Home Plate (PCC#19)

[cbarbee002]

De-couched. Good one Phil!

[pchow13]

After a day and a half, we have a whopping 83 solvers so far bringing it home!

Abide (TS)
boharr
Cindy Weatherman
Tom Wilson
JHSeeman
edestlin
FrankieHeck
KayW
AxelPlays
Meg
Pair O Ducks
Cindy Heisler
DIS
BarbaraK
DebbieC
dannyvee
DCBilly
I K Snamhcok
Capn Rick
MatthewL
Carolyn
imontoo
rjy
david
JeanneC
Hector
LarsCaine
heidi
Ergcat
DrTom
kymike
Berto
michaelm
Anita and Steve
Jeremy Smith
Bird Lives
minimuggle
Sharkicicles
Schmeel
DOrtiz
LindaPRmaven
JM
Johnny Luau
Laura M
Dave C
Mwoychick
benchen71
Mr Tex
hoover
Bob cruise director
whimsy
LB800
markhr
Gutman
lbray53
Wendy Walker
Nick
Alvibu67
Darrell
SamKat9
woozy
HeadinHome
Jaclyn
rvkal
Tim
CPJohnson
Sendhil Revuluri
kurtalert
Mg305
iceman
Tyrpmom
Qmark
TerminatorX
Darth
ajk
bhamren
CAe39
Steve M
Jimmy James
Alex Sisti
BrennerTJ
cbarbee002
Streroto

[pchow13]

I TURNED THE CORNER! Challenging fill and a fun mechanism. I learned a few things and relearned several others.

this is genius! can we make "turned the corner" catch on for the PCC?

From Merriam-Webster:
turn the corner
idiom
: to get past the most difficult area or period in something and begin to improve
The company claims it has turned the corner and will be profitable soon.

[pchow13]

Wednesday nudges

I think some of you will be relieved to discover this is not a sports-meta despite the title

hint #1: the plate in the title refers to license plates... license plates will sometimes have the state's nickname on them

hint #2: see if you can find state nicknames in the grid, there are 8 of them (search online as needed for any you are unfamiliar with)

hint #3: they all follow the format "the [something] state" and are symmetrically placed (including 45-A)

hint #4: take the first letters of the states in grid order to spell out a key word

hint #5: there is a wikipedia page on "mountain states," but that is a geographic division and not a state nickname

hint #6: rocky mountain, iron mountain, green mountain, white mountain are all state nicknames, but they are not the meta answer... there is a state that is just "the mountain state"

[DavyGravy]

OTC

[Annabelle]

Off the couch!

[pchow13]

After a day and a half, we have a whopping 83 solvers so far bringing it home!

7 more solvers successfully found the meta answer bringing our grand total to 90!
LCC17
Dow Jones
Kent
SeamusOL
Naptown kid
Katiedid
damefox


Successful solvers noticed (perhaps with the help of the clue for MONIKER at 45-Across) that state nicknames are involved.
The states are as follows (in grid order):
The Show-Me State = Missouri
The Buckeye State = Ohio
The Beehive State = Utah
The Granite State = New Hampshire
The Volunteer State = Tennessee
The Natural State = Arkansas
The Prairie State = Illinois
The Empire State = New York

The first letters of these states spell out MOUNTAIN, and so the meta answer is the Mountain State = West Virginia
Congratulations to everyone who worked this out! Shout-out to meta super-solver FrankieHeck who hails from the Mountain State.
Props to an anonymous super-determined individual that guessed every state in alphabetical order

Many thanks to DrTom and Abide for reaching out to me and encouraging me to submit puzzles to the Muggles forum.
DrTom for his sound advice that a debut puzzle here should not have too many convoluted leaps in logic as that would scare everyone away, and Abide for featuring this puzzle for the MMM and help with this forum. Thank you to Joe Ross and all the moderators here for technical support. And thank you for this wonderful community. Now that I know about the WSJ crossword contest, I'm all set to try and win that elusive mug.

If you enjoyed this puzzle, please check out my other puzzles on Crosshare at https://crosshare.org/pchow13. They cover a wide range of topics and span from easy to hard in difficulty level. Nudges and solutions are posted upon release (I love instant gratification... I drive my friends crazy when I read up on spoilers before watching shows and I try my darnedest not to spoil it for them). Can you resist the temptation to peek?

I plan to release new puzzles every other Saturday. Post and discussion for the latest puzzle can be found on the PCC subforum: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewforum.php?f=53

I would also like to thank Mike D at Crosshare for creating and running the site. Without him, I wouldn't have this amazing tool for creating puzzles and a FREE platform for sharing these puzzles with y'all. Please consider donating to keep the site alive: https://crosshare.org/donate

-Phil