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Three - Troublesome Toshes

This puzzle is part of the "Piece de Resistance" series. Go back to Part 1 (Ace) for the story.
Ace Two Three Four Five ...

For the third time you removed the surface, and you saw three lines you couldn't make any sense of:

$\text{Sad Wally, ugliest Alcatraz impala, mimeo abhorrer, lava continuo, kneels.}$
$\text{Mean nerd met imperiled underservant; cuckoo kisses Ina Nagle.}$
$\text{Met nerd, men worry cello neoclassicism negate Icaria tox lava.}$

Gentle Reminder - May or May Not be Useful

All letters are useful, but some letters are more useful than others.

Hint

usefulness level 1

The number of useful letters within each word is the same.

usefulness level 2

The number in Hint 1 is 2.

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    $\begingroup$ Could we get a hint? $\endgroup$
    – AHKieran
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 14:24

2 Answers 2

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If you take the first and last letters of each word, you get the abbreviation for a US state. Then for each of the three lines, the states listed spell out a letter if you look at them on a map.

Sad Wally, ugliest Alcatraz impala, mimeo abhorrer, lava continuo, kneels.

South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Kansas

spells out "A"
enter image description here

Mean nerd met imperiled underservant; cuckoo kisses Ina Nagle.

Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska

spells out "G"
enter image description here

Met nerd, men worry cello neoclassicism negate Icaria tox lava.

Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Iowa, Texas, Louisiana

spells out "E"
enter image description here

So the answer is:

AGE

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  • $\begingroup$ Kudos for figuring out the puzzle, rot13(V fgvyy qba'g haqrefgnaq ubj gubfr fgngrf fcryy bhg gur yrggref 'N', 'T' naq 'R'). $\endgroup$
    – Abbas
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 17:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Abbas I figured out how to embed images, so I added pictures to illustrate how the letters were formed. $\endgroup$
    – JS1
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 21:41
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot, I got it from your previous comment, but the images are appreciated. :-) $\endgroup$
    – Abbas
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 21:44
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Considering the nonsense wording...

I tried to pick out some letters that seem useful. The capitalised letters for each line are:
SWA
MIN
MI
Putting these together gets SWAM IN MI. Now MI is the abbreviation for Michigan.
Michigan is known for Lake Michigan.

Therefore I think the answer is:

Jim Dreyer who swam across Lake Michigan in 1998

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  • $\begingroup$ nope... not like that... there is something called a LIMIT to which I can give you a hint... $\endgroup$
    – Omega Krypton
    Commented Aug 9, 2019 at 14:58

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