156. Time to Begin

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Hello hello! The Dodgers won back-to-back World Series in an incredible Game 7 for the ages, the best Game 7 since 2016 (trying to think what happened then). Now I have to figure out what in the world to post here for the next several months. In other sports news, my Broncos are rocking it!

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1. Puzzle #155 answer: YOU'RE MY HERO

Correct entries: 58 - a bit of consistency as of late!

Shortest explanation: Some brutal fill made this one a bit less palatable, but I hope you still enjoyed the meal! Look for the letter pattern ABA, found 11 times in the grid in symmetric entries. The outer "breads" spell out ITALIAN ROLL, and the inside "meat" gives us YOU'RE MY HERO, the punny answer to the meta.

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2. So, this was the actual inaugural November puzzle originally, but we did have last week's as a bonus. We will have a themeless on Crosshare next week and then be back here on 11/22 for another meta then! Thanks to JanglerNPL for the test-solve. I've underestimated the last couple, so we'll say Level 4, though I think it might trend a bit downward.

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is what we all were at one time.