That was fun! I was cued by the title and the fact that I live in "Friendship" (which I think is some variation of the translation of the native word from which the state's name came).
Very nice indeed. I admit that I guessed RI as being the only one left with a single English word. I suspected though that there was more too it, and indeed there was. Very fun stuff, thanks.
MatthewL 🤓6:10 · 2024-03-18T22:01:47.981Z
Went down many, many rabbit holes, before the flash occurred. Great idea for a meta! Also, the clue and entry for 63A made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the puzzle!
whimsy 11:59 · 2024-03-18T23:27:06.684Z
Fun meta that might have been embarrassing if I couldn't solve it, since I'm from the HOPE State! Thanks for this one, !
Got it with a nudge from Woozy! Wouldn’t have thought to look at mottos! Good puzzle! Thanks!
HeadinHome 🤓1:54 · 2024-03-20T02:57:48.742Z
This girl from the great LATIN motto states* was HOPElessly lost. Thanks for the private tutorial. (*Esse quam videri and Sic Semper Tyrannis… both of them very timely sayings that we need to remember, right??). ( :
KayW 🤓6:43 · 2024-03-20T02:49:08.647Z
Very cool idea and construction - thanks for a fun meta! A bit challenging for me as I recognized Eureka as a city and not a motto - and none of the others at all. But I eventually got assisted to my Eureka moment.
(and in case you are wondering about one very odd non-state submission, I tried submitting a MOAT answer here earlier by mistake. LOL lesson learned - NEVER have 2 crosshare puzzles open at the same time)
Berto 3s · 2024-03-20T14:10:17.886Z
Absolutely NO hope for me! Guess it doesn’t help that I live in the “Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice” state and hail from the UK so blissfully unaware there was a/a Eureka state. Oh well, as we Brits might say, Keep Calm and Carry On Metanising…
Pair O Duckscostruttore · 2024-03-20T16:13:06.515Z
Hey, that's my (original) home state! Believe me, I would have loved to throw that one in, but, well, it's not the easiest one to slip in inconspicuously!
Sharkicicles 2s · 2024-03-20T14:34:05.017Z
Definitely needed that last nudge, but what a cool mechanism!
Embarrased to say I had no idea what the state motto of Illinois was, especially since I’ve lived here my whole life and it’s literally on the state flag.
JHSeeman 3s · 2024-03-20T15:37:08.747Z
Fun one, thanks.
rjy 4s · 2024-03-20T16:06:24.460Z
Clever idea and construction!
I got lost on city/town names, and then with the nudge of different forms of "state", esp with the later wikipedia nudge featuring Archimedes, I was going with solid/liquid/gas states. oof! Could not get out of my own way...
And to those chiming in on their state mottos - I'm from MD with "Fatti maschi, parole femine". Another oof! Don't be fooled by the "translation" Wikipedia provides in "Strong deeds, gentle words". The original is "Manly deeds, womanly words". They kept the Latin, but suggest now it means something a little less problematic. Hmmmmmmmm!
Dave C 4s · 2024-03-20T20:48:34.589Z
Only got it with the help of the nudges. Cleverly done.
Great job, Pair O Ducks! I was recently in Providence for the annual Saltwater Fishing Show. I noticed the state mottos right away, but it took me a while to notice the abbreviations and extra letters. Great mechanism! (Now if I could just figure out your SSS meta submission... )
Terrific. Initially went down the state abbreviation rabbit hole- each of the long answers contains a number of them... pretty good distraction for a while!
I had a terrible time with this because I figured right off the bat it was the motto, so EUREKA was California, FRIENDSHIP was Texas, but I looked for INDUSTRY state and Texas came up again and FORWARD gave too many choices (though Wisconsin was one). Reading the clues it was obvious you wanted mottos so I checked to see if they were different and of course they were. After that it was easy to see the disguised state abbreviations and get HOPE. Nicely done, the puzzle was sound, my searching was not.
Qmark 2s · 2024-03-26T14:27:31.338Z
Let this puzzle sit for a week and then went back and looked at the nudges last night...just needed the first 2 to find my way to the solution. The first nudge steered me away from the rabbit hole I had gone done with towns like "Eureka" etc. and nudge 2 led to to the mottos. Great use of the one word mottos! Thanks!