XWord Muggles Forum

Hello solvers! There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 4.1 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 "King Con (400° for 20 minutes)" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is an 8-letter architectural term.

The crossword can be downloaded from here. You're welcome to solve, you're even welcome to join in the chatter 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 here (via Apple Podcasts), or just search for it wherever you enjoy 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!

I really enjoyed this one... sweet execution of a clever concept.

I thought the meta mechanism was excellent!

Solved

Is there a write-up/explanation somewhere about past Fill Me In puzzles? I have questions about #282 "Living in Luxury" (the cryptoquote puzzle). I got the meta, but there are some oddities. I don’t see anything like that on their website.

Meg wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:51 pm Is there a write-up/explanation somewhere about past Fill Me In puzzles? I have questions about #282 "Living in Luxury" (the cryptoquote puzzle). I got the meta, but there are some oddities. I don’t see anything like that on their website.

There was a discussion on the podcast. That one had many more layers than I’d noticed - basically multiple ways of getting to the meta answer.

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:54 pm

Meg wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:51 pm Is there a write-up/explanation somewhere about past Fill Me In puzzles? I have questions about #282 "Living in Luxury" (the cryptoquote puzzle). I got the meta, but there are some oddities. I don’t see anything like that on their website.

There was a discussion on the podcast. That one had many more layers than I’d noticed - basically multiple ways of getting to the meta answer.

I remember you (Meg) mentioning something about a hiccup at our Zoom meeting a while back. The only thing I found was that there were two quotes that had inadvertent spaces in them ("Places" in the Garbo one and "from" in the Longoria one)... was that it?

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:01 pm

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:54 pm

Meg wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:51 pm Is there a write-up/explanation somewhere about past Fill Me In puzzles? I have questions about #282 "Living in Luxury" (the cryptoquote puzzle). I got the meta, but there are some oddities. I don’t see anything like that on their website.

There was a discussion on the podcast. That one had many more layers than I’d noticed - basically multiple ways of getting to the meta answer.

I remember you (Meg) mentioning something about a hiccup at our Zoom meeting a while back. The only thing I found was that there were two quotes that had inadvertent spaces in them ("Places" in the Garbo one and "from" in the Longoria one)... was that it?

Every quote had been altered. Some had words deleted and some had words inserted. It was all done in such a way that the meaning was the same. I just wondered why they changed them since they’re "quotes". I had the meta so I didn’t see the point of the alterations.

Meg wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:09 pm

Al Sisti wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:01 pm

BarbaraK wrote: ↑Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:54 pm

There was a discussion on the podcast. That one had many more layers than I’d noticed - basically multiple ways of getting to the meta answer.

I remember you (Meg) mentioning something about a hiccup at our Zoom meeting a while back. The only thing I found was that there were two quotes that had inadvertent spaces in them ("Places" in the Garbo one and "from" in the Longoria one)... was that it?

Every quote had been altered. Some had words deleted and some had words inserted. It was all done in such a way that the meaning was the same. I just wondered why they changed them since they’re "quotes". I had the meta so I didn’t see the point of the alterations.

I couldn't solve this on my own so for the heck of I used some strong solver (don't recall the name). Anyway for each one it came up with several possible versions, some with altered wording as Meg says. I have no idea, but maybe that has something to do with it.

I just wrote up an explanation of the "Living in Luxury" puzzle on the thread from Episode 282.

https://www.xword-muggles.com/forums/vi ... 264#p48264

I would not mind having a quick chat with someone who knows they have the answer to this one. I'm 99% certain I have the answer, but there also appears to be a lot more here that doesn't fit in to the 8 letters...not certain if it's Easter Egg-y as opposed to fitting into the meta, and if there's even more beyond what I sussed out.

I'm not a contest entrant - just doing it for fun - so no ethical considerations about solo solves or credit or prizes or any of that are at stake... Thanks!

Edit: Had a nice talk with someone; I had the right answer, but misinterpreted one element of the puzzle that led down some interesting beyond-meta paths...

I haven't got anywhere with this one. No idea what to make of the title, and nothing I've tried with the parenthesized numbers does anything useful. Hoping for some post-enlightenment.

Got it with some help. THANKS to my nudger!

It all fit together very nicely in the end.

Sending thanks to my nudger, too. Done! Learned things on a variety of levels on this one.

Not sure it’s exactly post enlightenment when it’s four days later, but I did finally figure this out.

I did this puzzle a couple days ago and absolutely loved the mechanism. Bravo.

First step was the hardest. Nice one Mr. C!

Came late to this one. Fun!