG UP was in the right sport. Thanks for a fun challenge.

Ahh.. I used a right alternate for the wrong match. Makes sense! BTW .. Norfolk holds a fond memory for me: hubs was finishing up his engineering degree at ODU when we were dating and got engaged, so I took many road trips there that spring (1983)!

Finally got it, but needed all the nudges and a couple of extra ones from the good Doctor. Sometimes you see them, and sometimes you don't. Thanks for the puzzle, Tom!

Very clever and fun - even if I did need remedial nudges. Thanks Tom!

I was doing all the right things, but it took forever! Thanks!