One Is The Loneliest Number (Meta)

I found CRAB and was completely mystified, until suddenly it hit me… after like two hours :-)

My lame brain misread the hint and thought that each letter in the meta appeared uniquely in the puzzle, so I was struggling to think what else would work besides barcar. Also I found that the initials of the down entries containing the singletons spell none, so that was another mini rabbit hole i fell into. Anyway, once I learned to read good, I got to the answer; thanks for your patience, your puzzle, and for making me the answer to one of your metas

Really fun! I thought I was going to hit a wall after I found ABCR as the only singletons, and was like... crap, well, that's definitely only 4, and we're looking for 6. Then once I saw the way they were laid out, and how it clearly spelled CRAB, finding no other beach/ocean kind of words in the puzzle... wait a second, there IS a lonely crab!

Back from the internet, I can report that you keep pet hermit crabs in a "crabitat," but they are unlikely to live to the 40 years they might last in the wild, exchanging borrowed mollusk shells now and then with their buddies as they grow, develop Jamaican accents, and sing calypso.

Once I actually counted correctly, things went pretty smoothly. Considered NEBULA as the answer, but that didn't seem to make sense. Then it hit me. Another fun puzzle, Ben.

LOL I did same as Laura - but what a fantastic AHA! moment. Well done Ben - thanks!

Tried GROUCH at first then re-read the title. Thanks Ben!

Ditto Laura M. below. First: “CRAB … huh??” Then: “Oh, yeah! Cool!!” Good one, Ben.

I found CRAB and 4 hours later just guessed HERMIT (an alone person) and then got the connection. Backwards. Or sideways, like a crab.

It was looking right at me for hours. Thanks.

I knew that making a fill with one A, B, C and R HAD to be a travail so those letters fit in. I first went with CARBON (used the letters, would be a way to turn one into more) and that did not work, toyed with BRANCH thinking "well with only one lonely person there is no branch", thought about BOXCAR (lonely person riding the rails alone). Then the free association started. When I was a kid and a Boy Scout (yes folks I was prepared!) we used to go on hikes in the nearby woods to visit "Otto" an elderly hobo who had ridden a boxcar for years until finally settling all by himself in the mountains/hills down from my home and across the railroad tracks. Otto lived alone and nobody really saw him, but could be quite a surly individual, even when you brought him food. He was quite the crab that hermit...hey. hold on there, CRAB HERMIT, HERMIT, 6 letters no repeats. Good on ya Ben!

Initially I thought it was entries containing O-N-E with additional letters (ONME, EONS, etc.) and then kinda hit me that there were tons of E’s, I’s, and O’s but only one A… and then could only find 4 singletons… and then the Aha!! Thanks Ben, nice puzzle!

Okay.... Got CRAB (thanks to the analys tool you pointed me too--- would have been stuck with C and A without it) and then... had to think... Cone, Rone, A-one, Bone? No. Um... Crab Nebula, decpod, no. What could crab have to do with one or loneliness ... unless....

Cool Puzzle.

I had CRAWB for a long time, not seeing the other W in the puzzle. How many times did I scan that grid for just one more letter?? ( : Finally saw that CRAB was there, and googled “one lonely crab” (there’s a book by that name but his name is WEBSTER). Finally just thought of HERMIT crab, of course!
Earlier rabbit holes were tons of 3-letter words just one off from O-N-E scrambled (ONO, ESO, ONI, SEO). Also saw MONO, ONEdge, etc… dead end. Even replaced all the I’s with “one” to see if you could make words: SKI would be SKONE?? (no that’s not how you spell that…).

I like it.

Like others, had CRAB fairly quickly, but could not make the right connection. Tried NEBULA, LONELY (lonely crab is a brand of TV Dinners in SpongeBob) and considered BISQUE. Finally took a very subtle nudge from Dr. Tom to get me to the right answer. Great puzzle, Ben! Wish I wasn't so 17A sometimes.

Count me in with the 2+ hours folks and then some... First had to get past looking at ALL the words with one of each letter, or next the exactly 6 other entries that included the letters O, N, E. Finally got the CRAB, but being from Maryland, that probably doubled my free associations with the word, so it took quite some time to stumble on the AHA... probably typed in more possible answers than I ever have!

I found CRAB and googled "six letter crab" to get the answer because I couldn't think of anything (though I knew it was right thematically when I saw it). Very impressive construction.

I had seen CRAB before, but needed to check your nudges today to confirm and lead me to the last step...thanks Ben!

Had crab early on....put it down for a day or two came back and the combo of title and crab hit me...ugh.... Fun puzzle thanks Ben.

Cute! Found CRAB and then tried to spell out something. Finally make the connection to the title. Duh!

Wow got both this and the MEOW in quick succession after having given up on both several times. I got to CRAB almost immediately, and then spent days trying to word associate (even before the nudges told me to do so). Even googled Lonely Crab a few times. Finally one of those searches turned up the answer and it was forehead slap time. Fun one, thanks!