157. East of Eatin'

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Hello hello! Four of the toughest things for a baseball fan are November, December, January, and February. I'm at least glad that Shota will be back for us Cubbies on a one-year deal! Hope we can make some other great signings as well!

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1. Puzzle #156 answer: NOVICES

Correct entries: 52 - this one was a toughie and had a lot of incorrect submissions, so let's reveal!

Shortest explanation: The four numbered entries can each be made into new entries by prefacing them by the month's abbreviation, corresponding to that clue's number. These four new entries have alternates in the grid, giving us ICES - appending this month's abbreviation helps the prompt make sense, giving us NOVICES as the final answer.

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2. I do have a bonus puzzle planned for next week, so here's our first in a back-to-back set of what I hope are medium puzzles. Even though I couldn't think of a better title than that silly pun, I think this one will clock in at Level 2.5 at the most. Thanks to Lydia (who got the meta with no title at all!) for the test-solve!

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is something edible.