"O'er the Ramparts"

That was a nice AHA moment!

Very enjoyable solve, Cap'n Rick !!

Key words

Finally found my brain part… Thanks, Cap’n!

Forehead smack heard round the house. Thanks, Capn!

Lookin' good!

Thanks, Cap’n Rick! I’ve only been to Boston once many years ago on business but will definitely come back. Only had time to see Harvard (one in our group had attended there) and, of course, the Cheers Bar!

Got the answer, then "got" the answer. Very clever. I confess I can't find the R (unless its the RAM implied by the central crossers), and I'll probably feel foolish when I do find it.

Very clever tie-in of the song / author!

Fun! Happy Fourth, Cap’n Rick!

Very nice Rick!!! Sensed what the metanism might be just from the title, and it was fun to see it play out as I completed the grid. Again - amazed at how you constructors keep coming up with these things. Thanks!

Fun puzzle. I could not figue out what to do for a little bit there. It seemed like ARIES was a red herring, but it actually turned out to be a signpost.

The puzzle is the BOMB! Happy 4th.

Very nice one, Rick! Took me several looks to finally see it, but when I did, it gave me a huge grin. A happy 4th to all!

Very nicely done. Saw nothing for a while, then noticed a few parts, then noticed OVINE, then "oh, ram/parts," then "HHNBBKHH???," then searched clues for alternates, then "oooh o'er the ram/parts dummy" :) Great stuff as usual, thanks.

Nice one! Love the answer. Happy 4th! I used to live in Boston and went to that Pops concert a few times.

Well that was adorable! Thanks for the fun. I was sure it was going to be something lofty and patriotic, with the arches and horns and whatnot. Nope. Animal parts. And the nod to Mr. Key, of course!

So great, Cap’n! Everyone has already said what I would have said, I was just late to the puzzle… but I wish you could have seen our cackling laughter when we caught where you were going with this… such fun!

Clever. Thanks, Rick!

O say can you see how clever this meta is? Have a happy 4th, and thanks!

Aye Cap’n. Had a sheepish grin when all the right parts were found. Happy 4th!

Dang it Rick, your Metas just keep getting better and better! Great fun, great fill, S.A.D. mechanism. After I spent some time looking for words like WALL, FORT, HILL to indicate RAMPARTS, then looking at INCANDESCE (red glare), ESPY (can you see), Ted (gave proof through the) Night. I set it aside. I had thought early on about RAM parts, but decided this was a family friendly meta and, specifically, Ram parts would not make for a very acceptable meta. Just now when I went back to it I saw all the body parts and after the first three had a pretty good idea of the meta word(s). A true delight and a nice confidence builder given that I have been whiffing on metas since Friday. Thanks for the puzzle!

Very nice, Cap'n Rick! Thanks!

Took me forever, but finally saw it! Happy 4th to all!!

Lots of fun (and symmetry!) as expected! I initially wanted to use all those Ts and Ns in some explosive way. Best to you Cap'n

D'oh. I needed the hints. I thought that the 8 letters long was related to the anthem being 8 lines, but obviously that led nowhere.

Arrgh - I had the mechanism correct in concept, but I got hung up on thinking that "ram parts" referred to letters. Once I got the extra nudge that there were eight symmetrical "ram parts" in the puzzle, I quickly saw that it was BODY parts that were being referred to, and everything else quickly fell into place. A bloody mess, though, with all those body parts strewn about... Well done.

Time for a drink "to Anacreon in Heaven"...

needed all the hints, but still had fun!

so many layers to this one ... i loved it!! had to use hint #4... i found the ram-parts... but didn't know where to go from there... the title did double duty!!