May 12, 2024

Occasional Puzzles - ❌ Xs Mark the Spot

Today's Puzzle - ❌ Xs Mark the Spot

Find words to fit the clues below. In all four answers, the "X X X" must be filled in with the same three letter word.

• _ _ _ _ _ X X X (Spice used in Indian and Scandinavian cuisine, 8 letters)
• _ _ _ X X X _ _ _ (Relaxing herb, 9 letters)
• X X X _ _ _ _ _ _ (Fleeting, 9 letters)
• _ _ _ _ X X X _ _ _ _ (Doctor's intake tool, 11 letters)

Source: Tenor

Previous Puzzle - 🍰 Let Them Eat (Ice Cream) (Wedding) Cake

Puzzle

As ice cream snobs aficionados, Tessa & Dan have decided to serve a four-layer ice cream cake at their wedding, containing some of the finest flavors in all of New York. They have five candidate flavors:

• Cookies & Cream
• Mocha Chip
• Butter Pecan
• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Bacio (chocolate with hazelnut)

But of course, being the ice cream experts that they are, they know they can't just stack those flavors together willy-nilly. There are rules. In particular, they have the following requirements:

1. Cookies & Cream cannot be above two or more layers.
2. Mocha Chip cannot be anywhere below Bacio.
3. Butter Pecan and Cookies & Cream cannot touch.
4. Peanut Butter Fudge must be above two or more layers.
5. Mocha chip cannot be anywhere above Cookies & Cream.
6. Butter Pecan cannot be on the top or the bottom layer.
7. Bacio and Butter Pecan cannot touch.

Given these requirements, which flavors should they use in their four-layer cake, and in what order?

Source: Reddit

Solution [SPOILER]

The order is (top to bottom):

• Peanut Butter Fudge
• Butter Pecan
• Mocha Chip
• Bacio

Cookies & Cream is not used.