NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

Not too difficult QB.

ab_grp, that's a lovely view you have from your own yard. Do put that telescope to good use.

I ended up watching the reading of the names all the way to the end. It's great that there were no commercial interruptions, but only the ritualistic focus on the deceased. I remember people flocking to churches the weeks after the attacks. That Sunday, we went over an hour early for a memorial service at St Patrick's to find a line already. Unlike most lines this was about 10-13 people across on the sidewalk. We started on Fifth Ave, then went up and east on 51st (I think that's the street) then down Madison, and west on 50th, until when almost at the entrance heard that there were no more seats inside. By then the line was probably 15 people across. One of the women nearby mentioned that although she was Catholic, she had attended services at three different Protestant churches that morning. Another woman mentioned how she had grown up watching the towers being built as her grandfather would take the kids to the Brooklyn shorefront so that they could see the construction coming along. People were sharing their memories. We could follow the service as there were speakers outside. At the end of the service Cardinal Egan came outside and said that he had just been informed about the throngs outside so he said prayers and blessings to the crowd. When he came out, the men around me pushed me to the front as I'm not very tall so that I could see the cardinal. We saw Guiliani and Pataki come out (if only the former had retired after his term that year and kept his mouth shut). Things were very tense because we didn't know if there were other attacks planned, then there was the anthrax scare (I remember feeling scared for the police officers at the ends of the subway platforms as the tunnels would be used to release the anthrax, and then the announcement of the Iraq invasion. People in the subways and the streets would look shell shocked. I don't think anyone in the city wanted the Iraq invasion--I still remember the stunned faces of the riders.

Central Park sightings coming up tomorrow. I'm also signed up for a bird walk next week--another of those crack-of-dawn trips.

[cathwen]

Good morning!

I got to QB yesterday, but only after a hint for oolong.  Today I am at Beta with the pangram and running out of steam.  I have remembered a weird (to me) word from a previous SB that was new to me, so I am at least kind of proud of that!

LB:  I had the schmofficial axiomatic-curfew.  I have a 2fer today, too.

Ab_grp, your description of the stars made me long for wide open spaces.  How beautiful!  We seem to have a lot of nighttime cloud cover in southern New England—I can't count how many astronomical events I've not been able to see because of it.  And then there are the trees!  I can never see anything on the horizon.  I did see the blood moon a couple of years ago on a rare, clear night.

Langue_doc, that is a very moving description of the memorial service.  I can only begin to imagine what it must have been like to have been living in New York at the time. 

I was Upstate at the time, teaching at a state university with a high number of students from New York City area.  I remember the panic, the tears, the memorial service on the quad.  On Sunday, my husband and I went to church.  The bishop was there; he spoke of his shame at having flinched when he stopped for coffee and the man behind the counter was wearing a crocheted cap of the kind that Muslim men often wear.  He urged us all to overcome any such feelings.  What an awful time.

On a more cheerful note, I am looking forward to hearing about the Central Park sightings! 

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

Sounds like a beautiful service. I can still barely look at pictures or read articles about that time.

QB - login was the final word.

LB - axiomatic-curfew Found axiomatic fairly quickly but kept thinking perfume with the related letters. Saw a hint that the second word was c-w and it came to mind immediately.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

QB--yesteday's words were familiar ones including oolong which I've seen before, and which I should know because of my tea-drinking habits.

Genius today, with the pangram which was my first word.

axiomatic/curfew--found the former early on and also other -c ending words. I had forumite/exact with the w left dangling.

On another note, I emailed NYT asking if they would consider including stats for LB and SB the way they do for the crosswords. I was informed that my email was sent to the games department.

When I'm short on time and want to see birds in Central Park, I stand or walk by the pond parallel to 59th St (6th Ave entrance where I usually see all kinds of birds on both sides of the pond as Hallett Nature Sanctuary https://www.centralparknyc.org/locations/hallett-nature-sanctuary is on the other side of the pond. This time though I was surprised to see that a couple of large trees that were on the other side had been uprooted by Ida and were now lying on the pond, one of them halfway across. Sitting inside the branches of this tree was a heron. He didn't look like the rat-eating one that was recently in the news as he was the wrong shape and color, so he must have been the night crowned heron or a youn'un. There were a couple more on the shore to the left of one of the fallen trees. Both kept changing positions looking for fish or other treats in the water. There was a red-tailed hawk circling overhead for quite some time. On my way back I came upon several species of birds feasting on hawthorne berries--the birds were on the tree and also on the ground. Just a month ago I was in the same spot by the pond, so the downed trees were a surprise.

There's a pesky letter amiss in the crossword, so I'll have to go over the puzzle again.

Happy solving, all!

[ab_grp]

Good morning/afternoon!

Got to QBABM with GN4L.  Husband just made it to QB with help with the first letter of his final word.  Good luck! Lots of old "favorites" in there.  Oolong was my final word yesterday, too, the one I needed a hint for! Not sure why that one eludes me.  I guess the unusual spelling has something to do with it.

I had zero luck on LB yesterday and salute all you victors.  And congrats on your 2fer today, cathwen!

Langue_doc, that sounds like an amazing thing to be a part of, and it's hard to imagine being in NYC at the time.  It's nice to hear that the taller folk made sure that you could be up front to see the Cardinal.  St. Patrick's is pretty awe-inspiring in its own right! And it certainly must have been a surprise to see the downed trees in the park.  But neat that you got to see the heron nestled in the branches! Plus the other herons, a hawk, lots of birds out looking for goodies! Good luck finding your crossword problem! And that is a great idea, to have stats for the other puzzles.  Thanks for trying to get that implemented!

Cathwen, I had lived most of my life in an area that had a sky that never seemed to be clear for major sky events and also had the treeline obstacle, so being out here is so incredible.  We are lucky to be situated up higher than the city, so we can see pretty well to the mountains and beyond.  I don't think I have ever had any success seeing a blood moon, so I envy you that! Two or so years ago, there was a whole big deal happening early in the morning, something like 3 AM.  Of course I couldn't stay awake for that.  But then I woke up at 3, totally forgot about it, and laid there trying to fall back asleep for a good while! I felt pretty annoyed at myself in the morning.  That would have been serendipitous!

Happy solving!

[Parasaurolophus]

Struggled with the last ten points to genius, but got there in the end.

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

QB - in order of least to most embarassing words for which I needed Forum hints: haboob, adobo, abandon. Bee special; I kept seeing adobe but forgot about adobo; and... Gah.

LB - aftermath-highboy. Came together pretty quickly. And the schmofficial solution, too. Well.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good morning!

QB yesterday with kabob being my last word.  Embarrassingly, book was next to the last!  But I am proud of myself for having remembered haboob from a recent puzzle.

I got to QB on today's puzzle, again with an embarrassingly simple word as the last one.  Also, GN4L! 

LB:  I also had aftermath-highboy.  I wonder if there were other solutions?  I found a 2fer today as well.

Happy puzzling!

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

I still have 3 words to QB today, one of which is a 4-letter.  :-( Did get GN4L but not Alpha yet.  Husband did make it to Alpha already.  I think hobnob was my final word yesterday.  Congrats on your QBABY and GN4L, cathwen! And glad you made it, Parasaurolophus!

No luck on LB, so congrats on the official solution! I don't think I would have found it.  Congrats on getting a 2fer already today, cathwen! You are on a roll today.

Happy solving!

[Langue_doc]

Afternoon!

Got to above genius with the pangram before leaving for my bird trip this morning.

The trip was in the northern end of Central Park where we saw a spotted sandpiper (I didn't think I'd see sandpipers in Central Park) several black-and-white warblers https://ebird.org/species/bawwar (I'd never seen one before), a red-tailed hawk sitting on a tree near us, another one of the other side of the marshy stream, hopping on the ground, red-eyed vireos, a couple of woodpeckers, and the usual Central Park birds.

We ran into other birders who would tell us about the birds they saw and the locations. It was one of these birders who told us about the hawk and had us bend down so that we could see it.

There's a nip in the air today, and the leaves were falling, so fall is definitely in.

[ab_grp]

I realized I was actually past Alpha, so we compared and then looked to Shunn for the final two words.  At least we had team QB!

Was this your early morning trip, Langue_doc? Sounds very productive! That warbler is so cute.  And it's great that you ran into others who shared some spotting tips! Do you know when to expect the changing of the leaves this year?

[Langue_doc]

Yup, this is that trip, ab_grp. I've signed up for more trips later this month--an upcoming one opened up for registration at 9 this morning, so there I was, in the middle of birding, exactly at 9, signing up for this one. It's on Fire Island, a place that you can get to only by ferry, so I hope I'm on the list and not waitlisted. I'm probably signed up for another birding trip on that date through a different organization, so once I know I've made the list for the Fire Island trip, I'll cancel the other one. These trips usually have a long waiting list, so someone will happily take my spot.

This was my first birding trip post cataract, and I could actually see the birds including the tiny black-and-white warblers.

As for the leaves turning, that doesn't happen until October here. I might see the colors on one or more of my birding trips and also on the drives to and from the trips. This reminds me that I should plan a trip to Storm King and also to the Botanic gardens. I was chatting with someone in Vermont last month who told me that some of the leaves had started turning already. The main road to their house is the one that goes to the Green Mountains, which you can see when you are driving to their place. I remember driving there once during Fall, with the Adirondacks stretching on one side of the road, and the Green Mountains on the other side, and then driving to New Hampshire from there.

Congrats to you and cathwen for getting to QB. I just looked at the LB solution, and am relieved that I didn't spend much time on the puzzle yesterday as I don't think I would have found those words.

[ab_grp]

That's so wonderful, Langue_doc, that you could see the birds so well! I didn't realize it was your first post-cataract bird outing.  Extra special! And I hope you get your Fire Island trip.

It seems as though the leaf color change timing can vary a bit... depending on how much rain there has been, temperature? I can't recall.  I used to go to a regional conference in non-NYC New York in the third or so week of October each year (maybe I mentioned that... Hudson Valley), and we were usually lucky to catch the colors during that time.  As much as I love the night sky here, I do miss the seasons and the changing leaves quite a lot.  Sounds like your friend in Vermont lives in a very scenic area.

And thanks about the QB! I also got a 2fer, which I haven't for several days, so yay on that.  I agree, yesterday's LB was pretty tough.  Today's seems a lot easier to me.  There might be other solutions in there, too.  I might look again later but am going to try to get back to my bee scraping program.

[Langue_doc]

QB and two two-fers. Woohoo!

[OneMoreYear]

Also checking in with a 2-fer.
Wow, Langue_doc, two of them! I was wondering with the letter combination if there would be multiple2-fers but I think I'm one and done for tonight.
Happy solving to those who are still puzzling.