Matt Gaffney’s contest, “Capital Letters” — Conrad’s writeup
This month we are asked, What U.S. state could have been in the grid as the eighth theme entry to complete the set? There were seven starred entries. I got stuck on this one. I noticed (with help) that COME INTO VIEW had three four-letter words pattern, as does Salt Lake City (the capital of Utah). The theme entries match the following state capitals:
FB Contest Solution – 11.10.2024
- 3D [*Oscar winner whose daughter is also an Oscar winner]: JON VOIGHT -> Des Moines
- 9D [*Author of “Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies”]: MARGARET MEAD -> Oklahoma City
- 18A [*Basel is on it]: RHINE RIVER -> Baton Rouge
- 21D [*Appear over the horizon, say]: COME INTO VIEW -> Salt Lake City
- 28D [*Scolding words before someone’s name]: SHAME ON -> Santa Fe
- 38D [*Song that asks “What’s that flower you have on?”]: DELTA DAWN -> Saint Paul
- 40A [*Present-day icon]: CHRISTMAS TREE -> Oklahoma City
That left two two-word state capitals: Little Rock and Carson City (both six letters followed by four). But there is no US state with 6 letters followed by 4. Puerto Rico matches, but that is not a state. I got very stuck, and my solving friend Gideon dragged me across the finish line.
It turns out there are eight unique enumerations (meaning the letter count of each word) of state capitals. For example: there are six 10-letter capitals: Charleston, Harrisburg, Montgomery, Montpelier, Providence, and Sacramento. But only one with five letters followed by two: Santa Fe. There are 8 unique enumerations: seven are two-word, and one is a twelve letter single word: Indianapolis. That matches the length of our contest answer PENNSYLVANIA. I would not have solved this without a lot of help, and didn’t submit for the contest. Good luck to everyone who did. Solvers: please share your thoughts.
I saw the enumeration step just fine. Like Conrad, I thought we had to account for the unused two-word capitals (Carson City and Little Rock), but Puerto Rico is not technically a state. Looking around, I saw the space occupied by CONSIDERED which, if filled with a state, would make the answers completely symmetrical (i.e., complete the set). Only California and Sacramento would work as a state/capital combo, so I submitted CALIFORNIA.
Was Matt’s solution the best? I’m not sure. The fact that there were more misses than hits was kind of interesting.
Co-solved with Wendy W. and we felt good about California.
Conrad, you misquote the prompt in your write-up. The actual prompt is:
What U.S. state could have been in the grid as the eighth theme entry to complete the set?
The bolded language led me to complete the symmetry at CONSIDERED, like Mark.
Fixed, thanks!
Hi! Just to note my help was passing along nudges I got from BarbaraK. I was stuck in the same place…
Oh, and karma works, because apparently she got the prize this month!