"Sail On, O Ship of State!" March 7, 2025

[WC50]

My extremely lame "alternative state" idea is
Self-affirmation for a retriever? I, LAB, AM A GOOD DOG

I’ll join you! If we’re constrained to 12 characters, how about

“September through April, to seafoodies”
OYSTER MONTHS

Or “Observation at Roanoke”
THEY WERE GONE

[MikeyG]

My extremely lame "alternative state" idea is
Self-affirmation for a retriever? I, LAB, AM A GOOD DOG

Good to say when he's having a "ruff" day!

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is ALASKA. Each theme answer conceals the name of a U.S. state minus its first letter: OCTAHEDRON (Utah), GAINED ACCESS (Maine), NO WALK IN THE PARK (Iowa), I’LL ASK AROUND (Alaska), and LEANS ASIDE (Kansas). Those first letters spell the Inuit boat UMIAK, suggesting the contest answer.

A tricky one, but our solvers figured it out in large numbers. We had 1,187 entries, with 77% correct, a roughly typical rate. 14 of you came up with Vermont, the headquarters state of Umiak Outdoor Outfitters. Also TEXAS (40), MAINE (29), IDAHO (22), MISSOURI (7), SOUTH CAROLINA (7), IOWA (5) and a handful of others.

Congrats to this week's winner: Karen Kahane of Lincoln City, Ore.!

[DBMiller]

My extremely lame "alternative state" idea is
Self-affirmation for a retriever? I, LAB, AM A GOOD DOG

I’ll join you! If we’re constrained to 12 characters, how about

“September through April, to seafoodies”
OYSTER MONTHS

Or “Observation at Roanoke”
THEY WERE GONE

Although neither of those give you the A you need for UMIAK.

But taking those, plus the earlier alternatives for ARIZONA and ALABAMA, we now have routies to the letters AAAIKMOUV. Best I can find using those to hint towards a state is KAUAI - An island in Hawaii.

We might be able to expand our possible letters some more. The puzzle had both 10 and 12 letter grid entries, so...

• Merchandise sold on the train from Boston to New York City? ACELAWARES
• Optical Character Recognition program? FONTANALYZER
• Put a spell on a speller? HEXASORCERER
• Actress Seyfried lost her voice? AMANDAHOARSE

Yikes, those are difficult to construct! That gives us the extra letters DMTI. Now, what can we get, if anything, from AAADIIKMMOTUV?

• UMIAK - Already known
• MIAMI - There is/was a USS Miami (Light cruiser and a submarine)
• DAKOTA - Both a USS North Dakota and USS South Dakota

My brain hurts.

Afterthought - Can get the N for NDAKOTA by adding:

Black and white animals at the ice follies? ZEBRASKATERS

[chriscross]

Wow I was way off! I submitted SOUTH CAROLINA:

I didn't even think to look up UMIAK so I focused on the changed letters, CGN-LE. I saw CGN was a way to describe a ship number. And LE upside down looks like 37. So I just figured it was CGN-37, which is the USS South Carolina. I thought CGN was too much of a coincidence - but I guess it was a coincidence.