Happy Haunting!

[ajk]

Got it with nudge 2. Fun one, thanks.

[Dow Jones]

Excellent meta, Cap'n Rick. Your grids are smooth and your metas take some thought. Well done.

[ReB]

Another solver following nudge 2.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update:

What a difference a day (or Nudge 2) makes! We added 23 more solvers today to bring our total to 66:

bhamren
minimuggle
JHSeeman
Jade
wendy walker
rjy
Jim Dean
DavyGravy
Johnny Luau
Cindy Heisler
Dow Jones
Laura M
CPJohnson
ajk
Sharkicicles
MatthewL
Jaclyn
Alvibu67
Snood
ReB
JeanneC
SeamusOL
david

Nice job, everyone! Keep it rolling, and please let me know if I've missed anyone!

[JeanneC]

Head slapper meta for me but such fun when I finally saw it!
Now, if I could get rid of that annoying Medicare commercial with angry woman “Martha”, life would be perfect!

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update:

Six more solvers bring our total to 72.

jbird
THC
Philip Chow
Br1
Richard
Tdog

[HeadinHome]

just got to this puzzle a few hours ago, during some down time on our trip… no nudges needed, though I’m not sure where the final letter is coming from. Fun puzzle, though!

[BarbaraK]

just got to this puzzle a few hours ago, during some down time on our trip… no nudges needed, though I’m not sure where the final letter is coming from. Fun puzzle, though!

Did you read the crosshare comments? That’s where I found the explanation of the letter I’d just guessed

[Richard]

Got It

Used the nudges. Busy week for me and not much time for it.

Thanks for your hard work.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update:

Two more Muggles are off the couch bringing our total to 74.

HeadinHome
Mabel Pines

Reveal tomorrow.

[Cap'n Rick]

Leaderboard Update:

Okay, we got 6 more solvers by the "dead"-line for a final total of 80:

Dawn Landry
cbarbee002
MaineMarge
Thane Somers
Shalaka
frostyjhammer

Thanks for solving, everyone!

Edit: I missed frostyjhammer on the Crosshare site, so our final total is an even 80.

[Cap'n Rick]

Ahoy Muggles!

The meta answer is "CASPER" - the "Friendly Ghost" character featured in animated cartoons and comic books since the 1940's.

To solve, puzzlers needed to start with the only Halloween-related clue in the center of the grid - 40A - Like an encounter with a ghost. From there they then needed to find 6 symmetrically-placed grid entries that could have their own "GHOST" encounters to form new words/phrases. Those entries included 1A-SHIP, 19A-STORY, 26A-BUSTER, 50A-WRITER, 61A-RIDER, and 71A-TOWN. The next step was to find other clues that fit the new "GHOST" words/phrases (see below):

The first letters of the original answers to the alternate clues (in grid order) spell "CASPER" the friendly little ghost who is our familiar 6-letter Halloween figure.

This one was a little tricky for some, mostly due to the closeness of 47A Superhero's nickname (MANOFSTEEL) to GHOST RIDER - a fictional superhero appearing in Marvel Comics. I didn't intend to mislead or misdirect here; it was more a case of my unfamiliarity with the Ghost Rider character (who doesn't have a nickname, right?). For this one I went with legendary Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman matching the "Ghost Riders in the Sky (A Cowboy Legend)" song written by Stan Jones and performed by Vaughn Monroe, Johnny Cash, and others.

Thanks for solving, everyone, and in my best baritone I bid you all a fond "Yippie-yi-yay!"

Cap'n Rick

[MaineMarge]

Just got it in under the wire. Could have left the couch sooner, but things have been getting interesting here…

Great job Cap’n Rick!

[Al Sisti]

Excellent meta as usual, Cap'n. For my money, you're the best MMM constructor in the stable. Keep 'em coming!

[Ergcat]

BOO!! I Didn’t get it! I was trying to “boo” some of the words like 26a BUSTER -> “BOO-ster”. But then I couldn’t find alternate clues for the ones I “BOO-ed” ! Haha ! Oh well….
Very clever, Cap’n! I should have gotten it! Thank you!