Gonna quibble that 38A isn't exactly a clone of Scrabble. Derivative and a successor but significant different to hold its own. (Of course "clone" can be a pretty broad term). Great puzzle. (33D is a heck of a stretch... but clever).
Joe 🤓9:31 · 2023-02-05T17:31:38.076Z
I just got the WSJ and figured I was invincible, so I tucked into this one. And I was right! I'm invincible! (And now that I've angered the meta gods, I'll never solve another one ever again)
Another great meta - just souper! And, as always, I loved the clues. Thanks, Mikey!
ChrisCross 🤓12:02 · 2023-02-06T19:50:38.162Z
I don't even know I got this one. Usually I can remember the spark that revealed the metanism, but this one just happened. Nice!
Julie bookworm 🤓14:46 · 2023-02-09T21:42:58.830Z
I'm so bad at metas that I can't even back-solve this one even though (like Meg) I had a lucky guess on the answer. (Subconsciously smelled something fishy, I guess...) I noticed an abundance of O and U, but can't quite get from there to the answer. Any hints to fish me out of the soup?
Julie bookworm 🤓14:46 · 2023-02-09T23:00:07.674Z
never mind--my brilliant daughter figured it out! Very clever, Mikey!
Wow, you had me WAY off base. I was desperately trying to "hang" the TINSEL and the ICICLE, two answers that seemed (1) too much related to be anything but a nudge (2) placed so that we might look between the top right and lower left. It was finally NAURU that got me on track; "Nobody uses that for an answer, given the host of other possibilities, unless it has something to do with the META. I will say though, nice scattered morsels of SOUP to keep you spooning though. So is it Manhattan, New England or just fish chowder? Oh, and yes please I'll take a large bowl. I have to say that TOADS threw me too, I was sure it was going to be TOADALLY.
HeadinHome 🤓4:11 · 2023-02-11T13:07:56.346Z
Would have found the soup much sooner but those two “SOME”s at 1A and 1D kept shouting at me. They still make no sense to me (is this a cryptic sort of cluing? I don’t do cryptic). It was the unusual preponderance of Us that help focus me, and saw that S,O, and P were often in the vicinity of them… OHHHH… bowls! cute, and fun to solve once you see the pattern. Clam tonight, I think!
Sounds delicious!! The "some" is kind of just a dig at things like that being so ubiquitous in crosswords, even though I know nothing about it. Thanks for solving!!
Nail polish brand with the shade "We Seafood and Eat It"
16A
This semi-pretentious literature lover's least favorite type of bookmark
17A
Tampa Bay NFLers Brady will not be playing with until he's 50
18A
Responses when deciding how to respond to my unfunny clues (so all of them)
19A
Consider it!
20A
Publish a cruciverbal puzzle on more than one venue, for example
23A
What your knowledge of mountains might eventually do
24A
Jazz setting
25A
A great thing to have when the bases are loaded
27A
Type of band
29A
"You're a great wall support!" "I know, I'm such a ___"
33A
Beginning of a path?
36A
Sullivan and others
37A
Response to "Have you gotten the meta yet???" because you've been busy digging rabbit holes
38A
Scrabble clone that debuted in 1983
40A
Conceals
42A
Panegyrize
43A
Aphorism
45A
Some final bars, maybe
46A
Patron saint of red Muppets
47A
Pests in the garden (other than the neighbors you didn't invite)
49A
It might have aloe vera ("Aloe to you too!")
51A
14.79 ml, roughly
55A
Neat as ___ (what my room is not)
57A
When I didn't clean my room, I got a ___
60A
What I won't be inviting over to my room any time soon (okay, enough of that)
62A
Type of sauce consumed with sashimi
63A
Together, in music (found from left to right, though not consecutively, in SAND DUNES)
64A
"Those correspond to my exact sentiments!" (And basically a dupe of 53-Down)
65A
Rapscallion
66A
Big bus.
67A
You might hang it on your tree (or in a meta puzzle) at Christmastime
68A
Course requirement
69A
Star-___ (tuna brand - hey, did you know you can tune a piano but you can't keep using this same pun over and over so you'll have to think of something else, Mikey)
Verticales
1D
Some cable network for those who like to go to the market
2D
Country that has no capital (Yaren is its de facto one)
3D
Center of attraction?
4D
Romance novelist Bailey whose name is an accounting term reversed
5D
Increase
6D
The first model was released on June 29, 2007
7D
Supple
8D
SSNs, e.g.
9D
Appropriate
10D
"Well, that eviscerates my hypothesis"
11D
Michael who voiced Robin in "The LEGO Batman Movie"
12D
Dearth
13D
Poetic preposition that I've probably clued as "before, before" before
21D
Smith of a sort
22D
"Did you have fun watching all these amphibians?" "Oh, it's been ___"
26D
Like certain hooves
28D
Acknowledges silently
30D
Get the show on the road
31D
Fancy coif
32D
First word in the state capital that translates to "from the monks"
33D
"I can't find my October birthstone!" "___ yourself together!"
34D
Past participle of an aquatic verb that doesn't even sound like it's an actual word
35D
They might be found in bullet journals
38D
Glob or mod ending
39D
Palatable
41D
My knowledge about how to remove ferric oxide is a little ___
44D
Response to a ring
48D
"When ___..."
50D
How ballerinas dance (fine, you try cluing this)
52D
"___ Cake" (2022 Charmaine Wilkerson novel)
53D
"Those correspond to my exact sentiments!" (and basically a dupe of 64-Across)
54D
Decants
55D
Car company whose name comes from the Latin word for "listen"