Episode #326 Contest: Day Trip

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers!

There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 4.3 bananas on a scale of 5 bananas. (Bananas has nothing to do with the puzzle, it's just a 1-to-5 scale we made up.) 4.3 may be a bit high, but it played quite tough with our testers, so there we go.

The puzzle is called "Day Trip" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is a country.

The crossword can be downloaded from here. You're welcome to solve, you're even welcome to join in the chat about the puzzle -- but if you want to be eligible for a prize, you have to listen to the podcast for this week's password. The podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, our own website, or wherever you collect your podcasts.

Once you've solved the puzzle, submit your answer and this week's password by email to fmi@bemoresmarter.com. You can also contact us with any suggestions, questions, comments, or ideas. Thanks for playing along!

[Schmeel]

Banana's peeled.
Thanks for the puzzle!

[MikeM000]

That peeled very quickly for a 4.3. Maybe I was lucky?

[BarbaraK]

Solved, listened, and submitted.

I also didn't think it was that difficult. Maybe I've got the wrong answer:)

[bcimmet]

Like I said, 4.3 might be high. I didn't think it was 4.3 when I made it -- but I'm not a great meta solver (which means they all seem hard to me), and our testers found it tricky (at least, trickier than many of my contest puzzles).

What would you all score it?

[MikeM000]

I think of difficulty along the Matt Gaffney weeks-of-the-month scale. This is a week 2 meta in my mind, but it does require some thought, so maybe 2.3?

[boharr]

Banana is peeled. For me, this was harder than a 2. 3 is more like it.

[BarbaraK]

I'd say 2.8. But I really have no idea how constructors figure out how hard a meta will be for the solvers.

[Laura M]

Ooh, good one!

[ChrisKochmanski]

Came late to this one. Saw how to solve soon after completing the grid, so I’d score this somewhere in the low 2’s, probably no more than 2.5.

[dudeski]

peeled

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers,

The solution to this contest was SWEDEN.

Each of the theme entries began with an anagram of the days of the week (minus the "DAY" part).

• NO MAN IS AN ISLAND = MON
• SETUP SHOP = TUES
• THRUST STAGE = THURS
• FIRST PERIOD = FRI
• AUSTRALIA = SATUR
• UNSOLVED MYSTERY = SUN

The one day that's missing is WEDNES-day, and an anagram of WEDNES is SWEDEN.

Thanks for playing! There's another contest puzzle and another post in the forum for it. I hope you give it a try!