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An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #48: Unusual tag mix


Solve these puzzles to reveal why I made them.

Matriarch mostly prepared oats for American airline location? (8)
AIRLINE + LOCATION = ?
51 7581, 674321 29138 85421'8 141738 (four)

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1 Answer 1

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Thanks to Stiv for solving the final cryptic clue

You did this to highlight the

TAGS

Matriarch mostly prepared oats for American airline location? (8)

The answer is Sarasota.
The matriarch is Sarah from which we remove the last letter (mostly) and add oats, anagrammed (prepared)

AIRLINE + LOCATION = ?

Substituting in SARASOTA for the answer in this alphametic, we arrive at the solution
R=0, T=1, N=2, E=3, I=4, A=5, C=6, L=7, S=8, O=9

51 7581, 674321 29138 85421'8 141738 (four)

Substituting the letters for the digits found in the alphametic, this line reads
AT LAST, CLIENT NOTES SAINT'S TITLES (four)
The answer, as discovered by Stiv, is TAGS - with T coming from the last letter of CLIENT, AG being NOTES, SAINT cluing S and "TITLES" being the definition.

Previous answer: TEST, with the T and E coming from the last letters of CLIENT NOTE and SAINT'S TITLES cluing ST.

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  • $\begingroup$ Almost there! The final cryptic clue is a standard one (ie. it has a definition in it) $\endgroup$
    – samm82
    Feb 5, 2021 at 19:22
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    $\begingroup$ Do you think the answer could be TAGS? (-clien)T + AG (musical 'notes') + S (an uncommon abbreviation for 'saint'? All meaning 'titles'. Seeing as it was for the unusual tag mix FTC... Possible? @samm82 $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 14, 2021 at 20:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Stiv Yup, you got it! Looking back, I don't know if I would use "notes" to clue any of the letters A-G, especially not multiple at once, and I didn't realize saint = S was uncommon $\endgroup$
    – samm82
    May 14, 2021 at 21:30
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    $\begingroup$ @samm82 Perhaps 'uncommon' is the wrong word. Certainly in the UK, 'St.' is the most usual abbreviation in place names and church names, although a quick Google tells me that 'S.' is often used by Roman Catholics, which is a big group of people usage-wise! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    May 14, 2021 at 21:52
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv Thank you, it had been ages since I looked at this. $\endgroup$
    – hexomino
    May 14, 2021 at 21:57

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