Illinois leads the fifty United States with six five of these things, half two of them in Chicago. New York State has five of them, all in New York City (in fact, I think all of them are in Manhattan). Connecticut has four, half in New Haven. California has four, half in Los Angeles. Massachusetts has three, all in the Greater Boston area. Washington, D.C., has two within its limits properly and three if you count its exurbs as part of the metro area of the city. Oklahoma has two. Two are located outside the United States, in Saudi Arabia and Spain. One each can be found in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin — with less than half of those outside of any of the larger metro areas of those various states. You’ll find none, however, in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, or in all of Canada. At least, not yet. What are these things?
37 Comments
Comments are closed.
Nuclear Reactors?
I would swear that Jersey had at least one…
Oh, I doubt it’s close to right. I’m trying a new strategy with Burt, which is to put down the very first thing that pops into my head before I start thinking about it. (I recently reread part of Gladwell’s Blink, and thought it would be worth a shot.)
I was going to say “Kenyan Marxists” but then saw that Canada didn’t have any.
Gladwell can kiss my ass. My own Blink-esque guess was awful.
Not a bad guess at all. But no; Canada has lots of ’em just to pick one example.
My initial guess would have been Morton’s Steakhouses based on the fact that “Washington, D.C., has two within its limits properly and three if you count its exurbs as part of the metro area of the city,” except that I know for a fact that there’s one in Ohio, and presumably one in Atlantic City.
Regardless, I’m convinced the answer has to be a high-end restaurant chain of some sort.
Morton’s Steakhouses
I dislike those; it’s unpleasant to eat with a Morton’s Fork.
It’s just as unpleasant to eat without one
Whole Foods?
We’ve got a Whole Foods on Powers and, I’m pretty sure, one on Academy.
That’s two.
(Just googled: The one on Academy is still there.)
(I’d be shocked if the one Whole Foods in Colorado was in Colorado Springs rather than Boulder.)
Trader Joe’s?
We’ve got at least one or two of those in NJ.
and approx 1 million in Oregon
I’m trying to think of what New Haven has two of that would be so distinctive. Some sort of museum, maybe? Are we talking New Haven proper or greater New Haven?
I think we’re talking about Yale.
But what would Yale (and Harvard, and U Chicago? Northwestern) have that Princeton does not?
Not just that, but Yale has two of them. Eat your hearts out, Dartmouth and Brown!
And that Saudia Arabia has.
Is it a particular type of ski-lift?
No, Chicago wouldn’t have that…
Tuesday hint: there’s no way to know one is in a particular location until it’s been there at least a generation. But once of these things is there, it would take extraordinary energy, like an act of God, to change that fact.
Despite my reference to the divine, only three of the forty-two of these are explicitly religious. While the Saudi example certainly addresses religion, it is ultimately secular so I’m not including it as one of the religious ones.
A particular type of library?
You’re on the right track, I think.
How about living sons or daughters or presidents and vice presidents?
Wednesday hints: First of all, I miscounted Illinois’ entries, double-counting one entry in Chicago. My apologies for the inconvenience; however, looking at the guesses I doubt it made any difference. I’ve fixed that in the OP. I suppose this qualifies as a hint.
Now, on to the “real” hint. Yesterday, Jaybird guessed “libraries.” The only actual library on the list is in Exeter, New Hampshire. But he’s on the right track, because the list is of buildings, structures, edifices. I’m sure some of the other ones contain what we would call libraries, collections of books or other repositories of information. All of the uses for the various structures on the list include:
Transportation: Chantilly, Virginia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Residential: Chicago, Illinois (1 of 2); Darien, Connecticut; Los Angeles, California (both); New Canaan, Connecticut; Norman, Oklahoma; Paradise Valley, Arizona;* Plano, Illinois; Sea Ranch, California.
Commercial: Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Boston, Massachusetts (both); Cambridge, Massachusetts; Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois (1 of 2); Federal Way, Washington; New Harmony, Indiana;* New York City (4 of 5); Portland, Oregon; Racine, Wisconsin; Warren, Michigan.
Educational: Barcelona, Spain; Deer
IslandIsle, Maine; Exeter, New Hampshire; Fort Worth, Texas; La Jolla, California; New Haven, Connecticut (both); New York City (1 of 5); Washington, D.C. (1 of 2); Winnetka, Illinois.Monumental: St. Louis, Missouri; Washington, D.C. (1 of 2).
Religious: Colorado Springs, Colorado; Eureka Springs, Arkansas; Minneapolis, Minnesota.
* I’m not entirely sure how to classify these, to be honest with y’all, as their primary uses are mixed along the taxonmy I’ve devised for this clue. In my taxonomy, “commercial” includes “industrial,” and “educational” includes both “research” and “museum.”
Is it: buildings made entirely of dairy products?
One would hope that that would take less than a generation to figure out.
Not if it’s a particularly veiny cheese.
Eww!
Structures that have won the American Institute of Architects Twenty-five Year Award.
A lot of people know that the Pritzker Prize is awarded to the “Best Architect” of each year. But I figured, “Best Architect” is like “Best Director” in the movies, so what’s the equivalent of “Best Film”? It turns out that the AIA’s 25-year award is about the closest analogue there is to a “Best Building” award.
To earn it, a structure must have been built in the previous 25 to 35 years, have had as its principal architect someone who is at the time registered to perform architecture in the United States, and remain in continuous use similar to that which it was originally created for at least 25 years.
You can see the complete list of winners here. The most recent winner was the John Hancock Tower in Boston, joining the John Hancock Center in Chicago. To my knowledge, Faneuil Hall is in Boston proper, not in Cambridge. Talesin West and the Atheneaum were hard to classify for today’s clue; Frank Lloyd Wright used Talesin West both as his principal residence and as his principal design studio after relocating from southern Wisconsin; the Athenaeum is a “visitor center” which both promotes tourism in New Harmony, Indiana, and educates the public about the village’s unique history.
Props to Randy Harris.
To earn it, a structure must have been built in the previous 25 to 35 years, have had as its principal architect someone who is at the time registered to perform architecture in the United States, and remain in continuous use similar to that which it was originally created for at least 25 years.
And be made entirely out of either dairy or meat.
And have the Dalai Lama bop his head on a crossbeam.