74. I Hear You're Hosting

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Hello hello! What will I do without baseball for three months?? Wait on all the hot stove rumors to see if Shohei Ohtani will come to the Cubs, of course! (The Craig Counsell managerial move shocked me.)

Congrats also to the Rangers on winning the World Series! Would've liked D-backs to get to a 6th game at least, but there were so many great storylines in it: Corey Seager's second MVP, Will Smith getting a World Series ring in three consecutive years with three different teams, the legend of García growing (injured halfway through), and simply the fact that the Rangers have their first-ever title!

Oh, yeah, this is a puzzle blog. Onward!

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1. Puzzle #73 answer: TOOTH DECAY (or TOOTH FAIRY)

Correct entries: 43.

Shortest explanation: Six entries' had TOOTH-related words missing, and per the last across "anchor" entry, two letters were missing from the entire grid (and all the clues!); these were "D" and "K," respectively, which phonetically give us DECAY (makes sense with all the teeth missing!). This gives the intended answer to the meta, which is TOOTH DECAY (fitting for a late October meta). But I liked the idea of the TOOTH FAIRY taking the words as well and also gave credit for that!

Not my favorite in terms of performance, since I think it played better in my head (and I likely needed stars to signal the entries that had missing words). But we put it behind us and move forward!

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2. Thanks to some Muggles for test-solving this one - much appreciated! I intended this to be a Level 2.5, but I'll bump that up to Level 3, just to be safe.

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is a notable American personality.