92. It's a Breeze

[Darth]

Pun and done...after a brief convo with a rabbit! (or should I say, "shooting the breeze"?) :P

[Abide]

This was brilliant on multiple levels. Kudos!

[Cap'n Rick]

Great job, @MikeyG! Loved it!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Punderful!

Much, much enjoyed this one, Mikey.

When is Bellinger back? His revival has been fun to track.

[woozy]

Well, that's a neat trap. Stood on the side before jumping in but eventually jumped in. Then stepped out and am continuing to look around.

[hcbirker]

Nice one Mikey!

[oldjudge]

Judge is in a horrible slump and their bullpen is very iffy. Soto has been great though--playing at an MVP level.
Your D was a little off today. You gave up two touchdowns and a field goal to Boston .

The only good news is the Brewers gave up five field goals to you guys, so I guess no harm, no foul? But that was brutal.

Yes, we have the best kicker in the league, Aaron Boone. He has been kicked out of more games than any other manager.

[BarbaraK]

Found the "trap" quickly enough, but needed a nudge to get beyond that to the final answer. Impressive getting both answers there!

[DrTom]

Missed the first answer completely but managed to get in for the second, I won't say it was a breeze but it was a breath of fresh air when I solved. Great AHA and great construction. Thanks Mikey

[benchen71]

Still stuck in the trap! :O

[Berto]

Untrapped > Depart Pun!

[MikeyG]

Untrapped > Depart Pun!

That's epic, haha.

Up to 34 on this Monday, so I do think we have a Level 3 on our hands, yay! (My formula of 70 - n, where n is the number of solvers seems semi-accurate).

Sending good vibes and encouragement for those still stuck on the trap!

[MatthewL]

Finally was able to wriggle free of the trap and find my way to the solution. Thanks for the puzzle, Mikey!

[dudeski]

Trapped

[rjy]

Had to let this marinate a bit, but a delightful construction and solve - thanks, Mikey!

[MikeyG]

Cubs have been on the struggle bus a bit with offense (batting just .197 on this road trip), but I'll still throw some nudges your way, haha. We're at 41 now - let's see if we can get to the half-century mark by Saturday!

1. This first nudge assumes you're trapped! You've found the six 1-Down entries, and you realize their initial letters spell something that tells you have not finished your journey!

2. You have to look in the grid for more assistance. Think of the six "wind"-related words you've found. Search about the grid.

3. Think about how you might "adjust" those windy words to get some of the other words in the grid!

Hoping for a breezy WSJ and MGWCC to kick off the month! Go Cubs go!

Mikey G

[hoover]

I ... might need a nudge 0. The first half of the second sentence of nudge 1 is false.
Edit: mmkay, I'm past that part now.

[benchen71]

Hmm, those nudges are not helping. Will there be more? Please don't tell me more nudges are dependent on the outcome of baseball games!

[MikeyG]

Nudges/Semi-Shoves

4. Apologies to @hoover who needed nudge #0. This will be a shove: the word "wind" is in six clues. The initial letters of these clues is not relevant but does spell out a trap indicating we're not done! :O

5. There are six other entries in the grid that are similar, in some way, to the words with "wind" as part of them (such as "rewind" and "Windex").

6. Let the wind "blow away" from these words. See what else you can find with the rest of the word remaining!

7. The answer to the "Cheers" clue seems close to one of these windy words, and that was partly intended as a possible in.

[LarsCaine]

Update: