176. I Forgot Who's Playing

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Hello hello! The Cubs are rocking it now, and I'm trying to bottle up all these good feelings inside when we face some tough stretches later in the season. Something incredible is happening on the North Side, and I will always root for the South Siders as well (except against us!), so I'm glad the White Sox are in the mix once again (being at nearly .500 after a historically cataclysmic season is an accomplishment).

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Puzzle #175 answer: ELLA FITZGERALD

Correct entries: 64

Shortest explanation: There were a bevy of clues, 15 of them!, which involved only the letters A - G of the alphabet (see graphic), which are the typical notes in the musical alphabet. The initial letters of these clues' entries spell FIRST LADY OF SONG, the well-deserved accolade given to Ella Fitzgerald, whose birthday was on the Saturday of this puzzle's release!

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This one is a bit of a vanity project, but I think it's solveable.

The late, great Bob Lodge of GAMES magazine fame had a lot of niche interests in his life, and you knew what they were if you did his puzzles: ZIP codes, time signatures, chess notation, rare stamps, chamber music, and the like.

I have always loved baseball, and I have made several of those, but this one celebrates the WNBA (opening play this week), a league I just started following recently. You do have to know some of the players, but I gave you the link in the puzzle on which all relevant players appear! The mechanism is somewhat straightforward, but due to some outside knowledge, we'll say Level 2.5 or so (and if you really get stuck, you have a 1-in-15 chance to the answer, haha).

Good luck, and may all your solves be beautiful!

Mikey G

The answer to the meta is a WNBA team.