NYT Spelling Bee

[ciao_yall]

Not a great puzzle day yesterday. Never did find nucleon so the QB streak ends. Only found a 2fer b4ss bashful-lowtech.

But dinner party was a success and today a new day of puzzles awaits!

[Langue_doc]

Afternoon!

Peeked at the solutions yesterday and decided that I might not have found a couple of words.

Above genius, with one pangram.

watchful/lobes. Easy two-fer today.

cathwen, glad to hear that you got back safely. That must have been a harrowing drive. I remember driving to a friend's place (90+ miles) to get out of Irene's path.

ab_grp, thanks for the saline eye drops info. Not having used eye drops before the cataract surgeries, I bought Clear Eyes from Amazon as that was going to be delivered the next day. I think the blurriness started after using those eye drops which do not appear to be preservative-free. The doctor did recommend using eye drops. I'll have to get another product.

Off-topic (flora, fauna, and aves)

Went to the Botanic Gardens https://www.nybg.org/ on Friday. It's one of my favorite places for getting away from the city/bird watching and just relaxing. Haven't been there since Dec pre-pandemic. It usually takes me two hours or more to get there, as I don't like the congested expressways but decided to drive as I didn't want to take the subway and also wanted to take advantage of the free parking for members that day.

It was just heavenly, the forest smells, the greenery, assorted glacial erratics, the streams, the conservatories, and of course the birds. I saw assorted small birds, the usual robins, bluejays, wrens, mockingbirds, nuthatches, etc. I was sitting on a bench, looking at several birds on the trees in front of me and across the path when a cardinal landed on the post next to me (I think he was used to people feeding him) and stayed there for some time. As I was getting up, a tufted titmouse landed on the post on my right and stayed there presumably hoping to be fed. I heard other birds. but didn't see any birds of prey this time. As I was walking back, a huge insect, about ten times the size of a bumblebee landed on the path much to the delight of the family on its way to the children's section. Although masks were not required outdoors several people, adults and children were masked on the paths and the outdoor gardens. I didn't get to my usual haunts such as the rose garden and other areas, as I wanted to be able to get home before rush hour. Despite leaving early, it took me about a couple of hours to get home--realized why I would normally take the subway/bus or subway to Grand Central and the train which drops you across the street from the gardens. If you are ever in the area, do visit, just for the forest smells.

The Kusuma exhibits were underwhelming.

[ab_grp]

Congrats on your 2fers yesterday and today, Langue_doc! The gardens look amazing, and I'm sure they smell even better! The art is definitely interesting... It's great that you were able to visit since it appears to be closed today due to Henri.  I love cardinals! I have so many pictures of them from outside my old office.  For the eye drops, I also get mine from Amazon (Refresh Optive Lubricant drops in single-use containers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BQCK52E), and preservative-free was a specific guideline after the Lasik.  But definitely check with your eye doctor about whether something like that would be what you should use.

We each finally got to Alpha and compared first letters and gave each other a few, so I'm down to 4 words, but we will likely be asking Shunn for help shortly.  I'll try LB after I get hard sudoku done.

[Langue_doc]

Thanks for the eyedrop suggestion, ab_grp. Until last night when I was chatting with someone, I didn't know what a saline solution was! The doc probably assumed that I knew all about eye drops. His only suggestion was to use the drops for my dry eyes.

As for LB, try not to get bogged down with the obvious suffix-ending words. The solution is much more straightforward.

[ab_grp]

Langue_doc, if it turns out you can use those drops, then I hope they help.  I had previously used the rewetting drops for contact lenses and some drops for other eye issues but had not had to use preservative-free before.  My eyes are apparently sensitive to the ingredients in some of the others (non-preservative-free) I've used over the years, and that is never fun to find out! And thanks for the hint about LB.  I have a set of ships and some other contenders but won't try to focus on the obvious suffixes.

We eventually went to Shunn, and figured out some words that we had forgotten and probably would not have gotten without that help. 

[ciao_yall]

QB with help from the Wordplay hints, and a quick 2fer this morning.

Hangovers do wonders for one's puzzling abilities...

Langue_doc, the gardens sound wonderful. We have a few big parks in San Francisco and it's so wonderful to get to experience nature from time to time. I can't say the City melts away, but it is nice to smell the trees and fresh air.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Woke up around 5, and got to QB in one fell swoop! Familiar words. Then went back to sleep.

subject/tingly

Happy solving, all.

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

QB - needed Wordplay definitions for reminders for tali, lateen.

LB - subjecting-guilty, bylines-subjecting.

Happy puzzling!

[cathwen]

Good morning!

I got to QB yesterday, but with help from Shunn; I went to Wordplay for the two last words, which were antenatal and lateen.  A new word for my nautical vocabulary!

Today I am at QB-1 (six letters), but encouraged by Langue_doc's assertion that all words are familiar, I am going for QBABM. 

LB:  subjecting-guilty.. Congratulations on not one, but two 2fers, ciao_yall!  Today:  No 2fer yet.

Langue_doc, the Botanical Gardens are truly lovely!  I haven't been for a long time.  Your time there sounds healing and refreshing.

Happy puzzling!

ETA:  Woo-hoo!  QBABM!

[ciao_yall]

Wow. What are you all putting in your coffee in the mornings and can I have some?

[onthefringe]

Congrats to yesterday's 2fers and today's morning puzzling. Yesterday I got subjecting-gley essentially by accident — found subjecting and while noodling around found "gley" thought of agley in "To a Mouse" and randomly tried "gley" in case it was a word. Apparently it is (something to do with soil?)

[ab_grp]

Good morning/afternoon!

Made it to GN4L, which was a little tough because that left only 2 words after the 4s! But then made it to QBABM, and same for husband a bit later.  Cathwen, your final words from Shunn's help were the same as mine yesterday!

I also got subjecting-guilty yesterday.  Congrats on that and other solutions! I worked out a couple contenders on break, so we'll see.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Congratulations on your QBABY, ab_grp!  And on GN4L.  I have yet to try that. 

I just found a 2fer today.  Now I guess I can't put off dusting and vacuuming any longer.  Sigh...

[ciao_yall]

GN4L, now 9 points short of QB. So I am either missing one long word, or a combination of long and short words. ETA: 92 points. So one or two 4 letter words left to achieve a pure QBAM.

Not making much progress today on LB - lots of great words, b4ss.

[ab_grp]

Thanks, cathwen! And congrats on your QBABY and to Langue_doc as well! Ciao_yall sounds almost there as well!

And congrats on your 2fer, cathwen! There's a particular letter that always seems to be in the remainder letters, so I am trying to focus on getting that into some words.