Size Extremes

Nice. Thanks.

At first I thought this was going to be all science-y. Then I read the title! Thanks for a fun one.

I took “light exercise” a little too literally - needed to take an extra step! Clever to use the more obscure set members! Thanks

Fun one. Thanks for the puzzle, Alan.

I got hung up on step 1 for awhile until that little meta voice said, "Maybe we should just keep going." Nicely constructed.

I guessed some other things first.

Nice one!! As someone who barely clears 5 feet, I appreciated looking out for the "little guys". Thanks, Alan!

Nice meta, thanks!

Wonderful! Loved the way we had to keep on trekkin to get to the answer. Thanks, Alan!

Emjoyed this; thank you!

I was afraid I might need nudges, but with my small mindedness I eventually got there... even at my snails pace several hours after solving... I really should know better than to attempt to measure up to you immense geniuses

Gosh. I made the mistake of assuming. Don't assume.

Fun puzzle, Alan - perfect for the SSS. Love that profile pic, btw - very on-brand for the muggle forum

I really enjoy multi-step metas, especially when each step seems logical, as they did in this puzzle! Only had a little confusion between Oceania and Australia while googling. Thanks for the puzzle! It was fun!

Finally got there. Figured out step 1 right away, knew what step 2 probably was, but then neglected to look at the clues. The last nudge set me on the right path. Rookie mistake. Thanks for the puzzle!

Made the mistake of hubris! I was sure that, given your "in grid nudge" you were going for the second largest of them all, as in some people call second PLACE so you were looking for the second largest place. Well of course that spelled nothing (well it spells TAACH or CHAAT but that is nothing unless you like Asian roadside foods). But in looking back at my list of "sizes" I saw ONTARIO at the bottom. "Hey, wasn't there a weird direction clue about Ontario to Norfolk, what an odd choice of alternatives!" Using that I summoned my crossword knowledge about the smallest country - Vatican City! So he wasn't just lion to me with those Leos. With that the scales fell from my eyes and onto the paper. Nice SSS Alan, and no math or chemistry involved...well maybe it was a litmus test because it required basic knowledge; correct me if that is a pHalse assumption.

Nicely done, Alan! I really enjoyed solving this one! Keep 'em coming!

I’m just here for the BAKED ALASKA! Great two step meta, Alan, thanks.

Jumped wrongly after third nudge*, but the next one gave me a course correction to a more satisfying solution. Nice effort there.

*While SCALE is clearly the SUPERIOR answer, was I correct in thinking that AREA is also a measure of magnitude?

Great idea and execution!

Geography -- my least favorite category. And yet, with the help an embarrassing number of Google searches, the scales fell from my eyes.

Didn’t notice until almost done that the non-largest examples were also the smallest examples … I was just looking for ANY other example (of a country, state, etc). Fun puzzle and great idea for meta. I had to look up Oceania to verify … we learned Australia!

Excellent!

Getting to this a day late, but still an enjoyable start to my meta week. Fun one! Thanks.

really fun puzzle - thanks!

Loved this! Multiple aha moments; not too hard to be frustrating, but difficult enough to still give a feeling of accomplishment.

loved this puzzle!! took me awhile to find oceania since i was looking for australia as well... thank you the title helped me a lot too :)