NYT Spelling Bee

[ab_grp]

Congrats on your QB, cathwen!

I finally got a 2fer today, but I doubt I will find any more.  I guess I used up that luck yesterday! But it was good practice.

[Parasaurolophus]

Found a fourth pangram and got to genius. That's it for me fr today, I'm afraid.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Genius with a pangram today. Easy words so far. QB yesterday.

Crosswords and sudokus are done, and also vertex.

Happy solving, all!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

SB - new words: longbow, blin. The rest I should have gotten, including ogling which I got when I woke up in the middle of the night, but alas, the Bee had switched to the new one.

I have a question - what are your strategies when you start to peter out to find new words? Mine include:

• Reading the words I have backwards to see if I can knock out a new pattern or be reminded.
• Mentally going through the alphabet to add missing letters, again to knock out a new pattern or be reminded.

LB - hubs-skyjacking which was the official solution. Okay.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good morning, and congratulations on the various successes yesterday!

My LB was also the same as the "official" solution—hubs-skyjacking.  I have not yet found a 2fer today, though!

I'm at Alpha on today's SB, so we'll see what happens.  Three days of QB in a row is a little too much to hope for.  Most of the words so far are easy ones, but those last words are sometimes fairly obscure (at least, to me). 

Ciao_yall, when I hit a roadblock, I just play with the letters, typing in all kinds of combinations (which is how I got blin yesterday).  I don't really have a coherent strategy.  Looking at words backwards is something I haven't tried.

Well, back to LB to see if I can find a 2fer!

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

Quick genius, but 2fer looks like it may be tricky. Of course I'll probably find it as soon as I click off.

Another question - what is everyone's academic discipline? Are you all in English or Linguistics or something? Because you all have a knack for this!

Mine is business. So I'm quite happy with genius but now my competitive streak is awakened with the discovery of QB.

[Parasaurolophus]

Quick genius with pangram here, too. I think the QB potential is high, but we'll see.

Quick genius, but 2fer looks like it may be tricky. Of course I'll probably find it as soon as I click off.

Another question - what is everyone's academic discipline? Are you all in English or Linguistics or something? Because you all have a knack for this!

Mine is business. So I'm quite happy with genius but now my competitive streak is awakened with the discovery of QB.

Philosophy, but I'm behind the curve when it comes to the other solvers here! I stand in awe of you all.

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Just got to QB not too long ago.  Any difficult-ish words have been in recent puzzles, I think.  Congrats on your QB yesterday, Langue_doc!

I got the schmofficial solution for LB yesterday as well. 

Ciao_yall, my background is math and stats, but I have been doing crosswords and cryptograms/cryptoquips since I was a wee kid (dad got me into them).  I think that helps.  As for approaches, I look back at my list to see if there are endings I can add or remove (though, ironically, today my final word was one I thought I had but didn't and luckily just tried it).  Then I type in words (usually compounds) that amuse me.  Then I try spelling normal words with the letters that are available (something like "pagoba" instead of pagoda) or see if maybe there is a variant.  Then the any letters that work together (can be collocated) approach, which sometimes actually works.  I often sound words out in my head, too, while doing other things... just play around with the letters, and sometimes that brings a word to mind.  I don't know... every puzzle is different.  I try to remember the harder or more obscure words that I miss and try not to miss them again, though that does not always work.  Who knows! I am interested to hear strategies, though!

Happy solving!

[Parasaurolophus]

Those are my strategies as well, although I always feel a bit embarrassed when I'm deliberately misspelling something or substituting available letters. =p

[ab_grp]

Yeah, I get that and feel it too, but sometimes it works! I guess sometimes I am more embarrassed to enter some of the amusing compounds I come up with, especially knowing they can see some data (hopefully not that!).  If they ever find a way to remotely delete one's app, I am guessing I might be on that list.  Ha! I feel that it demonstrates creativity.

I forgot to mention that I got ships yesterday with jacking-bushy, but I think that's the closest I got until the schmofficial solution.  A couple contenders today, but the b4ss stuff is arggghh.

[ciao_yall]

Okay, just got a 3fer. Yeah the b4ss stuff is making me batty as well.

[cathwen]

After much frustration, I took a break and then went back to the puzzles.  QB!  2fer!  Now what am I going to do for the rest of the afternoon?  (I guess I really do have to clean the bathroom.)

My last word for SB was what I was sure was a misspelling, but I tried it just to see.  And voilà!

Congrats, Langue_doc and ab_grp, on your QBs! 

Ciao_yall asked what our disciplines are.  I am in linguistics, specifically French.  I've studied a bunch of other languages, but although I read Spanish and Italian passably well, I really don't speak them well at all.  I had just enough Latin to be able to do Romance linguistics.  I know a very little bit of German, Romanian, and Welsh as well.  ("cathwen" means "white cat" in Welsh.  White animals were thought to have magical powers in medieval Celtic legends. And I love cats.). 

[Parasaurolophus]

("cathwen" means "white cat" in Welsh.  White animals were thought to have magical powers in medieval Celtic legends. And I love cats.).

Oh, that's lovely!

[ab_grp]

("cathwen" means "white cat" in Welsh.  White animals were thought to have magical powers in medieval Celtic legends. And I love cats.).

Oh, that's lovely!

+1, and I love cats, too.  Congrats on your QB and 2fer, white cat! Now I can say I speak Welsh.  Ta-da! ;-)

[ciao_yall]

After much frustration, I took a break and then went back to the puzzles.  QB!  2fer!  Now what am I going to do for the rest of the afternoon?  (I guess I really do have to clean the bathroom.)

My last word for SB was what I was sure was a misspelling, but I tried it just to see.  And voilà!

Congrats, Langue_doc and ab_grp, on your QBs! 

Ciao_yall asked what our disciplines are.  I am in linguistics, specifically French.  I've studied a bunch of other languages, but although I read Spanish and Italian passably well, I really don't speak them well at all.  I had just enough Latin to be able to do Romance linguistics.  I know a very little bit of German, Romanian, and Welsh as well.  ("cathwen" means "white cat" in Welsh.  White animals were thought to have magical powers in medieval Celtic legends. And I love cats.).

No wonder you get the 2fers so fast! I was surprised the first time you did LB and got a 2fer on the first try! I had a mild case of LB-envy.

Still stuck on variations of the same 3fer.