What this meta does (whereas good ones stick to the point)

Down with four year degrees! [Or just "4 year degrees"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Canned meat that really doesn't deserve its reputation (unlike the communications that do) [Or just "Unwanted email"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Melancholy Dane

There's one in Columbus, another in Stillwater, another in Corvallis, and one in Nagoya, Japan [Or just "Corvallis home of The Beavers"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

The Morrigna sisters, for example, or the Magi, or the Stooges (there's no shortage of examples) [Or just "Group of three"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Hansen's disease sufferers

I still remember going to a garage sale as a child and picking up this camera and being fascinated at being told the view through the viewfinder passes through the chamber and will be the same as your image. (I was a weird kid.) [Or just "Fancy camera"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

A poetic measure

Anagram of 2D so...... "Norma ---"; a film about a cotton mill worker who starts an Irish airline [Or just "--- Lingus"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

What this meta will likely be when I get around to publishing it

Buddy

Mature

French auto maker with a lion logo

Hurried

Unverifiable historic story

Group Patty Hearst sympathized with

She played Fluffy Peters in "Won Ton Ton: The Dog who Saved Hollywood" and Testy True in "Head"

State of agitation (like the one I am in when I write my meta clues)

Mouthy quality (um, wouldn't that just be ... mouth) [Or just "Quality of being mouthy"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Christian fish symbol. (In a good meta, the "themers" should be unique; a non-meta related entry, such as this one, should not be able to be mistaken for a meta key)

Shampoo in an iconic green bottle

Microsoft-specific method of dealing with anomalous runtime conditions. (What? If you don't know it just look it up. I provided an URL.) [Or just "Vectored Exception Handling"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Pure-minded

Car Talk's Director of Long-term Strategic planning: Kay ---- [Or just "Que ---- ----; Signature Doris Day tune"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Over The Ridge where you sign an affidavit at birth that you entered life by free will; where theft is an illness requiring hospitalization while pneumonia is a imprisonable offence; and where machines advance by natural selection [Or just "Samuel Butler work"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Abbreviated words

"-'-- never be sick" [Or just "Sick"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

A good puzzle should not use alternate spellings, but this meta is ------- with such problems

Voodoo god in reverse tells you "You've got mail!" [Or just "'You've got mail' company"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

According to MGWCC #722 a Best Actor winner is this [Or just "4 year degrees"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

14A considered taking up arms against this quantity of troubles. (But he never did. He was quite indecisive, that one.) [Or just "Large body of water"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

John Brunner's "Times Without Number" has the premise that the Spanish one of these was successful in 1588 [Or just "Fleet of ships"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Lodes

Dutch --- disease

Actress Louise; first person to win two academy awards in consecutive years

Covering

help! help! help! HHELLLLLLP! HHELLLLLLP! HHELLLLLLP! help! help! help! [Or just "Distress signal at sea"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

What Mooch, the cat, calls a dead body. (Seriously? What kind of clue is that? Well, it's about par for this meta.)

Delivery company with yellow and red vehicles

Anagram of 20A so.... "--- Lingus"; airline with a debut album "Unguarded" and second album "Someone out there" (The clue for 20A might make more sense... barely) [Or just "Norma ---"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard... and by the way, all these clues with this caveat that you can use a shorter clue-- There is NO trick. I mean it. NONE of these clues have anything to do with the meta]

Vlad's sobriquet

Let's make like a blood-sucking vermin and ---- [Or just "Leave in a hurry"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard... The other clues that don't have this disclaimer? A few of them are about the meta but most aren't. Most were just simple clues.]

The more firma, the less ----- [Or just "Latin for earth"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Outside of New York City, it is completely arbitrary whether these cross Ave.s or not. I'd say most times they don't [Or just "Ave crossers" (although I've always hated the regional centrocism of that clue; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

California Lt. Albert who along with Lt. Emmanuel d'Anjou and Cptn. Jebediah Bartlett liberated the Sonoma Plaza and flew the first California flag which had been mistakenly made with an image of a bear on it. (Would Snopes lie to you? Apparently it would, but Breitbart took it at face value.) [Or just "Type of pear"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

A skew [Or just "Askew"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Did what the Wicked Witch demanded Dorothy to do [Or just "Turned oneself in"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Author Larsson who likes to write about a girl who does self-destructive things apparently [Or just "Author Larson"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Uttar-___, India

Goal

"She lugged it to the miller to grind it to flour; Cause the others would furnish her no manpower; And at baking time- they all declined-; To help her with the job; They were a dog gone no-good ---", Malvina Reynolds "The Little Red Hen" [Or just "Unruly group"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Those who know things before they happen

He shouldn't live in 26D.... just saying. [Or just "One who eschews clothing"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

It ended on March 12, 2023 at 2:00 AM in Bend, Oregon [Or just "Oregon time"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Hominid or Hylobatid

If you live in these, you shouldn't throw stones

Bravo! That experimental band that played "10538 Overture" backwards was really superb! Bravo! Brave! [Or just "Bullring cheer"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Paving material

Serve up

Clutches effortless complaints [Or just "Clutches"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

1928 Mickey Mouse short; "The Gallopin' ------": Mickey rides up to a cantina and does a tango with Minnie. When a big cat steals her away, Mickey gives chase, riding a drunken ostrich. At the hideout, Mickey has a swordfight with the cat. [Or just "Argentinian cowboy"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Thirds of Tbsps.

Measd. content tacitly inside a salamander [Or just "Content msrmt"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

"--- got a lovely bunch of coconuts"

Someone who signs anonymously [Or just "Generation born in the 70s or so"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

A poem by Donne that... is really kind of gross when I researched it on Wikipedia. It's also a fairy tale by Giambattista Basile, but that's too obscure and... also kind of gross (but not as). [Or just "Poem by Donne"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Hawaiian name meaning "heavenly garland of flowers"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft-specific_exception_handling_mechanisms#VEH (for example)

Companion on the Erie Canal and picker of blueberries [Or just "Companion on the Erie Canal"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Bianca and Nico di ------; children of Hades in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series [Or just "Actress Beverly D'----"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

When 14A tried to pull things by force away from his uncle Claudius, it was ineffective and unnoticed. That's why his final words were "The ----- is silence"? [Or just "Pull something away by force" (but you have to admit that's a good pun); these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

She's the wife of Abraham but not the grandmother of Lisa (that would be Mona). Instead she is grandmother to Esau and Jacob [Or just "Wife of Abraham"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Do those legs of cured pork belong to Shem or Japeth? No, they are ---- [Or just "Cured pork product"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Leave out

Lru a rof xiffus nommoc or a soft shoe [Or just "Soft Shoe"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

Ace's non-(non)-sexual partner [Or just "Disinclined to partnership"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

They say these are longa but considering millennials never recognize my cultural references, they seem pretty brevis to me. [Or just "--- longa; vita brevis"; these convoluted clues inadvertently distracted from a meta that shouldn't be so hard]

"--- Leppard", Rick Savage's band

Sandy's dialog