Down East

Excellent puzzle and metanism. Loved the "ELS" and MAIDEN MAINE ("Made in Maine").

I noted 5 L shapes going down east from the 5 Ls in the grid. It spelled Berto. Wasn't sure what to do with that. Lol

Wowza. Even by your high standards this is impressive!

The NANCY and ELS clues leapt off the screen while filling the grid, and the former turned out to be my way in, because I fairly quickly saw LOIS. Knowing things would be symmetric then focused me on LOCK, and eventually I tumbled to the idea that there were only 5 Ls, and saw how the ELS clue applied.

OK, so then it was alternate answers time. LOIS = NANCY, LOVE = AMOUR, LOCK = BESTBETS (?--doubt that number mismatch would slip through), VERB(?? -- almost certainly cleaner than that), LION = ??? There was then a brief pause while I combed the clue lists a couple more times.

Finally my eyes landed on LANE and I was like ooooh. Was much easier to find matches for LION LIKE and LOCK LIPS

Since I had been thinking maybe L would feature in the answer (and since I have been to Freeport more than once) the step from BEAN to the answer was quick. Though I did have to google to verify that the LL was part of his name.

Great series of ahas, and very tight links between all parts. Excellent work, thanks!

Thank you. Fun solve. Brings me back to Lake Sebago summers -- never quite got the nerve to jump from Frye's Leap.

Very fun solve! Thanks!

I've heard of L.L. BEAN but had no idea they were associated with Maine. My first thought was Rowan Atkinson! :D

Also - the placement of REI as an outdoor store right in the center… yes?

Found out that Maiden Maine is a noted sailing event! That confused me for a while, and didn’t even notice ALL the others were LL, duh. This was a great final aha. Thanks! (Helps that I’ve been to LLBean in Maine — that jogged my memory.)

Great puzzle, Rick - very enjoyable how it all unfolded for me. I've been to Freeport/LL Bean many times. No locks on the doors - always open

Silly me, I left out the LL. I looked forever for MAIDEN MAINE (and even through there is place in Maine with that name - either a cliff or a hat maker- I realize now it is MADE IN MAINE) and ASNOS (SPANISH ASSES) and just could not see it. I had BEAN early and looked for more, finally it hit me that "Hey all of them are LL...Oh Good Grief Tom! LL and BEAN, from MAINE, with the Classic (and though I have no use for them here I did covet them when I lived in Michigan) Down East Boots.

I did get away from the path and in a rabbit hole because the LIONESS EL also worked, was not a DOWN EAST and did not have two L's. As it turns out LIONESS can also be COURAGEOUS, so I was fishing for other directions than the puzzle stated. Finally I saw that everything else was LL and that LIONLIKE was a MUCH better alternate.

LOIS LANE was my ticket to the show and it would have gone MUCH smoother had I not tried to force ELSA in there.

Nice Easter Eggs with REI, BOOTS (i.e. DOWN EAST) and LEON LEONwood Bean. Another superb Cap'n Crossword.

ExceLLent!!

Stared at this off and on for a day, and finally noticed the Ls being very symmetrical (a hallmark of a Capn Rick puzzle). Finally saw LOIS LANE and after that it was fairly straightforward. Did not notice all the easter eggs until reading the comments, but those are quite clever as well. Thanks for the puzzle!

Like others, I quickly got to BEAN and it didn't work. I tried MR BEAN as well. Then my eye lit on REI in the center and I figured out I needed to go one step further with the synonyms! Uh, no, REI didn't work either. After staring at it a bit, it came to me that L. L. Bean was a person before he was a store.

I got it based on ELS and REI and didn't realize the sophistication until reading the comments here. Nicely done. At first I thought it would somehow be related to the diagonal rows of E's - down E"s...

Wow! I needed a few of the hints. One of the several rabbit holes I went down was: If you change 31D PEONY to PENNY and combine it with the entry under it 59D LANE = PENNY LANE. Same with 29D DISCO to CISCO combined with 59D KIDS you could get CISCO KID. I kept looking for words that traveling east!

Aha - fantastic!

Needed the first nudge but got it! Very impressive!

Oh jeez I can't believe I needed the nudges. I have forked over so much money to this person's company over the years LOL. Superb meta as always, cap'n - thanks!

Great Easter Eggs comments above everyone, just wow! Special thanks to the Cap'n for register assistance at the end of one LL of a virtual shopping experience.

I needed lots of help with this one but still felt like I was "livin' large" when my slow-on-the-draw BEAN made the last L.L.eap! Another great hike this week, Capn!

Honestly, I could not get the meta, even with all the nudges. Oh well. Nice puzzle, though!