73. Something's Missing

[MikeyG]

Okay, bonus round of nudges! Note that I'm accepting a second answer that I've seen several make, and I think that's kind of clever, so I give that the green light.

6a. If you've taken the first five nudges, you should have a single 5-letter word. If not, "6b" below will be a shove in that direction.

6b. Six entries, three across and three down, are missing a five-letter word. The three across ones are LOOSE (from TURNS LOOSE), PASTE (from the semi-obscure WHEAT PASTE, as referenced in the clue), and BRUSH (from PAINTBRUSH). There is a five-letter word that can precede or follow those. (If you need the other three, check out 6c.)

6c. The six missing words are LOOSE, PASTE, BRUSH, SWEET, PICKS, and SABER. What 5-letter word could precede or follow these?

7. But something else is missing as well - a mechanism I have played with before in the past.

8. Note the anchor entry of 58-A: TWO is clued without a pun and somewhat unnecessarily as "Twenty-six minus twenty-four." Why those numbers?

9. Whenever you think of 26, you should probably think the alphabet is involved.

10. So, this implies that two letters are important for the second word. Note the title. What's missing? (And missing from all the clues as well - I had to edit them multiple times to make sure nothing crept in!)

11. When you have the two letters, if you say them, you basically have the word!

12. This is also fitting, based on what's happening to the words related to the first 5-letter word in the grid.

Having to type out all those spoilers makes me realize this is probably more like a 3.75. Well, here's to an easy WSJ and a Week 1 MGWCC to balance it all out!

Mikey G

[Cinny]

Got it! I misinterpreted something that led me down the wrong track. But thanks to a friendly muggle, I got going in the right direction. Did not use any of the second nudges, but I may go back and read them now. Thanks, Mikey!

[woozy]

Okay, I had figured out nudges 7 - 10 from the very beginning. I absolutely never got nudges 1-5 on my own at all with nudges 1-4 I got to nudge 6c but I couldn't understand nudge 5 and I never understood I was supposed to do 6b. Today reading nudge 6b and seeing nudge 6c spelled out I figured the meta.

Good puzzle but gad I'm kicking myself.

[Bird Lives]

Without the nudges, I had narrowed it down to two possibles, but I needed #10 to finally get the answer.
Remember those "What's missing in this picture?" puzzles from when you were a kid? I sucked at those too.

[MikeyG]

Puzzle #73 answer: TOOTH DECAY (also accepted TOOTH FAIRY, which I thought clever).

Correct entries: 43





Thanks, @BrennerTJ!

I had this idea rattling around in my brain for a while, and it's probably one where the image in my brain was a bit better than execution. In retrospect, I probably would've had asterisks on the six symmetrical entries.

Two things are going on in here:

1. A lot of the entries seem like their answers are incomplete. You can see them highlighted above and below:

Honey = SWEETHEART
Unleashes = TURNS LOOSE
Eats every last bit of = PICKS CLEAN
Gummy substance = WHEAT PASTE
Forceful weapon? = LIGHT SABER (as in using the Force!)
Item with ferrule = PAINTBRUSH

These six words all have TOOTH as a lateral link with them; note they're also both 5-5, which implies the 10-letter phrase will likely also be 5-5 (confirmed again with TOOTH).

And, indeed, those things were missing. But what else is missing?

2. I've pulled this mechanism before or variants of it with the near-pangram: as hinted at by the final anchor entry (TWO clued in an anodyne but peculiar way as "26 - 24") and reinforced by the title (and the fact that 24 letters are in the grid), we'll probably have to search for the two letters that aren't!

Alphabetically, these are "D" and "K" (not a single "D" or "K" makes an appearance in any clue either - when I thought I did this correctly, I went back and caught 12 instances of "D," mostly in words like "and" and past tense that slipped through). Phonetically, this sounds like DECAY, which also makes sense with the teeth-related words being eliminated from the grid. Thus, the intended answer was TOOTH DECAY, a fitting answer for a late October meta. (Brush and floss, folks!). I also liked the idea of a TOOTH FAIRY coming and "taking away" the teeth-related words, so I gave that retroactive credit. (And fairies are common costumes also.)

I do like the idea of having a couple of riffs on a mechanism alluded to by the title, but there probably needed to be a bit more concrete to get in that lane.

Thanks all for solving! #74 drops next Saturday!

Mikey G

[hoover]

I had nudges 7 - 11 from the start and never saw nudges 1 - 6.

[hoover]

But what does #73 have to do with tooth decay?

[MikeyG]

But what does #73 have to do with tooth decay?

Number of fillings I probably need.

[DrTom]

But what does #73 have to do with tooth decay?

Number of fillings I probably need.

DENTURE (7) FIT (3)