NYT Spelling Bee

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm not far on today's bee, but found an LB word that only leaves three letters unused. Same-sidedness makes it hard to see how to use them, however.

[cathwen]

I have just limped to genius, and I think that will be the pinnacle of achievement for today. 

Parasaurolophus, good luck finding a use for those three letters! 

[ab_grp]

I just, just made it to Alpha (231) with five words to go.  This is a real struggle.  And genius is the official victory level!

Only one contender for LB so far, but it uses a fair number of the letters.  No idea what to do with the remainders (4), though, so I will keep looking.  Good luck on yours, Parasaurolophus!

[ab_grp]

Okay, I got two more words in the bee! But they were only four letters each, so not much points progress.  Three more longish ones to go.

And I got a 2fer, but like cathwen I was not sure one of them was an actual word.  I just tried to use the remaining letters in a reasonable way, and it accepted it.  Fine for now!  Wonder if it's the same solution or not.  The other day we had several such solutions that differed.  I will try for a more normal one as well.

[Langue_doc]

I've given up on the bee, but have a twofer.

[OneMoreYear]

I was convinced that there had to be some words with a specific suffix and spent time playing around trying to figure it out. Turns out, I was wrong, and there were no words that ended that way. I found today's bee to be a slog, but could be because I was trying to find words that did not exist.

[ab_grp]

It is a tough bee day! I am curious about what the specific suffix was that wasn't.  We finally started our scaffolded comparisons, and I was able to figure out the two longer words that I was missing, he was able to figure out the words he was missing, but we each are still missing the same final word.  We know how long it is and what it starts with but are not having any luck.  I have a few complaints about what was not accepted in light of what was and has been accepted.

Congrats on your 2fer, Langue_doc!

[ciao_yall]

Genius on the SB, and a 3fer on LB but not sure how a 2fer will emerge.

[ciao_yall]

2fer! Kind of a strange one but okay, I'll keep it.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Missed lipoma, papilloma, and maillot. I should have seen the latter as I recall a discussion on this word a few weeks ago.

Today's is tedious--amazing and no pangram.

Intoxicant/tusker

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

SB - Tricky one yesterday. Today, at "nice" with pangram. So far it wouldn't take mach or mache so I think it's gonna be a slow one.

LN - extractors-skinsuit. Didn't we find skinsuit once and have a discussion about it? I was trying it to see if it would work, thinking "Silence of the Lambs" but it turns out, it's a thing.

Today's looks like a b4ss mess with the way the letters are grouped. Okay, I shall don a skinsuit, dive on in, and seek an optimal solution.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good morning! 

I just did not have the energy or imagination to progress beyond genius on yesterday's SB.  I missed words I should have seen—I got omicron, but not iota!—and missed ones I would probably not have found anyway, like lipoma.  It was a long one.

Today's SB is not as long, but I'm now at amazing with the pangram and kind of stalled.  I'll just be happy to get to genius today.  Ciao_yall, I share your annoyance about the rejection of mach and mache.

I have not yet found a 2fer for today's LB, but yesterday I had corkie-extraneous.  What the heck does corkie mean?  Well, as I learned after LB surprisingly accepted it, it is a dog breed that crosses a cocker spaniel and a yorkie.  (I warned you that one of my words was odd!).  The pictures of these animals are really cute.

Skinsuit and tusker!  More words to tuck away for the future.

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

cathwen, I hear ya. Lots of tough words yesterday. Yesterday I was at "amazing," found the pangram, and was still at "amazing." Now I'm at "great" with pangram and already running out of steam.

Did find a 3fer but this may be a slow one. Or not. Sometimes they come so fast!

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

I got to QB just now, so hopefully good luck to everyone! There were definitely a couple words that I have previously missed, some in the recent past.  I tried a new approach today.  Not sure if I will stick with it, because it felt a little unfamiliar to do it that way, but I guess it worked.  Yesterday we missed palopa.  I thought I had tried everything like it! Oh well, we gave it our best shot.

I had the same LB solution as Langue_doc yesterday, but didn't think of tusker as a word.  I feel like I have heard skinsuit, but I'm not sure where. Definitely reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs! Lots of solutions yesterday.  I tried for some others but couldn't get there.  Keratinous only left two letters, but they were tough ones to work into a mate.  Never heard of corkie either.  I guess the message is to just try and see!

Happy solving!

[ciao_yall]

Hit genius - yay.

Tusker reminds me Tusker Boyle in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.