Put it All Together

Fun one DrTom!! Nudge 1 is very confusing, but TBF probably unnecessary. (I seem to have a blind spot when it comes to linking puzzles to the day/date of publication…) Happy Mothers Day all!!

Thanks, DrTom. Mothers is 7 letters?

My wife says you are correct - mothers are supreme beings...

Cute.

But, although I got it without the nudges, nudge 4 is the only nudge I understand. Is there anything more than there are seven female farm animals (duck??) and it was mothers day?

Fun one, thanks. :) Nudge 1 steered me away from the long acrosses, which was helpful, but made me think there should be 8 themers, and I could only find 6 (note that this is distinct from saying that there only are 6 ). So I got stuck there, and looked at the rest of the nudges. From the title and the (usually helpful for Dr. Tom's puzzles) title image I was trying to string entries together into longer words, but that went nowhere. Nudges 2 and 3 didn't add anything I wasn't already doing/thinking about, but after spending some time thinking nudge 4 was referencing 'Sunday' I finally got it. Still confused how it's 8 letters long though. Appreciate the shout-out at 56D

Obviously! Thanks, Dr. T!

Sorry for making a Queen bee-line to the solution. I had the answer before the mechanism (maybe even before the grid) based on the old song and the day. But lots of fun to go back and figure out what was needed! Thanks, Tom!

Unfortunately I needed all 4 nudges. And even then my first guess was "Females" --lol

Woozy - Check the clues

Oh. Now I get the mechanism....

You got the whole farm in there (except, wisely, the dog). Thanks, Tom!

Why yes. Yes we are. Thanks for the honors. Everyone call your mother if you’re lucky enough to still have one to talk with.

Total guess, based on nudge 4 (and the correction to nudge 1). Thanks for the puzzle, Tom, and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers on here!

Nice! Hope all of the moms are having a lovely day! I'm happy I got a HMD text from my offspring today, I take what I can get :-)

I saw the title, and this was my first guess. "It" for "them" didn't fool me. But I confess it took a minute to stop parsing the long entries to get the letters. There was a Walt Kelly Pogo version that began "M is for the Murmansk things she gave me." I cannot find it online, but I think the next line was "O means only that she's growing squash," Something, something, the, "Y is for Yakima Valley, Wash." Thanks for the (partial) memory and for a fun, symmetrical puzzle.

Lol. My first thought was Diana Ross. Just thinking puns. Nice idea, and the symmetry did help. Thanks, DrTom.

I got it, but didn't like the meta prompt, it's too misleading. DEITIES would have satisfied, but MOTHERS doesn't in my opinion. Especially with the unclued SIS at 59D and its symmetrically-balanced entry MEN. That led us to look all over the place for male counterparts hidden in the grid or in the clues. The title seemed to suggest putting the females together with their males in some way.

Distracted for a while by the appearance of CHE in three of four long entries but got there eventually - thanks, gents

Thank you for the puzzle. Supreme beings indeed!

It's a little evil to have 7 theme answers and the answer be 7 letters long, but not get a letter from each of them. I finally got it when I ignored the meta prompt and everything but nudge 4. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing; I wasn't thinking of Mother's Day even after seeing all of those animals and realizing what they had in common.

Enjoyed this one on this special day for "supreme beings"! The first letters of the "mothers" spell "mensch", and certainly most of them are mensches as well! Thank for another fun one Dr Tom!

loved it! (no nudges needed)