Episode #348 Contest: Puzzle Of Now

[bcimmet]

There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 2.7 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.) As always, I have a poor sense of difficulty, but tester feedback ranged from semi-easy to medium.

The puzzle is called "Puzzle Of Now" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is the name of a famous American activist.

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!

[Schmeel]

Banana's peeled!

[boharr]

^ that

[Cindy]

Solved

[Laura M]

Got it! Good one!

[whimsy]

After a friend helped me get the sticker off ---

Thanks, Brian!

[BarbaraK]

Today is Tuesday, right? I'm not seeing a new Fill-Me-In podcast. Does anyone else have it?

Oh, and looks like I forgot to post, I did peel the banana last week.

[ChrisKochmanski]

Missed this one for a while. Peeled. Very nice.

[bcimmet]

Today is Tuesday, right? I'm not seeing a new Fill-Me-In podcast. Does anyone else have it?

I never quite know where and how to let people know what's up. The only social media I really use is Twitter, so I posted it there -- but we didn't do an episode this past week. I was very busy with other real life stuff and had a very limited window to record, and Ryan was ill during those small windows. So we had no choice but to cancel.

We'll have a new episode this coming week, though -- and a new puzzle!

[bcimmet]

Hello solvers,

The solution to this contest was MARTIN LUTHER KING.

The five longest entries were all three-word phrases whose initials were backwards alphabetical sequences:

• 22A "Fill Me In" hosts Ryan and Brian, for two: E DIVISION CHAMPS
• 29A 1990s stock market explosion: DOT COM BUBBLE
• 38A "Down where it's wetter," according to an animated singing crab: UNDER THE SEA
• 51A Television sitcom about a teenager with hidden psychic abilities: THAT'S SO RAVEN
• 58A Possible caption on a baby picture: NINE MONTHS LATER

Arguably the most famous American activist also has reverse alphabetical initials -- in fact, his full name is a quartet of such initials (Martin Luther King Junior). As an added hint, the title of the contest featured the same gimmick (Puzzle Of Now), while also being a phrase similar to what we call our puzzles ("The Contest of Now").

One solver pointed out an unintended feature -- the first two themers had trios that were also alphabetically adjacent (EDC/DCB), the second themers as well (UTS/TSR), and then the final themer and the answer (NML/MLK). I wish I could say that was part of the plan, but it just happened to work out that way.

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

[MikeM000]

[*]22A "Fill Me In" hosts Ryan and Brian, for two: E DIVISION CHAMPS

May I ask what this means? What is the "E Division"?

[boharr]

[*]22A "Fill Me In" hosts Ryan and Brian, for two: E DIVISION CHAMPS

May I ask what this means? What is the "E Division"?

I think this refers to a crossword tournament.