Title: “Scale Down”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is something you might do while solving a meta.
Answer: FLOUNDER
Correct entries: 587 overall, of which 555 were solo solves

Lots of J’s swimming around this grid — but what did they mean?

As so often happens, the omega-across entry showed the way: 70-A was [Crossword great Henry…or one of eight you’ll need to catch the meta]. With “Scale” in the title and a reference to “hook” and “catching” the meta, you might start to think fishing — and lo, maybe those J’s are fishhooks! Lower them into the water (i.e., one square down) and you’ve caught a FLOUNDER with those eight contraptions. Webster’s defines it as “to struggle to move or obtain footing : thrash about wildly” and that should sound familiar to all of us who solve metas (I’m blogging Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post meta for Crossword Fiend later tonight, so I probably have a little flounder on my schedule this evening). Thanks to Gridmaster J for the solution grid.

Meta -World Peace says:

All hail Henry!

ab writes:

Not today, Satan!

(a juxtaposition Henry would have approved of in those two comments…)

Jen M writes:

A fitting meta for the fishing opener in Minnesota this weekend!

And Cyrano says:

Nice to see a Henry Hook shout out. The old NYer profile about him is one of my favorite pieces of writing about xworld.

Agreed. Read it here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/03/04/the-riddler

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

NOTE: DUE TO THE LATE POST, THE DEADLINE FOR SOLVING TODAY’S META IS NOON ET ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 25th.

This week’s contest answer is a five-letter word that appears in one of this puzzle’s clues.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.