diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 15edd5f..294d8d5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -20,3 +20,4 @@ cargo-timing*.html
 .idea/workspace.xml
 *.sync-conflict*
 .idea/sonarlint
+.directory
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index ff6cbe8..aa6e302 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 ### Other
 - (@hannesbraun) Updated [`infer`] to v0.6.0 (!2)
 - Update [`clap`] to v3.1.0, fixing deprecated code
+- Pin [`smartstring`] to a version that works on our MSRV
 
 ## v0.5.0 - 2022-01-01
 ### Changed
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index d0418b4..3be2041 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -80,9 +80,9 @@ checksum = "baf1de4339761588bc0619e3cbc0120ee582ebb74b53b4efbf79117bd2da40fd"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "clap"
-version = "3.1.0"
+version = "3.1.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "e5f1fea81f183005ced9e59cdb01737ef2423956dac5a6d731b06b2ecfaa3467"
+checksum = "5177fac1ab67102d8989464efd043c6ff44191b1557ec1ddd489b4f7e1447e77"
 dependencies = [
  "atty",
  "bitflags",
@@ -98,9 +98,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "clap_derive"
-version = "3.1.0"
+version = "3.1.2"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "5fd1122e63869df2cb309f449da1ad54a7c6dfeb7c7e6ccd8e0825d9eb93bb72"
+checksum = "01d42c94ce7c2252681b5fed4d3627cc807b13dfc033246bd05d5b252399000e"
 dependencies = [
  "heck",
  "proc-macro-error",
@@ -250,9 +250,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "getrandom"
-version = "0.2.4"
+version = "0.2.5"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "418d37c8b1d42553c93648be529cb70f920d3baf8ef469b74b9638df426e0b4c"
+checksum = "d39cd93900197114fa1fcb7ae84ca742095eed9442088988ae74fa744e930e77"
 dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
  "libc",
@@ -350,9 +350,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "libc"
-version = "0.2.118"
+version = "0.2.119"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "06e509672465a0504304aa87f9f176f2b2b716ed8fb105ebe5c02dc6dce96a94"
+checksum = "1bf2e165bb3457c8e098ea76f3e3bc9db55f87aa90d52d0e6be741470916aaa4"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "lock_api"
@@ -401,9 +401,9 @@ checksum = "2a60c7ce501c71e03a9c9c0d35b861413ae925bd979cc7a4e30d060069aaac8d"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "new_mime_guess"
-version = "4.0.0"
+version = "4.0.1"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "bb3253391c5e7939360b2f7f27c7e7821dbc1a0bdab65884dde484fd71132764"
+checksum = "c2d684d1b59e0dc07b37e2203ef576987473288f530082512aff850585c61b1f"
 dependencies = [
  "mime",
  "phf",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 37c44dd..b86c974 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -52,13 +52,14 @@ infer = { version = "0.7.0", optional = true }
 # https://github.com/bodil/smartstring/blob/v0.2.9/src/config.rs#L91-L93
 # essentially, smartstring is intentionally blocked from compiling on 32-bit big endian archs, so our dependency on it
 # needs to be too. otherwise, fif won't work on platforms like powerpc, even though this dependency is the only
-# blocker -- fif runs just fine on powerpc without smartstring. or at least, just fine under qemu user-mode powerpc ~u0
+# blocker -- fif runs just fine on powerpc (or on my powerbook G4, anyway) without smartstring.
 
 # additionally, versions before 0.2.4 didn't impl Display, so we need at least that version for displaying Strings.
-smartstring = ">= 0.2.4"
+# version 1.0 of smartstring adds 32-bit BE compatibility (by rewriting the implementation), but requires rust 1.57.0,
+# so we can't use it.
+smartstring = ">= 0.2.4, <=0.2.9"
 
 [dependencies.clap]
-# beta.4 requires rust >= 1.54.0 (and beta.3 was yanked)
 version = "3.0.0"
 default-features = false
 features = ["wrap_help", "color", "derive", "std", "unicode"]
diff --git a/src/tests/mod.rs b/src/tests/mod.rs
index ee28bdc..e6f9b44 100644
--- a/src/tests/mod.rs
+++ b/src/tests/mod.rs
@@ -568,6 +568,7 @@ fn sort_findings() {
 #[test]
 #[cfg(not(all(target_endian = "big", target_pointer_width = "32")))]
 /// Ensures that [`SmartString`]s don't deviate from std's Strings
+// remove this when (if) updating to smartstring v1.0!
 fn validate_string_type() {
 	use std::string::String as StdString;