XWord Muggles Forum

Hello solvers! There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 0.7 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.)

The puzzle is called "Save the Date" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is an important date.

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!

The meta is easy. 58A is what I am working on now.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 3:22 pm The meta is easy. 58A is what I am working on now.

Oh dear ... we changed that clue to steer you AWAY from trying to do anything like that. (Don't waste your time, there's no extra layer.)

Thanks Brian! I was hoping to win the gold or silver ...

oldjudge wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 3:29 pm Thanks Brian! I was hoping to win the gold or silver ...

Honestly, if you can figure out a hidden extra answer, by all means let me know. We tried and tried and tried and came up with nothing.

Banana's peeled.
Not so easy for me - but I now know enough to save the date.

I think I peeled the banana.

oldjudge wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 3:22 pm The meta is easy. 58A is what I am working on now.

Ditto.

Neat construction.

Omg, I made this so complicated. Unnecessarily. Nice puzzle.

Meg wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 9:25 pm Omg, I made this so complicated. Unnecessarily. Nice puzzle.

Once again: Ditto.

I needed a nudge to get what should have been easy.

Solved - boy was I being thick!

What part of .7 did you not understand?

Filled myself in. Now I just need to find time to listen to the podcast so I can submit the answer.

Liked this one

I've got the .7 banana answer, but like @oldjudge I'm now looking for the 58A answer.

Just because you didn't put anything there shouldn't mean we can't find something:)

oldjudge wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 3:22 pm The meta is easy. 58A is what I am working on now.

So did you come up with something? I was looking for another meta answer but nothing I could figure out was good enough to be serious or silly enough to be fun and still hold together. Then I noticed that the wording just asks what to do with the deductions, so I answered that instead.

Nothing initially, but when Brian called me off I stopped looking.

The solution to this puzzle was TAX DAY.

There were four familiar terms that required "deductions" (removed letters) before going into the grid – EX[er]CISE BIKE, INCOM[plet]E GRADES, BLAZING SA[dd]LES, and OSCAR STA[tuet]TE. Once those deductions were made, the remaining phrases each had a word that can precede TAX – EXCISE TAX, INCOME TAX, SALES TAX, and STATE TAX. Taxes were due (in the United States) on May 17, which fell during the window of this contest, and so while this wasn't an exact extraction in terms of wordplay, there was enough information here to arrive at the solution with confidence.

To be clear, there was no additional layer involving the deduction letters. I tried extensively to make that work, and couldn't come up with a viable plan. I tried as best I could to let solvers know that there was no additional hidden answer, but too many people thought that meant that there WAS and that I was being sly. Nope.

Anyway, there's a new contest available, and a new post in this forum for it. Enjoy!