December Cocktail: Moscow Mule Solution

28 of you solved the December Cocktail puzzle, Moscow Mule, with 7 solving the original puzzle without any help. Congratulations to all! Below is the solved grid and an explanation of the final answer. A full solution, including cryptic solutions to every clue, is available for download on my Patreon page. If you haven't joined, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/negronis_cocktails, which will also give you access to future puzzles. The next Cocktail will launch on Saturday, February 8, at 4pm Eastern.

Cheers!

Negroni

In 12 entries, the letters ASS (one of the animals crossed to create a mule) need to be replaced by a single letter (shown in red in the grid) to make another viable entry. Those letters, in grid order, spell SUBLOCATIONS. 58D mentions a word substituted for, suggesting that sub locations are the locations of the substitutions in the entries. Further, clue 26A was a hint to look at the three rows with single entries for a hint about the solution: SET CLUES CONCEAL THE METAS. The clues I set for the entries where ASS was substituted for have letters at the same locations as the entry substitutions that spell, in clue order: HORSEFEATHER, a version of a Moscow Mule using whiskey instead of vodka. Why is METAS plural in the hint? Because this same extraction method was used in the year meta as well.

About Me

My name is Martin Reinfried, and in some circles, I am known as Negroni. I have been writing puzzles for a long time, both for work and for fun, and I have always been enamored of cryptic crosswords, especially variety cryptics. I have written several variety cryptics, some for fun, some appearing in the MIT Mystery Hunt, and some published in the National Puzzlers League's Enigma magazine. Most of the variety cryptics I have written can be accessed at negroni.fun/puzzles. I am a software engineer, and I have been a co-founder of a couple of companies, including Shinteki, where I wrote a mobile app to run puzzle-based events. I live in Telluride, CO with my wife Dennise and son Max, and I look forward to providing you with a steady stream of variety cryptic puzzles.