NYT Spelling Bee

[Parasaurolophus]

Well into beta today, but struggled mightily with the pangram.

[ab_grp]

Good luck, Parasaurolophus! The pangram was a little tough because they are very inconsistent about this kind of thing, though I think we have had it before.  Took me a while too, though.  Sending you bee juju!

[Parasaurolophus]

Thanks! I meant that I found it, but after a mighty struggle.

[ciao_yall]

QB with a little help from Wordplay definitions for a few odd words I probably would have found on my own. Oh well.

LB - 3fers coming out of my ears. Finally went to the solver site and the solutions were a bit odd. So now I don't feel so bad about not finding a 2fer on my own - curious what everyone else came up with!

[cathwen]

Good morning!

Congratulations on all the successes yesterday (QBs, Betas, 2fers)!

I am at QB-1 today, and even with help, I am having trouble finding that last word.  It"s probably either something very obscure, or something very ordinary that I just don't see.  I will persist!

By the way, did everyone find the new Spelling Bee column?  I can't remember what path I took to get there, but finding wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Here is the link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/crosswords/spelling-bee-2021-07-26.html

As for LB:  I warned you that my second word was strange:   charmers-spokewise.  I don't know what even prompted me to try it—desperation, probably.  I saw spoke, then saw wise, and thought:  what the heck, let's put them together and see what happens.    Ciao_yall, if the solver site was giving odd answers, you certainly should not feel perturbed about not finding a 2fer. 

Today's LB 2fer is much more normal, although it took me a good while to find it.

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

Hi all!

QB - last few words from Wordplay were meow, melee which I probably could have gotten on my own had I stared long enough.

LB - whacks-semipro I gotta keep more words in mind. I had 3fers coming out of my ears yesterday including whacks-sip-promise, whiskers-scrap-pome, mocks-sharpie-ewers, whimper-rocks-sea, mow-whispers-shack...

Slow-ish start this morning but progressing.

Happy solving!

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

I have 4 words to go today and am just shy of Alpha.  We haven't compared letters yet but probably will be.  Wow, cathwen! You are almost there! I hope the word pops out at you.  Good luck! And congrats on your QB yesterday, ciao_yall! I think our final word was melee for whatever reason. 

No LB solution for me yesterday.  I was trying a little this morning and got to semi- but was trying that as part of a mate.  Maybe I should have tried a little with that as the first word.  Oh well.  I don't think I would have gotten the schmofficial solution.  Had a lot of good contenders, though! Congrats on your different solution, cathwen! Definitely try and see if they'll take it.  I am sometimes very surprised at what they will accept, even if it doesn't lead to a solution in most cases for me.  And congrats on already getting one today!

Parasaurolophus, sorry for not writing very well! I figured you had found it but was just grousing about it taking me a while because they don't seem to accept -women for most things when they accept -men.  I hope you had further luck!

Cathwen, thanks for sharing the column! I forgot I had seen mention of it a few days and never got around to looking for it or following up.  I will take a look after we get as far as we can get just in case it has some spoilers. 

Happy solving!

[ab_grp]

We each got to Alpha, compared letters, went to Shunn, and are both stuck on the same final word.  It is a long one.  Yeek.

[Langue_doc]

Afternoon!

Pangram and genius before leaving for the follow-up eye appointment early this morning.

whimpers/peacock; surprised that the latter was accepted.

Eye doc was happy with my eyes, but the trip was so exhausting (combination of subway and heat) that I had to come home and nap even before thinking of breakfast.

[onthefringe]

Yesterday clearly spawned some interesting 2fers. Mine was whackos- simper. I loveto see what other people tried! Lots of 3fers but no 2fer yet today.

Glad the eye is going well Langue_doc!

[cathwen]

QB!  But it was a QBWATHICG.  (=with all the help I could get).

Ab_grp, good luck finding that last word! 

Great variety of LB solutions! 

[ab_grp]

Cathwen, congrats on your QB!!! Although I had heard of my final word, I think it was really tough.  Unfortunately, there was no help that seemed to be getting us anywhere.  Husband was headed off to work but decided to run his bee program (we haven't done that in a while!) and found it. 

So it looks as though the bee forum gives a lot of the stuff that Shunn offers (but not all)? For those still working on the puzzle who might be avoiding taking a peek, it lists # words, # points, # pangrams, crosstab by first letter and length, frequencies of combos of first two letters.  So it does not tell you # compound words, or their first letters or lengths.  There does not appear to be any sort of discussion of the puzzle (perhaps in the comments, though it didn't look to be so today) or spoilers.  Not sure if they are planning any changes as it gets its feet under it.  Might be more convenient than Shunn, especially if they can get a link to it from the bee part of the app like they have for the crossword.

Congrats on your 2fers yesterday, Langue_doc and onthefringe!

And very glad to hear about the good report on your eye at the one-week follow-up, Langue_doc! Hope the nap helped and that you're feeling better and recovered.

[ab_grp]

I was looking at the glossary that accompanies the new bee forum, and there are some interesting ones to try for, like genius without any four-letter words (GN4L), or exactly genius with no four-letter words (GN4L OTN).  I guess you could also go for GOTN, just genius "on the nose".  Kind of like some darts game I can't remember. 300? The one you count down? Who knows.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/crosswords/spelling-bee-forum-introduction.html

[ciao_yall]

Schlepped to QB today, but saw a spoiler for LB so boo.

[ab_grp]

Yay on QB, ciao_yall! Sorry to hear about the spoiler.

I did finally find a 2fer!