March solution:
MAKES WAVES
Correct answers:
31 - record!!
The two theme entries actually had meta responsibilities this time!
The first one,
FIRST AND LAST, clued you into the fact that those letters would be important (and - along with the aside and the title of the meta - looking
below those letters was also probably relevant!). The second one,
TIDES OF MARCH (I'll give MIkey's puzzles a whirl...pool), signaled that tides were going to be important!
Five tides were embedded in other words in the grids, highlighted above (I debated on
ROLL but wasn't sure if that would alienate some of you - I root for Ball State, what can I possibly say?). The first and last letters below these entries spell, respectively,
MAKES WAVES, what a good meta does!
Thank you so much for solving, and I wish you a month of happy puzzling! Mini-meta coming in about a week or so!
Mikey G