Episode #346 Contest: Circle Up

[oldjudge]

I’ll leave it to Brian to post the link, but he and Neville came up with a great idea that was a lot of fun to solve. I would rate it as a banana and a quarter (my slide rule only goes to two banana places).

[benchen71]

Love it! This was a fun one!!

[Schmeel]

Banana's peeled.
Indeed a good puzzle.

[bcimmet]

You all got here before I could. I don't get back to the computer until about 9 or 10 in the morning (Monday nights are very late for me, editing the podcast -- and sometimes, like this time, writing and rewriting the contest). But man, you folks are speedy!

I wanted to get here on this one, though, because this puzzle has been launched UNTESTED. Yikes! I mentioned on the podcast that my previous idea didn't go well, and I scrapped it and rewrote the whole thing (with Neville Fogarty's brilliant input and advice).

From the early returns, it seems to play well. Thanks for your patience with it, and I hope you all have fun!

[my typical spiel below]

--

There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 1.6 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.)

The puzzle is called "Circle Up" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet), with valuable input and advice from Neville Fogarty. The solution to the puzzle is the name of a recent film.

The crossword can be downloaded from here. You're welcome to solve and talk 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!

[boharr]

Banana's peeled. Fun one.

[BarbaraK]

Who needs testers?:) Nice elegant puzzle!

The banana is peeled. Don’t remember ever hearing of the film - which doesn’t mean much, except possibly about my memory and hearing.

[whimsy]

Played once again -- was able to solve (?) but then verify and learn there is such a movie title!

[SJMcK]

I got it. Took longer than it ought to have because I had some words entered wrong in the grid, but the banana is peeled. Note I’ve just got to listen to the podcast

[ChrisKochmanski]

Peeled! The banana, that is.

[Darth]

Excellent puzzle, @bcimmet. I'm a fan!

[MikeM000]

Simple but wonderfully entertaining and a nice clicky aha moment. Let the testers be!

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers,

The solution to this contest was SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS.

There were five entries that each contained the letter O twice -- and no other instances of the letter O anywhere in the grid. The letters between the Os could be strung together to spell SHANG-CHI ... and the fact that there were ten Os in total represent the TEN RINGS. (We hoped that the title, "Circle Up" would also hint at looking for the letter O.)

• 16A RADIOSHOW
• 22A ISAOAOKI
• 37A MONGOLS
• 48A CHOCOLAT
• 60A XENIAOHIO

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