"Make It An Even Dozen" May 3, 2024

[Zobo3737]

I answered SCOTTSDALE. It never asked for the State. By the way, there is only one city in the U.S. named Scottsdale, so it's not like you need to add ARIZONA to clarify.. Just sayin...

I’d bet $ that’s acceptable.

[Yoda66]

I did submit the correct answer, but did anyone else feel any 11D with their solution due to the presence of one of the "missing" pieces in 11D?

Yes, I did. Two "SCOs" embedded in the grid but not counting made this a sloppy meta design. I spent a lot of time trying to work the solution just for ARI. Not my favorite meta.

[BarbaraK]

The airport code for Scottsdale, AZ is SCF not SCO.

Airport code? How did we get to airport codes? Is there a good aviation rabbit hole out there?

[Jace54]

I wonder if Matt considered putting SIGNS in the grid as a clue. You could put SIGNS at 6A and UNMET at 15A, then the 6D-10D entries would be SURREY, INA, GMC, NEA, and STN. Not the prettiest fill but it works. Then you would have SIGNS at the top center of the grid, which leads into the theme entries.

[ron]

I did submit the correct answer, but did anyone else feel any 11D with their solution due to the presence of one of the "missing" pieces in 11D?

Yes, I did. Two "SCOs" embedded in the grid but not counting made this a sloppy meta design. I spent a lot of time trying to work the solution just for ARI. Not my favorite meta at all.

Not just that but it seems Aries is often abbreviated as AR and there are 2 ARs in the long answers.

So I had my doubts on this one but wasn't coming up with anything else so I sent it.

[Bird Lives]

Atlanta of course.

The first thing I noticed was that the themers seemed to be brought to you by the letter A. A careful count revealed that they in fact contained an even dozen of that letter. (The rest of the grid contained fifteen of them, but never mind that.) What about the rest of the fill? A Website called Mecha-puzzle used to count the letters for you, but no more. I had to do it by hand, so my count may be flawed, but in the entire puzzle, I counted two other letters that appeared exactly twelve times — T and L.

If you’ve done even a few crosswords, you know from “Braves on the scoreboard” or “Delta hub” that ATL is a favorite among constructors. It the 38th largest city in the US. (Scottsdale is 92nd. A few people move to the exurbs or, God help them, Phoenix, and it’s no longer in the top 100.) I rest my case.

[Mirage]

My rabbit hole was to number the letters of the alphabet as supported by 29D 15-18 of a series - OPQR. The first letters of the theme answers, CLAVL, changed to the numbers 3,12, 1, 22, 12. Using those numbers from the grid answers, I got REMSE. Not a city. What about the “dozen” answer 12D? ELTON becomes 5, 12, 20, 15, 14, which spells out from the grid OESAA. I continued on this path counting out every 12th letter in the theme answers, every grid answer divisible by 12, and on and on. Nothing remotely close to a city name. Only at 11:45 when I commented that Leo must be significant - Leon Trotsky? DaVinci? - did my non-meta husband recognize Leo as one of a dozen Zodiac signs and we were off to the races.

[DianeA]

Even once i figured the Zodiac theme, i struggled to find how SCOrpio and ARIes would lead me to the answer. I did ask Mr. G if there were towns named ESRPIO, or SCOARI, or ARISCO. No joy. The SCOT (22 Across) was a nudge, to me, firmed up with the fact that there is no state beginning with SCO, making ARI for Arizona. Felt solid enough for me.

[Kas]

Un...nope. I'll be hanging out with Isaac on the ship this week, I guess. On my personalized stool at the bar, sipping ginger ale...as per usual.

[HunterX]

The first thing I noticed was that the themers seemed to be brought to you by the letter A. A careful count revealed that they in fact contained an even dozen of that letter...

Uh, well, only if that dozen is a baker's dozen.

[michaelm]

Atlanta of course.

The first thing I noticed was that the themers seemed to be brought to you by the letter A. A careful count revealed that they in fact contained an even dozen of that letter. (The rest of the grid contained fifteen of them, but never mind that.) What about the rest of the fill? A Website called Mecha-puzzle used to count the letters for you, but no more. I had to do it by hand, so my count may be flawed, but in the entire puzzle, I counted two other letters that appeared exactly twelve times — T and L.

If you’ve done even a few crosswords, you know from “Braves on the scoreboard” or “Delta hub” that ATL is a favorite among constructors. It the 38th largest city in the US. (Scottsdale is 92nd. A few people move to the exurbs or, God help them, Phoenix, and it’s no longer in the top 100.) I rest my case.

My hand count of the entire grid, also possibly flawed, revealed an even dozen letters with even counts, counting 0 occurrences as evens.
Spelled no Top 100 city of course.

[ship4u]

The title of the puzzle caused me to consider "Baker's Dozen." Which, of course, led me to think of Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes' London. But, alas, New London, Connecticut, is not on the list of 100 largest US cities. Nor is New Britain, Coventry, Winchester, Canterbury, South or East Windsor.

[BarbaraK]

Atlanta of course.

The first thing I noticed was that the themers seemed to be brought to you by the letter A. A careful count revealed that they in fact contained an even dozen of that letter. (The rest of the grid contained fifteen of them, but never mind that.) What about the rest of the fill? A Website called Mecha-puzzle used to count the letters for you, but no more. I had to do it by hand, so my count may be flawed, but in the entire puzzle, I counted two other letters that appeared exactly twelve times — T and L.

If you’ve done even a few crosswords, you know from “Braves on the scoreboard” or “Delta hub” that ATL is a favorite among constructors. It the 38th largest city in the US. (Scottsdale is 92nd. A few people move to the exurbs or, God help them, Phoenix, and it’s no longer in the top 100.) I rest my case.

Mecha-puzzle is still available at https://boisvert42.github.io/mechapuzzle/

It's just that now you have to solve the puz file first.

[MajordomoTom]

I sadly submitted tuSCOn ARIzona

A match, just not of initial triples, and city #33 on the list

Sorry, but it's Tucson, not Tuscon.

well, that's true, and that's why I don't get a mug this week.

shame on me.

[Deb F]

I flirted with this one but did not really get it until I got help from Don. Great construction. Congrats to all you solvers. I'm not in competition for the mug so you all have one more chance!

Have a great week, Muggles.

[moron]

Well it happened. After last weeks overconfidence I was humbled by this week. Fell into a rabbit hole and lost morale:

Inside CAPYBARACANASTA, one can find BACCARATS, like rats who play baccarat which kinda also fits the clue (barring the South American part)

Inside LIBELPISTONS, we can get LIEONS, like writing lies about the lions. Definitely weaker because “lie” is inside the clue also.

Inside VIRALSAGUARO, you can sense the spirit of spelling VISUALAGAVE. It kinda fits the clue, as something that is seen, and agave is sort of a cactus. (There is an agave cactus, but when people say agave they’re talking about a succulent). Can you actually anagram it? Not quite.

It seemed so promising… but nothing aquinas gemstone and leotard tautness were inscrutable.
Clever mechanic though. Happy for Scottsdale.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA. In each theme answer, the first three letters of each word are the first letters of a zodiac sign: CAPybara/Capricorn, CANasta/Cancer, LIBel/Libra, PIStons/Pisces, AQUinas/Aquarius, GEMstone/Gemini, VIRal/ Virgo, SAGuaro/Sagittarius, LEOtard/Leo and TAUtness/Taurus. The unused signs are Scorpio (SCO) and Aries (ARI), leading to the contest answer.

This was an extremely clever and tricky one, with a medium-sized turnout and a high success rate: 1,216 entries, 85% correct (75% is closer to the norm). Lots and lots of other cities among the incorrect guesses, including SANTA CLARITA (19) INDIANAPOLIS (15), JACKSONVILLE (11), BOISE (11)... can anyone explain those? Plus BAKERSFIELD (7, one solver cited a baker's dozen of the letter A), EL PASO (6), SAN FRANCISCO (5), LAS VEGAS (5), and many others.

Still waiting to confirm the winner--stay tuned.

[hoover]

I correctly submitted SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, but I did have a moment where I was looking at ARI SCO and wondered whether we were supposed to take one more step and change the A to an F for FRISCO (Texas, but it's #102), or even for that much-hated nickname for SAN FRANCISCO. So I can see where the 5 entries for SAN FRANCISCO came from. I can't even guess at the rest, though.
I don't see any emails from WSJ in my inbox or spam folder.

[muggleunity]

I was glad to see Scottsdale was in the 90s of the "100 largest cities." I felt like the city would have to be in the lower half of the list, or the clue would have been different. If this city were number 15 on the list, the clue would have been "20 largest cities in the US." I would have been very concerned if the answer had been Chicago or something.

Anyway, that's how my twisted mind works.

[steveb]

I correctly submitted SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, but I did have a moment where I was looking at ARI SCO and wondered whether we were supposed to take one more step and change the A to an F for FRISCO (Texas, but it's #102), or even for that much-hated nickname for SAN FRANCISCO. So I can see where the 5 entries for SAN FRANCISCO came from. I can't even guess at the rest, though.
I don't see any emails from WSJ in my inbox or spam folder.

Because of the "dozen" in the title, my first thought was cities with 12 letters in their names. I thought of a few off the top of my head: San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Jacksonville. I imagine there are more, but I eventually found the correct path instead of chasing that one.