The instructions for this puzzle tell us that the meta answer is a language. And indeed, there are six starred clues, each of whose answers is a two-word phrase starting with the name of a language, with the first word omitted when entered into the grid:
- 7-Across: *Sorbonne's neighborhood = (LATIN) QUARTER. That's the Quartier Latin of Paris.
- 18-Across: *Dangerous game = (RUSSIAN) ROULETTE.
- 37-Across: *Drink that includes apple, apricot, guava, orange, papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple flavors = (HAWAIIAN) PUNCH.
- 38-Across: *Landmark staircase seen in "Roman Holiday" = (SPANISH) STEPS. Here's the scene.
- 54-Across: *Hot dog maker that answers to a higher authority = (HEBREW) NATIONAL. That's a reference to this classic ad.
- 65-Across: *Link with ground pork and fennel = (ITALIAN) SAUSAGE. I don't eat this (only 54-Across and its ilk for me), but the Beyond Meat vegan version is pretty delicious.
Could one of these be the meta answer? Sorry, not so simple. Motivated by the puzzle's title ("Hello, World!") and by the slight nudge in 40-Down (Language in which "hello" is "sabaidi" = LAO), let's think about how to say "Hello" in each of the aforementioned languages:
- Latin: SALVE
- Russian: PRIVET
- Hawaiian: ALOHA
- Spanish: HOLA
- Hebrew: SHALOM
- Italian: CIAO
Staring at the grid for a while, we find six symmetrically-placed Across entries that are one letter away from those greetings:
- 14-Across: Hot pot spot = TRIVET --> PRIVET
- 20-Across: Leader of the pack = ALPHA --> ALOHA
- 29-Across: NBC anchor Kotb = HODA --> HOLA
- 44-Across: Two-time former Cabinet secretary Elaine = CHAO --> CIAO
- 50-Across: Bisect = HALVE --> SALVE
- 64-Across: Winter Olympics event = SLALOM --> SHALOM. (This last one was the inspiration for the puzzle; I think of shalom every time I see the word slalom, which happened a lot during the Winter Olympics this year.)
Reading the substituted letters from top to bottom, we obtain POLISH, our meta answer. Cześć!
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