NYT Spelling Bee

[ciao_yall]

LB - Yesterday I had "crowned-damnify." I didn't know that was a word, but I kept seeing "indemnify" and thought "oh heck I'll just try it."

Then I woke up at 3 AM to the new puzzle and found another 2fer pretty quickly. Not as weird as "damnify." I'll keep it.

SB - stuck at amazing yesterday, then looked at the solution today and there were a few words I could have sworn I got. Well, if there was a computer error I'm sure the crowd on the NYT puzzle thread would raise holy heck so it might be ones I thought I got yesterday but didn't realize were on the list.

Today, found a rather strange panagram and am still stuck at great.

[ab_grp]

Interesting about the strange pangram today, ciao_yall.  I found one that is pretty normal, so it sounds as if there are at least two, which makes sense given the number of points.  Congrats on the 2-fers!

[Langue_doc]

Had to chip in! Two pangrams today, one run-of-the-mill word, the other related to other words we all know. The words aren't too difficult, mostly good old English words; it helped to come back after breaks. Think variations on numbers. Made it past genius though. Haven't looked at LB.

Now back to my vacation mode. Happy solving, all!

[cathwen]

LB - Yesterday I had "crowned-damnify." I didn't know that was a word, but I kept seeing "indemnify" and thought "oh heck I'll just try it."

Then I woke up at 3 AM to the new puzzle and found another 2fer pretty quickly. Not as weird as "damnify." I'll keep it.

SB - stuck at amazing yesterday, then looked at the solution today and there were a few words I could have sworn I got. Well, if there was a computer error I'm sure the crowd on the NYT puzzle thread would raise holy heck so it might be ones I thought I got yesterday but didn't realize were on the list.

Today, found a rather strange panagram and am still stuck at great.

I had damnify also for yesterday's LB (with crowded).  Like you, I thought it was weird and was stunned when LB accepted it.  I haven't solved today's LB yet, and I'm stuck at Amazing in SB.  Lange_doc, thanks for the pangram hint.  I'll keep trying! I do have one of them, but the other is still hiding from me.

[ab_grp]

Yes, thanks for the hints, Langue_doc! I finally got to genius, and after comparing and trying a little longer to get a few more words, we were still about 19 points from QB.  Two of the remaining words were ones I have found before, so I was a little mad at myself about missing them this time.  The final word was so close to so many I tried! Oh well.  Good luck on it. 

The LB solution from yesterday was definitely not in my list or close to it, even though I had 20+ reasonable contenders (I thought).  Maybe today's will be more forgiving.

At least I was able to finish off yesterday's hard sudoku and can now start on today's LB and sudokus. 

[ciao_yall]

Yesterday

SB - hit "genius" after some help from my friends at the NYT Crossword Puzzle comments. Wow... QB must be elusive. Checking yesterday's official answers I only missed one obvious one (entitle) one mediumly odd one (thine) and ???? (tilth. What the ??? is a tilth?)

LB - didn't get the official answers, but got two 2fers "chunkier-remotes" and "munchies-stoker." Both pretty quickly.

Happy new year everyone, and happy solving!

ETA - almost got a 2fer in LB except for the same side thing. Grrr...

[ab_grp]

Happy New Year!

I didn't manage to solve yesterday's hard sudoku so still have that up to try again at.  Didn't look at the LB answers, but I only came up with a few contenders that didn't seem to lead anywhere.  Lots of others would have worked if only the same-side rule didn't apply.  I would have gotten away with it if not for the meddling rules!

But I did get to QB by myself today, so hooray.  It's a short puzzle, thankfully.    Yesterday I managed to miss loonie and toonie, which I usually find.  And eolith... I tried eolite and thought I had tried eolith.  Wasn't sure, but it sounded like something.

[Parasaurolophus]

Didn't make it past Amazing yesterday. Too many words!

Made it to Genius pretty easily today, however, and I'll continue hunting for the QB.

[ab_grp]

Hope you had a successful hunt, Parasaurolophus!

I got yesterday's hard sudoku and today's easy and medium sudoku done but am still struggling with today's hard sudoku and LB.  I have some contenders, but no luck yet.   

[ciao_yall]

ab_grp, same here. Lots of 3fers and good candidate words, but just not coming together.

SB - hit genius.

[ab_grp]

Yeah for genius!  I had basilisk, blackjacks, absurd... will have to see what the solution was after I (hopefully) finish yesterday's hard sudoku.

Another loooong bee today.  I am at genius (just exactly), but still no pangram.  Husband is close to genius and also has not yet found a pangram.  Time to get on the other puzzles and get back to it later.

[ciao_yall]

I found blackjack, but not disturb which was part of the official solution. Maybe because blackjack was such a weird word, I didn't try as hard as I could have to find a word that ended with b?

Also had some great combinations with odd letters left: adjust-tailback (no r) and jurist-tailback (no d)

Early on I found jailbirds-stuck which would have been a great 2-fer but for the same side thing.

Onward to today's - looks tricky.

[ab_grp]

I had blackjack but figured I couldn't find a word that started with k or ended with b, so I figured blackjacks was more likely.  Oops... I should have tried harder on that, too.  Only one contender so far today, and likely not to work given all the odd remaining letters. 

[ciao_yall]

I have found a few words in today's letterboxed which eat up a lot of letters but don't set up a 2fer. An "e" would really help...

[ciao_yall]

Found a 2fer!

Still stuck on "great" for SB.