Take Two

12D was my favorite clue. Some tough fill but certainly doable with crossers. At about my favorite challenge level. I really liked that alternate answers in step two had the same number of letters.

It took me a bit to figure out that I needed to “take two” out and discard them. I was trying to use them. Again, an appropriate time to figure that out.

I made it more difficult by thinking there was an * in the 58A clue. Bad eye floater day.

Great puzzle. I would say week 2 to week 3.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Great meta. I knew to take the two center letters, but kept trying to find them elsewhere in the grid in a 3-letter word. I thought i had looked at the remaining letters, but obviously, not close enough. Took a peek at the nudges and gave myself a good headslap! Should not have needed nudges. Perhaps what I needed was another cup of coffee!! Thanks, Chris. Nice to wake up to a good meta on a cold, snowy morning!

Nice one. Thanks.

Very nice. Love it when the first thing I try works!

I test-solved this one, remembering some clues along the way (yes, 12d is a favorite; also 30d), but I didn’t immediately, ahem, RECALL the metanism. So it was great fun all over again. Thanks, Chris!

Nice quick one. Great intro.

Nice idea, Chris, and well executed! Thanks.

Nice puzzle and funny intro!

Saw EP in the center then saw exEMPt was like cool....then realized I was in a rabbit hole. stepped back and saw the path. Fun Puzzle/Meta Chris. thanks

Consider: Take the center two letters. EP,EN,CA, AT. But that's eight not 4. But consider the themeres come in pairs each exactly two rows apart. So take the center between the two. Between EP and EN is RU and between CA and AT is IN. And that spells .... RUIN.

Like woozy, I first took the two letters BETWEEN each pair of two letters and got RUIN!

Nice one. Chuckled at the clue for 9D. Thanks for the puzzle, Chris!

Got the idea instantly, but took a bit to find the HOMAGE match. Clever idea, thanks.

Took one of the four middle letters of each * and unsystematically found META. Thanks, Charbee!

My first attempt was RUINed as well! Needed a nudge to course correct... fun one, Chris!

I first tried another mechanism and got a seemingly valid answer, RUIN. Take words sandwiched between themers, take center two letters of those

Good one.

Perfect puzzle for a snowy day sitting in front of the fireplace. Thanks Chris!

Super smooth grid, and briefly challenging meta (the CENTERS at center was a big nudge). This gave me a great idea for another meta. (If only I were one of those who create metas!)

Late to the party. I’ve been painting all day. So I welcome this answer! Thanks for the puzzle Chris. Fun sssolve.

God help me, i laughed at 9D. Thanks for the puzzle!

Well I tried to oversimplify and then overcomplicate. My first foray was to notice that all of the themers had one double letter...well all but #2 - RATS. OK, read the roadsign clue 36A - EP, EN, CA, AT. Was there a clue that could like Where do you find the Staples Ctr. - INLA and the CA could answer it, or Type of dash - MAD that EN could answer...nope, are there three letter words with those letters , lime maybe CAR or EMT...nope. Well dang what does TAKE TWO mean...ok, literally TAKE the two HOMAGE was the first one I saw. Nice Sunday sail sir with some good clueing! (ah, and shame on you for tossing in PAGEANT!)

Thanks for the advance peek at this one, Chris! I enjoyed it.

Can someone please explain? We got that we had to TAKE TWO CENTER letters from the * but not sure how that ends up with the meta solution XD