A lesson in how to spend days in Rabbit Holes:
RH#1:
--Saw 50A
LAKE SALMON & 45A E
ERIER, which solidly put
LAKE ERIE in this Ohio mind
--This gave this stubborn Ohioan the idea to lose the first and last letters of grid words to find the proper names for the other bodies of water.
--With the help of Wikipedia, soon found 59A
RIVER PRAWN & 29D P
OISED for
OISE RIVER (France)
--With the help of Wikipedia, soon found 17A
BAY SCALLOP & 4D P
USHKIN for
USHKI BAY (Russia)
--Stubborn mind is mumbling,
"Game, set, & ...!"
--Stubborn mind sees 24D
CHESS & 51D
APEAK, but they don't fit the pattern...
--Stubborn mind sees 62D
ARK & 22A
TICK, but they don't fit the pattern...
--With the help of Wikipedia, ibuprofen for the alphabet hangover, and a night's sleep, found 40A
SEA BASS & 31D P
ESTOS for
SETO INLAND SEA (Japan), anagram be damned
--Stubborn mind is slightly assuaged, but starting to head for the sideline tent to submit to concussion protocol
--Stubborn mind is mumbling,
"What's with these number pairs? I cannot make any SENSE out of them!"
--Wikipedia knocks on the front door, abandoning its typical online reminders & begging for needed cash, now demanding it in person for the severe abuse it's been given
--Stubborn mind finally admits that there are only 5 Earth oceans and a limited number of named oceans in our solar system, none of which fit "the pattern"
--Stubborn mind reluctantly throws in the towel on RH#1, despite its being
"So PRETTY!"
RH#2:
--Too many hours spent trying to beat square number pair pegs into round holes
--What you won't see, below, are the digital crumbles of the equivalent of 3 elementary school-sized erasers at the bottom edge of the screen and strewn about the keyboard
RH#3, SUCCESS!:
--24D
CHESS & 51D
APEAK mean something
--62D
ARK & 22A
TICK mean something
--Stubborn mind finds 65A
BARE & 25A
RING
--Stubborn mind finds 62D
YELL & 42A
OWE
--Relieved mind makes sense of the number pairs,
"FINALLY!"
--Relieved mind sees that the meta answer will be
SPRING (ro)LL
--Stubborn mind needs to find the
(proper name) LAKE combination, in that order, since the others follow that new pattern
--Stubborn mind considers ONTA
RI
O, but LAKE ONTARIO doesn't fit the new pattern, nor is
ON TERRIO, or some such, on the grid
--Stubborn mind finally sees 6A
SOUP & combines it with the original 45A
"EERIER", and drops the "new pattern"
--Stubborn mind sees that the number pairs only apply to the proper names, not to the homophones on the grid
--Sheepish mind admits that if it had seen
SOUP EERIER first, this meta may have been solved by 6 PM, Thursday
--Humbled mind crawls off to lick its wounds