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        riddles >> easy >> what property do these states share?
        
(Message started by: Disoriented on May 6^th, 2004, 9:47am)

Title: what property do these states share?
Post by Disoriented on May 6^th, 2004, 9:47am

States of the Union
These have a property that no others have. What is it?

AZ
DE
MN
NH
NJ
NM
OK
SD
WA

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Sameer on May 6^th, 2004, 11:52am

I don't stay in any of those. :P

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by towr on May 6^th, 2004, 1:21pm

on 05/06/04 at 11:52:04, Sameer wrote:

I don't stay in any of those. :P

And you do stay in all the others? Otherwise that can't be the property we're looking for..
Or was it just a random statement? :P

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by evergreena3 on May 6^th, 2004, 1:25pm

Aaaahhh...I see Sameer is giving the old "Cliff Claven" answer.
::[hide] for those of you who didn't see the episode of Cheers where Cliff (the postman) goes on the gameshow Jeopardy, he answers the Final Jeopardy question "Who are 3 people who have never been in my kitchen?")[/hide]::

As I read the question, I call to mind ::[hide] the numbers of states and/or bodies of water that each of these borders. Most seem to have 5...though not all. [/hide]:: With that, I'm out of ideas. :D

EverGreenA3

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Speaker on May 6^th, 2004, 4:47pm

Well, I was going pretty good on one idea, but WA sort of shot it out of the air. Anyway, they all have 4 vowels in them, if you count Y, but not if you count WA. Boo Hoo :'(

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Icarus on May 6^th, 2004, 5:43pm

I thought of that one too, but it gets shot down by South Dakota before Washington ever gets a crack at it (and if you meant distinct vowels, then Arizona flunks out right at the start).

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Noke Lieu on May 6^th, 2004, 5:54pm

ahhh, thats what WA is. Thought it was Western Australia ;)

need to get a map of America. Wouldn't know one end from the other.

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Speaker on May 6^th, 2004, 6:03pm

I think that is a good point. There is a lot of words that seem to indicate the USofA, but do not specifically say that.

So, a pot shot in the dark. They all are the abbreviations of states in the USA and other states outside the USA......

No evidence, just a guess....

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Icarus on May 6^th, 2004, 6:06pm

Good point. For those of you from "out of town",

AZ = Arizona
DE = Delaware
MN = Minnesota
NH = New Hampshire
NJ = New Jersey
NM = New Mexico
OK = Oklahoma
SD = South Dakota
WA = Washington

The complete list of USA postal abbreviations (states, territories, "military states") can be found here. (http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/usps_abbreviations.html)

Which brings up the question: Are there any US territories that also share this property?

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Noke Lieu on May 6^th, 2004, 9:43pm

Hehehe. Think I have it, my dear watson. Will check further.
Thanks Icarus for that.

[disappointment] Poop. Periodically, flashes like that pay off though. A breif glance at that list yeilded none of these states share the symbol of elements. A thourough one yeilded Texas etc....[/disappointment]

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by amstrad on May 7^th, 2004, 9:08am

I'm pretty sure I have the answer. Actually it was a co-worker that discovered it.

The set is exclusive for US States. However there are other members of the set:

US Territories and districts:
DC = Washington DC
AS = American Samoa

Canadian Provinces:
NB = New Brunswick
YT = Yukon Territories

Clue #1:
::[hide]
The puzzle would have been harder if Disoriented had used the full state names rather than abbreviations.
[/hide]::

Clue #2:
::[hide]
My coworker discovered the solution while trying to cheat. He started entering the postal codes into google, but stopped before hitting the search button. He had already discovered the property.
[/hide]::

Solution:
::[hide]
The letters in the abbreviation are adjacent on the keyboard (QWERTY style).
[/hide]::

The "hidden" text is showing in preview mode. If it is not really hidden, would one of the moderators fix it please?

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Disoriented on May 7^th, 2004, 1:07pm

You got it amstrad. Nice job ;D

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Speaker on May 7^th, 2004, 6:23pm

That is pretty good. But, a little frustrating, because I also typed them out in a Word doc. Then I tried to make an anagram out of them, but I did not notice when I was typing. And, of course as soon as I saw your answer was correct, I peeked at it.

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by SWF on May 7^th, 2004, 7:50pm

[quote]A breif glance at that list yeilded none of these states share the symbol of elements. A thourough one yeilded Texas etc....[quote]
If it was abbreviations of elements, that would have been a very good question too. Maybe too late to ask it now. Guessing at this sure leads to many potentially good questions.

Don't forget Manganese = Minnesota. What element is Tx? :-) Perhaps you thought the state abbreviation of Texas is Te? BTW, how come the abbreviation of California is CA, but for Californium it is Cf?

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Noke Lieu on May 9^th, 2004, 10:07pm

There are loads of them....
Tx was the on that jumped down my throat saying it was a flawed idea. Then others followed. I guess the tags should have gone
[excitement]....[/excitement][disappointment] :)

Tell you what- wait long enough, and people will have forgotten this little diversion...
Ca was taken. And Cl. ;)

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Speaker on May 9^th, 2004, 10:36pm

This is kind of silly, but this is the only place to do it, so expect silliness....

Delaware DE
New Jersey NJ

Idaho ID
Maryland MD

Iowa IA
Washington WA

Wisconsin WI
Nebraska NE

Tennessee TN
Arkansas AR

Florida FL
Missouri MO

Oregon OR
Oklahoma OK

California CA
Hawaii HI

Mississippi MS
Minnesota MN

What do these states and their pairing and the entire series inidicate.... What do they have that no other states have.... or whatever... ::)

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by evergreena3 on May 10^th, 2004, 12:46pm

on 05/09/04 at 22:36:47, Speaker wrote:

Tennessee TN
Arkansas AR

If you add "West Virginia WV" to this list, I'd guess the answer to be "inbreeding."

EverGreenA3

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Speaker on May 10^th, 2004, 4:45pm

Now, now now. Lets play nice. However, with that said; "A certain familiarity with the loquation and verbiage of the dialects common to those--and other--areas would point one's search of the elusive answer of this query in a fortuitous direction."

Title: Re: what property do these states share?
Post by Margit on May 11^th, 2004, 9:39am

Oh yea, not on a german keyboard