Find Him! (Freddie Cheng)

[docison]

What U.S. state or Canadian province is the answer to the question posed by this puzzle?

A clever but relatively straightforward meta from Peter and Freddie - I found the grid typically challenging for Fireball, but the meta a bit simpler. Nice one nonetheless!

It's worth noting that Peter has definitely increased the frequency of metas in the Fireball and seems to have settled into a once-a-month pattern - subscribe!

Adam

[Wendy Walker]

This was a really fun puzzle!

[DCBilly]

Agree with Adam and Wendy - I dug this the most.
I chatted with Peter a good bit at ACPT since we like the same frontish rightish seating in the massive ballroom. He liked hearing that a meta lover (and cryptic lover) like me appreciates the variety he offers up. This was just after the Odds and Evens thing.
We also laughed about his classic April Fools puzzle (2017??) that appeared to announce the end of the NYT crossword. NYT puzzles column linked to that recently, probably 4-1-24.

[BarbaraK]

That was cute!

My favorite clue was 60 down. Big laugh when I finally figured it out.

[sharkicicles]

That was cute!

My favorite clue was 60 down. Big laugh when I finally figured it out.

I had to go back and look. It didn’t click the first time, but I agree that’s a pretty great clue now that I see what’s going on.

[MikeyG]

Still playing around this one - we'll see what happens. No headway yet, but I'll still try to find him!

[Abide]

Really enjoyed this one. The constructor name didn't ring a bell but he's got serious chops.

The lack of a (?) on 60-D is pure Fireball.

[sharkicicles]

Think I got it but it’s almost too simple for a FB meta…

It’s extremely clever though and a fun puzzle.

[markhr]

Found him. The answer was not a strong click for me, but I'll go with it. Pretty clever.

[MikeyG]

Sometime I noticed on Friday is actually relevant! I think I have it! That was fun.

[sharkicicles]

Ok, I did get it. I found the click to be solid just excepting I was expecting more of a week-4 level meta solve. But beautiful construction and a clever mechanism I’ve never seen before.

[BarbaraK]

I found Waldo looking at just the across clues and thought that was clever. When I went ahead and wrote it on the black squares (and wasn't it convenient that Peter sends PDFs with the black light enough write on) and then noticed that they all worked with the down clues too, my appreciation shot up another level.