"O'er the Ramparts"

[JeanneC]

With another nudge from the good captain, I am off the couch!
What a delightful puzzle! I was so far off the mark on this one that it makes the final solve all the sweeter.
Well done, sir!

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update

Eleven more solvers bring our total to 78:

maturin
JeanneC
Max Chemtov
Naptown Kid
Johnny Luau
Sanne
Streroto
SeamusOL
Melodie Hardwick
jbird
Tane

Reveal tomorrow! Please let me know if I've missed anyone.

"Ramparts" should be parsed as "ram parts" in the grid. Look at the grid entries above (i.e. "o'er") these anatomical "parts" to find the 8-letter answer, which can also be parsed like "ramparts".

[Cap'n Rick]

Final Leaderboard

Four more Muggles bring our final total to 82 solvers! Great job everyone!

SJ
Shae
Julie bookworm
Flora Wynn

Reveal up next!

[Cap'n Rick]

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is "KEY WORDS", as in Francis Scott Key who penned "The Star-Spangled Banner" - our U.S. national anthem. As hinted at by the central crossing of 32D ARIES and 42A OVINE, solvers first needed to reparse "Ramparts" into "Ram parts" and then identify the eight symmetrically-placed animal parts in the grid. Those parts included (in roughly anatomical order) 14A HORN, 16A HEAD, 21A NECK, 41A BACK, 44A BUTT, 59A KNEE, 70A HOCK, and 72A HOOF. The next step was to find the eight letters directly above (i.e. "o'er") the first letters of these parts which spelled "K-E-Y-W-O-R-D-S", a word that, like "RAMPARTS", could be parsed as either KEYWORDS or KEY WORDS.

In the future, should you ever hear the word(s) "ramparts" again, here's a graphic to help differentiate:

Thanks for solving!

Until next time,
Cap'n Rick