The One That Got Away

[Cap'n Rick]

Never gonna happen. Thanks for the puzzle though.

You really should give it a try.

The solve is really enjoyable. Even if you just go through the nudges and do them its... fun. Two are hard though. But one was a real delightful surprise

and.....Nudge 3! Symmetric!

Thanks for the endorsement, @woozy!

[Ergcat]

Off the couch! Needed the nudges!

[ReB]

Off the couch. Had the right idea early on, but got fixated on a wrong inference and need a couple of nudges to get me back on track.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update

Well, we managed to reel in another 26 solvers today bringing our total to 61:

Tyrpmom
Dow Jones
Laura M
Cindy Heisler
TeamDoubleTow
Darth
Hidden in 3D
JeanneC
DebbieC
minimuggle
Wendy Walker
ajk
Johnny Luau
Jaclyn
jbird
MaineMarge
bhamren
Richard
Ergcat
Alvibu67
SeamusOL
Alvibu67
SJMcK
ReB
mkmf
Naptown Kid

Please let me know if I've missed anyone!

[MatthewL]

Off the couch. Was very much on the right path, but needed Nudge 4 to push me to the conclusion. Nice one!

[MikeyG]

I'm either in a giant rabbit hole, or I'm 1/7 finished with the meta!

[haydendog]

Got it but needed the third nudge to do it.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update

Eight more solvers bring our total to 69:

Snood
Gutman
LindaPRmaven
MatthewL
Glenn Cook
haydendog
Sharkicicles
kieranjboyd

Please let me know if I've missed "anyone".

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update

Six more solvers bring our total to 75:

frostyjhammer
BarbaraK
Sanne Budd
Jimbo
Magistra
Oreode

Reveal tomorrow!

[MikeyG]

No extra nudges, but I'm looking at what I have, and I have a couple more moves in that direction...it has to be. That absolutely has to be the metanism, but I still have to put in the sweat equity. Already impressed by this one (hopefully it won't get away from me).

EDIT: Finally cracked it! What a fantastic construction - very well d!

[Alvibu67]

I'm off the couch - solved on Wednesday without nudges. I put a silly comment in CrossHare.

Thanks for the puzzle, Cap'n Rick!

Allison (Alvibu67)

[Cap'n Rick]

Cap'n Rick with wife Erin (aka "The Admiral") and ONE that did not get away.

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is "WHOPPER", a 7-letter word that can either describe a really big fish or a really big fish story. The title plus the clue/answer for 50A - (Did some of these entries have ONE OR did they get away?) hinted that you first needed to find grid entries from which the letters "ONE" were missing or "got away". The two entries at the top of the grid - 1A-BEG and 11A-ANY - were fairly obvious since the ONEs could be appended to the ends, but the remaining five (38A-PIER, 39A-STAGE, 40A-BART, 66A-HST, and 68A-PHD) were trickier because the ONEs were missing from inside those entries. With the ONEs restored, the 7 new words/phrases fit the clues of 7 other grid entries, and the first letters of those 7 entries (in grid order) spell the meta answer.

For this meta I was hoping that symmetry would help solvers uncover the 7 theme entries, and I think that was the case for a few of the 589 people who successfully solved. Oops, there I go again. There were actually 76 solvers with MikeyG finishing up the list.

Thanks for solving, "everyONE"!
Cap'n Rick

[MikeM000]

Oh hey... PIONEER. I kept looking around the grid for something like IKEA or WAYFAIR to match up with PIER ONE and never got past that.

[woozy]

Oh hey... PIONEER. I kept looking around the grid for something like IKEA or WAYFAIR to match up with PIER ONE and never got past that.

Me too. Plus there was never any clue for scrimshaw or BONE-ART