by Jesse Gelles
Coding assistance from Greg Edelston
Answer: IDA TARBELL
Problem: Valentine’s Day Town/​Arbor Day Town

This puzzle is a fusion of traditional dropquotes and the popular game 7 Little Words.

Here, the solvers have to complete the crossword clues using available n–grams. However, the letter bank needs to be generated by solving the dropquotes. Once each dropquote is complete, solvers can break the quote into n–grams and complete the clues.

Doing so, solvers will notice that certain letters are not used in the clues—these left over letters are the “discarded” bits and provide the letters for the final dropquote (and are left uncolored below). The numbers provided in each dropquote cell indicate the placement for the unused letters into the final dropquote columns.

As solvers complete the dropquotes they may notice that all of the slightly paraphrased quotes are from noted authors of the Progressive Era, specifically ‘muckrakers’ (as suggested by “sift through discarded” in the flavor text).

The numbered spaces in the final dropquote provide a clue phrase reading SUBMIT THIS CITATIONS AUTHOR.

The author of the final quote is arguably the most famous muckraker, IDA TARBELL.

MOSTOFUSHAVECOLLECTIO
NSOFSAYINGSWELIVEBY.
WHENEVERWORDSFLYUPAT
MEFROMTHEPRINTEDPAGE
IINTERCEPTTHEM.
Unabridged quote:
Most of us have collections of sayings we live by. Whenever words fly up at me from the printed page as I read, I intercept them instantly, knowing they are for me.
Ray Stannard Baker
Robot’s mouthful?BYTE
Ends of daysEVENINGS
Horse-drawn taxiHANSOM
Blood-red pigmentHEME
Encroach or bother, with “upon”INFRINGE
Like a dancer’s bodyLITHE
Capable of independent movementMOTILE
Lioness’s interspecies partner, to PlinyPARD
Person w/ classPROF
No longer hungrySATED
____ symbol, like a PorscheSTATUS
HBO comedyVEEP
Entirely WHOLLY
BarkWOOF
THEOPENMINDHASMORE
TODOWITHREALDETECTIVE
WORKTHANALLTHEDEDUCT
IONANDINDUCTIONEVERDE
VISED.
Unabridged quote:
The open eye of the open mind—that has more to do with real detective work than all the deduction and induction and analysis ever devised.
Samuel Hopkins Adams
Lit. compendiumANTH
Campus authorityDEAN
Deafened by loud noise (var.)DEEVED
Performs, to the BardDOTH
Coil aroundENWIND
Belch, scientificallyERUCT
Heraldry having convex semicircular projectionsINVECTED
Ready-made wooden building materials made en masseMILLWORK
Units of measure in quantitative verseMORAS
Unpopular thermometer typeRECTAL
Contains sulfur: PrefixTHIO
Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, e.g.TOON
ANEVENTOFSIGNIFICANCE
MAYHAPPENALLATONCE,
BUTTHEWORDSWHICHDESCR
IBEITCOMEONEBYONEIN
ALONGCHAIN.
Unabridged quote:
An event of colossal and overwhelming significance may happen all at once, but the words which describe it have to come one by one in a long chain.
Upton Sinclair
Merrily We Roll ____ALONG
He played Heymann in The Old FoxANDE
Hebrew letterAYIN
Word for claptrap named for a North Carolina countyBUNCOMBE
Maryland Stadium, previouslyBYRD
French knight (abbr.)CHEV
Old hagCRONE
Annoying insectGNAT
LOLHAHA
Surname of polymath who invented the soma cubeHEIN
There’s a famous oval oneOFFICE
Retirement incomePENSION
“No more, please”WHEN
Surname of Assistant Manager for Burnley ClaretsWOAN
SCHOOLISNOTALECTURE
HALLORALIBRARY.ITCON
SISTSCHIEFLYINCOLLECTI
VEACTIONAIMEDATACOLL
ECTIVEPURPOSE.
Unabridged quote:
The national school is not a lecture hall or library. Its schooling consists chiefly in experimental collective action aimed at the realization of a collective purpose.
Herbert Croly
Shakespeare’s works commonly had five of theseACTS
Like a good souffléAIRY
Cat Cora, e.g.CHEF
____ Tower, in San FranciscoCOIT
Besoot, in BritainCOLLY
Dolphin on GenesisECCO
Fox hunter’s cryHALLOO
Peruvian monetary unit, formerlyINTI
Namesake fitness app from Lars von Saldern’s companyIVECTIVE
Celestial balanceLIBRA
Officially recognized for the record, such as an absenceNOTED
Floor seating area in a Broadway theater (abbr.)ORCH
Pepé Le Pew, for one (colloq.)POLECAT
Fried breads from OdishaPURIS
2018’s “You Know What’s Missing” suggestionURESIS
NOTHINGISDONE.EVERYTH
INGINTHEWORLDREMAINS
TOBEDONEORDONEOVER.
THEMOSTEXACTOFTHESCI
ENCESISBEINGREVISED.
Unabridged quote:
Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. [. . .] Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised.
Lincoln Steffens
Keyboard modifier (abbr.)CTRL
“You’re ____ it wrong!”DOING
Dermal redness caused by inflammationERYTHEMA
Smoothed, with “out”EVENED
Borough of Dortmund east of MengedeEVING
Divorced duoEXES
Under a roof, like some poolsINDOOR
Brick of precious metalINGOT
Chant with little variation in pitchINTONE
Sister of SetISIS
Draco, to the MalfoysSCION
Legalese adverbTHEREOF
Italian operas by Puccini, Cilea or Mascagni?VERISMOS
Dwell (arch.) or Akron radio stationWONE
YOURIMPRESSIONOFMANY
CONFLICTINGINTERESTSHAS
DISAPPEARED.YOUNOWSEE
ASINGLEINTERESTWITHA
SINGLEAGENTTOEXECUTE
ITSPURPOSE.
Unabridged quote:
Your first impression of many and conflicting interests has disappeared. You now see a single interest, with a single agent-in-chief to execute its single purpose.
David Graham Phillips
Premium for money exchangeAGIO
PlacatingAPPEASING
Trickster of Navajo mythCOYOTE
Voice an objectionDISSENT
“There are liars and swearers ____ to beat the honest men”ENOW
Leaves, stage left perhaps?EXITS
Prepared a cakeICED
To ascribe (something unpleasant)IMPUTE
Slender (arch.)LEANY
Vanish magically, perhaps?POOF
Wobble around a secondary axisPRECESS
Observe againRESEE
Some trigonometric functionsSINES
Ropes to secure a boat to a dock, from behind (2 wds)STERNFASTS
Japanese straw with shellacked rice paper, for a hatTOYO
Done with full knowledgeWITTING
Discarded letters fromdropquote 1dropquote 2dropquote 3dropquote 4dropquote 5dropquote 6
                         
HAHED
AECCHAEEIACABIEAHDD
EEEEINDIEMEDCANOHBCIENC
ELHIRNFILLRLSEASLRIEEOIPE
LTIMTSOLTPSOTHCTSTRPROMTG
NWVNUUTMTRUTYISUTTSVTTNUL
AMINDTRULYCULTIVATED
NEVERFEELSTHATTHEINTE
LLECTUALPROCESSISCOMPL
ETEUNTILITCANREPRODUC
EINSOMEMEDIATHETHING
WHICHITHASABSORBED.
                         
SUBMITTHISCITATIONSAUTHOR
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A mind truly cultivated never feels that the intellectual process is complete until it can reproduce in some media the thing which it has absorbed.
Ida Tarbell