NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

QB! Thanks to cathwen's info about the three pangrams, I quickly found the two familiar ones, and then QB a few words later. I've been thinking of banana bread for some weeks now (cathwen, sending you pecans) but find myself with no time when I have ripe bananas or with no bananas when I have the time as is the case this weekend. I stay away from grocery stores on weekends because of the parking and jostling problems.

I think I had the same last word as ab_grp yesterday.

[Parasaurolophus]

Quick genius with the three pangrams, but I'm not much further than that.

[ab_grp]

Congrats, Langue_doc and Parasaurolophus!

And I finally managed to get a 2fer!

I have been thinking about banana bread all day now.  I used to be able to eat about a loaf of it at a time, but now I have found out that it can cause heartburn, which causes heartbreak for me.  Something about the fats? And sometimes the bananas.  I wonder if pumpkin bread would work out better.  Something to look into, and a good time of year for it!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

SB - Genius with no pangrams yesterday, so finally hit the grid and all 3 pangrams hit pretty quickly, starting with headpin which I didn't know was a word.

LB - blatherskite? What the heckityheck is a blatherskite? I did manage a 2fer b4ss jailbreaks-shot and lots of 3fers.

Anyway, grading and other stuff on this rainy day - we needed it!

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good afternoon!

I agree, ciao_yall—what the heck is blatherskite, I wondered?  Apparently, it's "a person who talks at great length without making much sense." (Oxford Languages).  Perhaps I shall incorporate it into my vocabulary. 

My 2fer yesterday was joker-rehabilitates, which at least are common words in modern English.  I just found a 2fer today, but it did not come easily.

SB:  I got to QB yesterday, but with some letter hints.  My last word was peahen, a word I usually find!  Today I am at QB-1, with a 7L word left to be found.  I'm hoping for QBABM today, but who knows.  I do tend to get impatient.

Ab_grp, I did make the banana bread yesterday, needing help only to reach the brown sugar and put some things in the bottom rack of the dishwasher.  It's the King Arthur Baking recipe and is more like a spice bread—I love it.  Unfortunately, my husband does not.  Or fortunately?  It's all for me!  I'll bake something he likes soon to reward him for all he's doing for me, but I had to use up those brown bananas. 

Happy puzzling!

[ab_grp]

Good morning/afternoon!

I think I have two words left to QB, so I am also hoping to get to QBABM! Good luck, cathwen! We have different words left based on length.  But you and I have a team QB! Yesterday my final ones were adenine, deadhead, deadheaded.  It took me a while to get the pangrams.  Two came at the same time, but that headpin... ugh.

Yes, what in the world, LB? What a weird schmofficial solution.  Mine was similar to cathwen's but not as elegant: jokester-rehabilitate.  Congrats on already getting one today, cathwen!

Cathwen, yes it could be good or bad that your husband does not care for this banana bread.  I'm sure it is delicious! And dangerous for one person.  But I hope you enjoy it! Last time we had brown bananas, we decided to make banana pancakes, and they were pretty good, though it's a pain to actually cook pancakes to order when you also want to eat them nice and hot.  There must be a solution to this dilemma other than hiring a personal cook.

Happy solving!

[Parasaurolophus]

...daphne? No.

[ab_grp]

...daphne? No.

I was glad to remember that one since I missed it last time it was in there, but I finally looked it up now.  It's a shrub, naturally.  Birds and shrubs are not in my wheelhouse, apparently.

Down to one word for QB! I am feeling pretty stumped at the moment.

[Langue_doc]

Afternoon!

Last word yesterday was dead--how I missed this word until the very end is still a mystery to me. I found the other words without much difficulty--daphne and ennead because I'd seen them before, and headpin by putting together words at random.

I found jokers, but could only find a mate that was missing a single letter. As for the NYT solution, WTF?! This is what happens when people decide to "hand-curate" words instead of using standard dictionaries or databases.

Today I made it to genius with a pangram before leaving for a tree identification outing. It was a small group with a very knowledgeable dendrologist. A couple of the participants had their binoculars with them and were getting distracted by the abundance of birds in the trees around us. One of them offered me his binoculars (needless to say I was distracted too), but I declined. We saw assorted warblers, several sparrow species, a couple of ruby-crowned kinglets, several blue jays, and a cardinal.

cathwen, glad to hear that you are up and about, albeit with support. As for the warblers, you can identify palm warblers because of their tail pumping, and the yellow-rumped warbler because of their color. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-rumped_Warbler/id

ab-grp, it's a shame that banana bread causes heartburn--have you tried it without nuts?

[ab_grp]

Hi Langue_doc! It is so frustrating to miss an easy word or think you entered it already.  I did that today with my final word, which I figured out and tried again with Shunn's help.  I'm so glad you enjoyed your outing, although I'm sure trying to focus on trees with a bunch of cool birds hanging around isn't easy.  It's great that you got to see some of each.  As for the banana bread, I don't tend to make it with nuts (though I do like it that way as well), but I think my favorite recipe might not be so good for me.  Maybe a different one will work out.  Banana bread is so yummy! I even have trouble with the banana on cereal we have most mornings, though I'm not sure if it's the banana, cereal, or milk, or a combo.  Getting older is so much fun!

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Pangram and genius so far. Yesterday I had to stop at around 200 points as I had phone calls and other distractions.

vestings/shacky--didn't think that the latter was a real word, but it was accepted, so I've no complaints.

ab_grp, as for banana bread, I use the Silver Palate cookbook recipe.

Happy solving, all!

[cathwen]

Good morning!

Genius and pangram so far.  I have some actual work to do today, so I may not get too much beyond genius.

Yesterday, I got QBAABM (=almost all by myself)—I had to consult my list of missed Bee words and found the 7L word I was missing—acyclic. 

My LB solution yesterday was the same as the "official" one, inveigh-haystack.  I have a 2fer today. 

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

SB - Settling for quick GWP these days.

LB - kachings-seventy which I didn't think would take. Prefer my 2fer b4ss solutions kvetching-gays, kvetching-gassy.

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Good morning!

Pangram and genius so far. Yesterday I had to stop at around 200 points as I had phone calls and other distractions.

vestings/shacky--didn't think that the latter was a real word, but it was accepted, so I've no complaints.

ab_grp, as for banana bread, I use the Silver Palate cookbook recipe.

Happy solving, all!

One of my 3fers involved the word hacky. So, when in doubt, add a y.

[ab_grp]

Good morning/afternoon!

I have one more word to QB, but husband got there already, so hopefully I will too.  I think my final word was laical, which I thought I had entered already.

Congrats on the 2fers yesterday! I thought that was a tough one.  Sadly, I had haystack(s) a couple puzzles ago, though I don't think inveigh would have come to mind.   I'm glad they accepted your alternative solution, Langue_doc! And congrats on getting another one today, cathwen!

Langue_doc, thanks for the banana bread tip.  I will take a look at the recipe.  I have used Alton Brown's and also one from Allrecipes that was really good.  I like extra banana in it, which may be an issue.

Happy solving!