WWTBAM Bored

"4-by-4"

In the grids from the previous two Wednesdays, the categories were pretty obvious. Week 1 had slogans and sports teams. Last week had famous people and song titles. This week, you're going to see a grid of mostly U.S. cities and a grid of mostly U.S. states. Naturally, saying "U.S. cities", "State capitals", or "U.S. states" in any foursome will not be acceptable. You all will have to be a lot more specific than that. And believe me... the grid categories will become less obvious and the red herrings will become more frequent as the weeks progress.

2 points for each valid foursome with valid description, 2 points for a perfect grid, and 10 points for two perfect grids.

Answers are due by Thursday 4/24 at 4 PM EDT.

Grid 1:

AUSTIN | CAPE COD | DALLAS | DENVER
HOUSTON | JACKSON | KNOXVILLE | NASHVILLE
NEW ORLEANS | OMAHA | PHILADELPHIA | PROVIDENCE
SANTA BARBARA | SEATTLE | SPRINGFIELD | ST. LOUIS

Grid 2:

ALASKA | CHESAPEAKE | COLORADO | DELAWARE
ERIE | FLORIDA | HAWAII | IOWA
KAUAI | KENTUCKY | MISSOURI | MONTANA
NEVADA | OHIO | TENNESSEE | TEXAS

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A lot of people didn't want to touch either of these grids with a 20-foot pole. There were so many legitimate categories that could have been made, so you could have at least picked up a couple of points even if you couldn't solve the grids.

Grid 1:

AUSTIN | CAPE COD | DALLAS | DENVER
HOUSTON | JACKSON | KNOXVILLE | NASHVILLE
NEW ORLEANS | OMAHA | PHILADELPHIA | PROVIDENCE
SANTA BARBARA | SEATTLE | SPRINGFIELD | ST. LOUIS

This grid had two truly perfect solutions... although I did allow the baggier descriptions (such as "cities with major universities", which could really apply to almost all of these answers) on just this one day because 1) a lot of you have probably been unhappy with my judging so far, and 2) I'm in a really good mood today. Be warned, though, that I will definitely need precise and narrow descriptions once we get into the more difficult material in Week 5 and beyond.

Here is my solution:

1. DALLAS | NASHVILLE | PROVIDENCE | SANTA BARBARA

U.S. cities that are also titles of TV shows.

2. KNOXVILLE | NEW ORLEANS | SEATTLE | ST. LOUIS

U.S. cities that hosted the World's Fair.

3. DENVER | HOUSTON | JACKSON | SPRINGFIELD

U.S. cities that are also the names of chart-topping singers. John Denver, Whitney Houston, Michael & Janet Jackson, and Rick Springfield. AUSTIN (Patti) could also fit into this category, but you needed AUSTIN for the final category.

4. AUSTIN | CAPE COD | OMAHA | PHILADELPHIA

Food brands. Austin makes snack crackers, Cape Cod makes popcorn, Omaha has the best steaks in the world, and Philadelphia has its cream cheese.

Switching PHILADELPHIA and SEATTLE makes the other true perfect solution, as Philadelphia did host a World's Fair and Seattle is a brand of coffee.

Grid 2:

ALASKA | CHESAPEAKE | COLORADO | DELAWARE
ERIE | FLORIDA | HAWAII | IOWA
KAUAI | KENTUCKY | MISSOURI | MONTANA
NEVADA | OHIO | TENNESSEE | TEXAS

"Battleships" was a good category, but that could apply to at least 11 of the answers here. Of course, I did write these first few grids with the intention of suggesting multiple categories. There was only one true perfect solution here. Only two of my categories were found amongst the five of you. I'll start with those:

1. DELAWARE | KENTUCKY | MISSOURI | TENNESSEE

U.S. states that are also the names of rivers.

2. ERIE | IOWA | KAUAI | OHIO

U.S. place names that contain only one consonant.

And now to the two categories that nobody found:

3. ALASKA | CHESAPEAKE | HAWAII | TEXAS

James Michener novels.

4. COLORADO / FLORIDA / MONTANA / NEVADA

U.S. states that are also Spanish words. They mean red, flowered, mountain, and snowfall.

Weasel got a perfect 30 points. Normally, he wouldn't have gotten all of those points for some of his broader descriptions... but it's early in the contest and I'm in a good mood, so I allowed it today.

4/21 + 4/22 + 4/23 Scores (11 participants)
ShamelessWeasel - 4 + 9 + 30 = 43
Bob Juch - 8 + 14 + 14 = 36
smilergrogan - 6 + 8 + 12 = 26
plasticene - 5 + 6 + 0 = 11
franktangredi - 1 + 5 + 4 = 10
themanintheseersuckersuit - 0 + 8 + 0 = 8
jarnon - 3 + 3 + 0 = 6
kroxquo - 2 + 4 + 0 = 6
Bob78164 - 0 + 3 + 0 = 3
christie1111 - 0 + 0 + 2 = 2
MarleysGh0st - 0 + 2 + 0 = 2