Today, I was just messing around, you know, killing time, and I got this sudden urge to tackle a crossword puzzle. Not just any crossword, though. I wanted to find out what Florida’s third most populous city is. It’s one of those random facts I like to know. So, I started with a simple search.
I typed in “Florida’s third most populous city crossword” into the search bar. I found a few results that were pretty much saying the same thing. Some said they found 40 possible answers, others said 30. They all pointed me towards a specific crossword, like the “NYT Mini Crossword March 2” or the “Universal puzzle on April 22.” It felt like a wild goose chase at first.
I started to look into the clues a bit more. Reading through, I saw that most of the clues were like, “Third most populous city in Florida.” One even broke down other definitions for the same answer, like “City in Florida,” “Floridian resort,” “stateside destination,” and “US city.” It got me thinking, the answer could be any city in Florida, but the context here was clearly about its population rank.
- First Attempt: I tried a few different search terms, hoping to narrow it down. I used phrases like “Florida city population rank” and “third largest city in Florida.”
- Second Attempt: I looked at a couple of crossword solver sites. They were helpful, but I wanted to find the answer on my own, without directly using a solver.
- Third Attempt: I went back to the original search results and started piecing together information from different sources.
After digging around, I finally found a clear answer. It turns out that after Jacksonville and Miami, the third most populous city in Florida is Tampa. That makes sense. I’ve heard of Tampa, and I know it’s pretty big. In fact, I found out that Tampa has an estimated population of 403,364 in 2023 and it’s the 49th most populous city in the whole country.
It was a fun little journey, figuring out this piece of trivia. Sometimes, the simplest questions lead you down an interesting path. I guess the big takeaway here is that persistence pays off. Even when you’re just trying to solve a crossword clue, you end up learning something new.
Well, that’s it for today’s little adventure. I might do this again sometime. It’s a nice way to keep the mind sharp and learn a few things along the way.
