Solution: Fill In For ME

Answer: NABOKOV

Written by Cenarius

This puzzle proceeds like a typical fill-in crossword, but seven across entries (ROME, MEAT, SMEE, MEOWS, SAME, TOME, MEAL) conflict with their crossing down entries. The conflicts always occur at the ME bigram, and they can be resolved by substituting ME with a different bigram (hence the puzzle title). The filled-in grid, with substitutions highlighted, is below:

The letters replacing all the ME bigrams in the grid spell ANSWER’S NABOKOV.