99. Follow My Directions

PDF / PUZ

Hello hello! The Cubbies might seriously be sellers at the deadline. (I'd love to see how increasingly forlorn these captions have appeared throughout the season, haha.)

Hope everyone is staying cool! Here's a puzzle to help!

---

1. Puzzle #98 answer: BINDI IRWIN

Correct entries: 58

Shortest explanation: Six entries seem a little bit off - and that's because the entries are each missing the letter "I." The initial letters of these symmetrically placed entries are BNDRWN, which looks like a consonantal mishmash. Knowing the personality's name pattern is 5-5 might have us assume that the first three letters are from their first name and the second half from their last name. That'd be correct! A quick search of BND RWN DWTS does produce BINDI IRWIN, who is carrying on her father's legacy and who danced incredibly on her season of Dancing with the Stars, winning during Hough's last go-around as a pro.

A bonus twist could have added to the meta-nism. Since the "I"s were removed from the entries, this certainly implies that "I" is the only vowel in our personality's name. If we take the four "I"s in the grid, along with the initial consonants of our misspelled entries, they do indeed spell out BINDI IRWIN's full name in standard top-down order.

---

2. This should be a Level 1 (really). Thanks to Jay for test-solving and some last-minute cluing, since I had a busy week this time around!

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is a well-known athlete.