puzzle untimed; meta: 2 days(Matt)
 

Title: “Put a Pin in It” by Pete Muller
Prompt: The meta for this puzzle is a member of a well known Motown group.
Answer: SPINNER

40 minutes to go and I don’t have the meta but. I’ve gotten each step however what would look like the ultimate one, however I simply haven’t been in a position to crack it. So my last-ditch effort is to weblog it and see what occurs…

Title is “Put a Pin in It” and I seen straight away that 1-A/1-D can flip from SOTS/SCHED to PINOTS/PINCHED for those who “Put a Pin in” that sq.. Symmetrically on the bottom-right sq. now we have the identical concept: CHAR/NINER can develop into CHAPIN/NINEPIN. A couple of minutes later I seen the enter sq. might get the identical remedy, with TANTO/ANG changing into TAP INTO and APING.

I then seen that every of those new phrases might fulfill one other clue within the grid:

PINOTS = [Some wines] at 13-D, RED
PINCHED = [Pilfered] at 58-D, TOOK
TAP INTO = [Draw upon] at 64-D, USE
APING = [Imitating] at 31-A, ALA
CHAPIN = [Big name in folk music history] at 33-D, ARLO
NINEPIN = [Something you’ll see in a bowling alley] at 52-D, SPLIT

Much afterward I seen there have been two extra!:

21-A: AGED turns into PINGED, satisfying [Contacted, in a way for] for IMED at 12-D
18-D: SADLY turns into SPINDLY, satisfying [Gangling] at 34-A, LANKY

and 59-A: PIPE turns into PIPPIN, satisfying [1970s musical] at 10-A, HAIR
and 45-D: GRIEG turns into GRIPING, satisfying [Disgruntled] at 62-A, SORE

So I can’t kind something from these letters, that are HIRAALSTSU in grid order, or RTILUAHSAS in clue order. But I did seen that the 5 letters we’ve changed within the grid spell SANER, which turns into SPINNER for those who pit a PIN in it on the A, referring after all to the Motown group the Spinners.

So is SPINNER the meta reply, or do we’d like a selected one of many Spinners? There are over a dozen previous and current members (see listing right here) however I don’t see a purpose to decide on one. We have the ten letters above extracted from the grid left unused if simply SPINNER is the reply, however the one two Spinners with 10-letter names are Ronnie Moss and Bobby Smith however I don’t see the best way to get to both of these names from HIRAALSTSU.

So I’m going to go together with SPINNER as my ultimate reply. I had guessed from the title and immediate that the Spinners might need one thing to do with the reply due to the embedded pin, so possibly that early guess was proper all alongside. I hope? If not my streak is kaput! I shall discover out at 11:00ish…

Just now after submitting I’m seeing there was a better model! Ack! Shoulda learn the directions!!

UPDATE: SPINNER it’s! The streak lives!