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Solution

Week 6 everyone, which means we start another cycle of puzzles. The cosmic ballet goes on.

Last week was a meta contest, so to explain the meta:

We are looking for an appropriate 9-letter word. The four theme entries are

17A: Gits and speeds off [1 5] = BURNS RUBBER
27A: Winner’s prize and crown [1 3 4] = LAUREL WREATH
47A: Noted German friar and reformer [1 4] = MARTIN LUTHER
62A: City and island of Miami-Dade County [2 5] = KEY BISCAYNE

With the word “and” appearing twice in the title “Think and Grin (and Mix)”, and the word “and” appearing in each of the theme clues, as well as the word “and” NOT appearing anywhere else in the clues, finding pairs was the idea.

The first word of each long answer is the first name in the listing of a famous comedy duo.
BURNS & ALLEN
LAUREL & HARDY
MARTIN & LEWIS
KEY & PEELE

Now, using the numbers found at the end of the clues as indexes on just the names of the second acts:
ALLEN [1 5] = AN
HARDY [1 3 4] = HRD
LEWIS [1 4] = LI
PEELE [2 5] = EE

Anagram, as clued by “(and Mix)”, these nine letters and you get HEADLINER, the appropriate word to describe the comedians in the grid.

Six correct entries came in for Meta #1, and using the best method to pick a random number from 1-6, the randomly selected winner for this week is Jon Delfin. Mr. Delfin’s name will be the inaugural entry of an upcoming section of this site, so stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone who played Meta #1. I enjoy writing metapuzzles, and I look forward to putting a new one out every five weeks.

Until then, here’s this week’s puzzle. If your regionalism knows no bounds, then this puzzle is a salute to you.

Enjoy!