"That's Messed Up!" by benchen71

[Abide]

Got the idea with 20% complete, so I guess being messed up is in my wheelhouse!

[benchen71]

After another 24 hours, the tally stands at 37:

DCBilly
dannyvee
frostyjhammer
LarsCaine
Darrell
Bird Lives
whimsy
Abide

[benchen71]

Nudges, in order of increasing blatancy:

1. There are two hints in the grid. The explicit hint is in the clue for 69A: Order the author of "Cloud Cuckoo Land" Anthony ___ to provide you with a subtle hint. The implicit hint is 39A.

2. The puzzle title, 39A, and the first word of the clue for 69A all hint at something cryptic crossword solvers probably worked out pretty quickly.

3. "Trouble", "messed up", and "order" are all potential anagram markers in cryptic crossword clues.

4. But what to anagram? 69A is not just a hint to the mechanism; it's part of the mechanism!

[MatthewL]

Moat has finally been crossed, and the castle stormed, and the mess cleaned up. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!

[CPJohnson]

Needed the nudges, but crossed the moat! Loved the end!

[Cinny]

Late getting to metas. Peeked at the nudges and crossed the moat. Loved it! Thanks, Ben!

[Dave C]

Crossed the moat needing all the nudges.

[benchen71]

Here's the final solver update before the answer reveal:

MatthewL
CPJohnson
kurtalert
Cindy Heisler
Streroto
SJMcK
Dave C
DrTom

We reached a grand total of 45!

[benchen71]

Here's the solution to "That's Messed Up!":

The impetus for this puzzle was making solvers anagram at the very end to get the meta answer. Normally, if you have to anagram to get the answer it means you haven't understood the meta mechanism completely. There is usually a logical reason for the order of the letters, whether it be grid order, clue order, or some other order.

So I knew I wanted solvers to form a word using regular grid order. But that word would somehow imply they still needed to anagram those letters to get the final answer. When I stumbled on the TRAGEDY/GYRATED pair I knew I was off to the races. The puzzle title also has a similar double-meaning: "That's messed up!" is something you might say when someone has shared a sad story. It also suggests anagrams.

I had all my theme entries relatively quickly. I was hoping for some longer ones so I just had to use REDUCTION/INTRODUCE when I came across it, and ECHIDNA/CHAINED was also too good to pass up. (Was that the entry that clued you into anagrams? I mean who would chain up an echidna!) Then, DOERR/ORDER made for a suitable final entry hint, since "order" is also a cryptic crossword anagram marker. Then, when I was putting the grid together, the grid I had chosen had space for an additional hint in the central entry. TROUBLE fits with the "messed up"/"tragedy" angle as well as being yet another anagram marker.

So, fess up: who submitted GYRATED first?