XWord Muggles Forum

Hello solvers! There's a new contest puzzle from Fill Me In. I'll rate this one 3.8 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 "Learning Outcome" and was constructed by me (Brian Cimmet). The solution to the puzzle is a 5-letter word.

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!

Banana's peeled.
Good aha moment!

Pretty sure I have it. I may even listen to the podcast so I can submit.

So much going on in this grid that half of the fun is figuring out what to ignore for the meta. Nice solving experience; what seems initially like an awkwardness is a very clever finishing touch.

Complex puzzle. Needed some help but solved it.

Does anyone have a pdf of the puzzle—thanks!

oldjudge wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 1:17 am Does anyone have a pdf of the puzzle—thanks!

I don't have a pdf of this puzzle - but I use this site to convert any puz file to a pdf easily: https://www.crosswordnexus.com/apps/puz-to-pdf/.
Can that help you?

Peeled the banana from the top and from the bottom

lbray53 wrote: ↑Tue May 25, 2021 10:22 pm Pretty sure I have it. I may even listen to the podcast so I can submit.

I did not really have the answer. Well, I did but for the wrong reasons. Kind of an "educated guess".

My answer felt clunky, too easy and even a bit of a stretch.

Following the correct path with some tutoring provided a neat, tidy and clever result.

I think I got this one pretty quickly. Great puzzle though and I agree with Hector about the finishing touch. It had the feeling of a Puzzle Boat meta.

lbray53 wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 11:39 am

lbray53 wrote: ↑Tue May 25, 2021 10:22 pm Pretty sure I have it. I may even listen to the podcast so I can submit.

I did not really have the answer. Well, I did but for the wrong reasons. Kind of an "educated guess".

My answer felt clunky, too easy and even a bit of a stretch.

Following the correct path with some tutoring provided a neat, tidy and clever result.

So you also peeled from both ends I see!

Indeed.

Sounds like I've got company in seeing it before seeing it. My first pass, I noticed something that led to a 5 letter word, but I wasn't sure if that was just the bowl game and the pageant was still to be found, and saw some inklings of what might be next. Then saw Brian's 3.8 banana rating and was sure there must be more and I needed to print it out and look further.

Back home to my printer this afternoon, put it together, and now have an answer with much more confidence.

And speaking of printers...

Schmeel wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 2:23 am

oldjudge wrote: ↑Thu May 27, 2021 1:17 am Does anyone have a pdf of the puzzle—thanks!

I don't have a pdf of this puzzle - but I use this site to convert any puz file to a pdf easily: https://www.crosswordnexus.com/apps/puz-to-pdf/.
Can that help you?

Thank you! Site is bookmarked on my phone.

When I'm away from home, I can usually find a way to get a PDF printed, but hotel business centers, public libraries, UPS stores, etc are unlikely to have (or want) AcrossLite installed on their computers.

This is another meta I came to fairly late (I've been busy!), and I'm glad I finally got to it.

I got to an answer quickly -- correct, as it turns out -- but I didn't have hard-click justification for it. A fellow Muggle confirmed that I needed more. And in another hour or so, I had it.

Lotsa fun!

I haven't been keeping close track, but in my memory, this may be the most ambitious Fill Me In meta I've experienced to date.

I suppose a slight weakness would be that I was able to stumble upon the right answer (though hardly confident of it) without working through the puzzle completely.

Solved.