Title: “Chain Letters”
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a two-word phrase made up of two grid entries.
Answer: HAWKEYE STATE
Correct entries: 553

Linked clue overload last week! But by design, not desperation: four chains of four linked clues snaked around the grid, like so (in grid order of first entry):

CHAIN #1:

10-A: [With 31-Across, site of a famed WWII battle in the Pacific] = WAKE (ISLAND)
31-A: [With 72-Across, Caribbean vacationer’s pace] = ISLAND (TIME)
72-A: [With 58-Across, like longstanding traditions] = TIME (HONORED)
58-A: [See 72-Across] = HONORED

CHAIN #2:

19-A: [With 59-Down, pay reluctantly] = FORK (OVER)
59-D: [With 48-Across, kind of sports wager] = OVER (UNDER)
48-A: [With 5-Down, being given a thorough look] = UNDER (REVIEW)
5-D: [See 48-Across] = REVIEW

CHAIN #3:

49-A: [With 7-Down, what 150,000 barrels of recently spilled into the Arctic from a Russian nickel mine] = DIESEL (OIL)
7-D: [With 70-Across, structure seen in “There Will Be Blood”] = OIL (WELL)
70-A: [With 47-Down, fastener used to seal holes] = WELL (NUT)
47-D: [See 70-Across] = NUT

CHAIN #4:

68-D: [With 3-Down, shout to someone who’s knocking on your door] = IT’S (OPEN)
3-D: [With 36-Across, sea far from shore] OPEN (WATER)
36-A: [With 9-Down, class in a pool] = WATER (AEROBICS)
9-D: [See 36-Across] = AEROBICS

The first letters of each chain’s answers, emboldened above, spell out a final clue: WITH FOUR DOWN, IOWA. Another name for Iowa is the HAWKEYE STATE, and those two words are super-conveniently located in our grid (at 62-Across and, of course, FOUR DOWN).

Laura M writes:

I usually find those cross-references kind of annoying, but this one had so many it became absurd! And it was fun to put together the sequences, so I’ll forgive you this time 🙂

Pretty much the reaction I was going for. Usually linked clues are irksome in anything but the smallest amounts, but here I hoped the thrill of the chase would offset any irked thoughts.

EliSelzer says:

A native Hawkeye is always happy to see Iowa come up!

MetaNewbie says:

This one was fun!

Glad to hear it! And if you got that one you’re definitely on your way out of the newbie stage.

genefaba writes:

My grid looks like a Pollock painting with circles and lines but it’s in there.

And finally, Norrin2 didn’t get the meta, but did make me laugh by submitting 19-Across and 24-Across, which was..FORK EWE. Yeouch!! Let’s keep this civil. And there was also a note:

Just kidding…

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

This week’s contest answer is a five-letter musical instrument.