32. Two-Factor Authentication

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Hello, everyone! As always, thanks so much for solving these metas. It never ceases to amaze me how passionate the meta community is, and I'm forever grateful to be a part of it!

We had a challenging one last week - and another challenging one this week! The difficulty will reset when August comes, which isn't too far off!

1. Puzzle #31 recap

Puzzle #31 answer: UPBEAT

Correct entries: 23 - toughie! (Although I'm fully aware this would've been a high number in 2021, so perspective is everything!)

I love music. You really didn't need to know that to do this meta, and I don't ever want to turn these into, "How well do you know Mikey G?" Here's how I envisioned the plan of attack:

a) The title, coupled with the entries with the parentheticals, seem to give some "almost famous" people toward the end of it (note that the film of the same name also centers on the music industry):

From top to bottom: PINK, ADELE, STING, SEAL, ENYA, CHER.

b) If finding the last letters (KEGLAR?) was all we needed to do, that's fine for a mechanism - but it doesn't quite seem like that would needed to merit the 21-by-21 grid (I wish I could've gotten this down to at least 19-by-19, but it was not to be). Do I need to some other searching?

c) And this might be the misfire, in part, though I do think the puzzle is relatively fair! I presumed a lot more people than just me heard of "Orinoco Flow," Enya's trademark 1988 hit. That pun clue (that is, the flow (water) in the countries in which the Orinoco passes would be AGUA) seemed a bit odd, and if we didn't know what that even meant, I intended a Google search to get that that was an Enya song, and we were off to the races at that point.

d) Elsewhere in the grid, each artist has a song that occupies a clue. In order of the themed entries:

PINK: Try (UNDERTAKE)

ADELE: "Hello!" (PLEASED TO MEET YOU) - I was happy how I was able to get this to intersect as much as it needed to.

STING: Fields of gold (BARLEY)

SEAL: Crazy (ERRATIC)

ENYA: Orinoco flow? (AGUA)

CHER: Believe (TRUST)

Note the first letters of these entries spell UPBEAT, the answer to the meta (and my favorite type of music as well).

I did not intend the oldest song in this array to be from the late 1980s, nor did I even realize that! I love all music, but it does bring up the interesting fact if mononymous musicians tend to lean more toward now than then. I'll have to make another music meta for the '60s and '70s lovers out there next!

2. It's time for the Week 5 meta, where anything goes. Shout-outs to benchen71, KayW, and oldjudge for giving this a crack at it behind the scenes!

Good luck!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is an 8-letter word.