NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

Oops, only one pangram. I thought I had found one before coffee, but now that I'm checking the letters against my list, I see that there's only one.

[ciao_yall]

LB yesterday - AKIMBO-OUTDREW. I got AKIMBO early on, but couldn't figure out a pairing. OUTDREW feels like a word that SB would not have taken (inter-puzzulality). Yesterday I got 3fers with various combinations of DRUMBEAT, TAIKO, REWORK.

On to today's solving! Plus the WSJ puzzles and a LOR for a student.

[cathwen]

Congratulations to those who got yesterday's LB!  I never did get that one.  I had a bunch of good words—roadwork, motorbike, iridium, browbeat, but could not find words with the remaining letters.  I did not see AKIMBO!

I did find a 2-fer today, but it might not be the official answer. 

I just got to Beta on SB and will try for more.  Langue_doc, I'm glad you confirmed that there is only one pangram!  I had the pangram, but was twisting and turning letters looking for another. 

[ciao_yall]

Congratulations to those who got yesterday's LB!  I never did get that one.  I had a bunch of good words—roadwork, motorbike, iridium, browbeat, but could not find words with the remaining letters.  I did not see AKIMBO!

I did find a 2-fer today, but it might not be the official answer. 

I just got to Beta on SB and will try for more.  Langue_doc, I'm glad you confirmed that there is only one pangram!  I had the pangram, but was twisting and turning letters looking for another.

It counts! Congratulations!

[ab_grp]

Congrats, cathwen! I will look forward to seeing if we have the same 2fer.  Mine is not super weird, so might be official? Could be more elegant, I guess.  And congrats on Beta!

Got medium sudoku done but working on hard now and then back to the bee.

[ciao_yall]

I got a super weird 2fer so definitely not official or elegant. But it worked.

Back to SB. Funny how it takes some words that one would think are just a prefix, but not others.

[ab_grp]

Well, since we were both up to Alpha (I finally got to 119, so felt more safely in that territory), we decided to compare.  We each donated a word to the other, and I happened to guess the remaining word for a team QB.  In my opinion, definitely could be a tough day because I think there are a lot of bee words in there that will get you if you don't remember them.

Ciao_yall, I am guessing that we have different solutions.  Good luck on the bee.  They definitely are inconsistent about what they accept. 

Still working on hard sudoku, and the next round is due out in 20 minutes! ack.

[cathwen]

 Congratulations on your QB, ab_grp!

I came to a grinding halt with only two words to go before QB.  In frustration, I checked the answers; one was a word I had never heard before and must have been the only combination of letters that I didn't try!  The other word I had heard, but rarely.  So I'm not kicking myself too hard.

I'll look forward to comparing LB answers tomorrow!

[ciao_yall]

Found a cleaner 2fer that is probably the official solution.

[Langue_doc]

Congrats all. There's no such thing as an "official" solution, IMHO. Any two words accepted by LB is the correct solution.

Made it to QB. The unusual 4 letter words have appeared in previous puzzles. The only new word was what appears to be a proper noun. I tried the combination and wad surprised that it was accepted.

LB has more than one solution as you can get different sets depending on whether or not you have a plural as the first word.

I'm one square amiss on the crossword. Winter storm warning tomorrow, so will drown my sorrows and worries by tackling the puzzles in the print edition.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning, all.

Stuck at amazing on the bee. At this point I'm despairing of getting to genius. I keep finding words with 'm'. Aaargh!!!

LB: NYT's solution, noted as "our solution" is jubilation-nexus. I first had several long words that contained either a J or a Z, but couldn't get the two-fer. Then I found the NYT solution, and soon after that, jubilations-sex, and then, jinxes-subtotal. LB today--holy sh$t!

Repeat after me, "There's no such thing as an official solution. LB accepted my words so I have the correct solution."

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Congrats on your QB yesterday, Langue_doc! And several 2fers, wow! Hope you figured out your crossword issue.  And stay warm and safe in your new round of winter weather.

I got to 148 on the bee so far today, not even to genius yet.  Crossword was not difficult but long as usual for Sunday.  Was going strong on the bee for a while, got a pangram quickly, but now suffering.  I will get back to it later.  Luckily, some letters we have had recently.  And a banner day, as what is probably the most challenged not-accepted word has made its way back in and is accepted.  Whee!

My guess is that "opah" was a tough one yesterday on the bee.  To me, that's a crossword word.  The final word that I happened to guess, which I think was in there before, was pompano.

As for LB, I got JOINS-SUBTEXTUAL.  I got subtext right away and realized I could add some more letters, and then joins was easy with the remaining letters.  I agree, any accepted solution is a victory! I am always just curious about what they come up with.  And, of course, what everyone here comes up with his even more interesting to me. 

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

I like the way you think Langue_doc!  My not-official-but-correct LB solution yesterday was SUBJOINS-SEXTAL.

I am tearing my hair out over today's LB.  I have some good words, but they just don't work together!

I just made it to genius on SB, but will be amazed if I get beyond that. 

Maybe I'll turn to the crossword for a while then turn back to LB. 

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm at 93 on SB, but flagging.

[ciao_yall]

LB yesterday - my first 2fer was JUBILATES-SEXTON. My second was JUBILATION-NEXUS which was official.

Today's - found a 3fer so we'll see.

SB yesterday - I hit 125 points and, according to the little checkbox thingie, managed to find all the words (with help from the Comments board), but I never got a QB signal. Hmph.

cathwen A 2fer is a 2fer! Sometimes I think mine have been cleaner than the official solution in that I used fewer letters. I still marvel that you found EMOJI.

Parasaurolophus Yeah, I will take a break and do other things. I'm also at 93 points and found the panagram. Sometimes I cruise up to the Wordplay column on the NYT as there is a crowd that sets up hints and tips to finish it off. They start off slow and then get more detailed so it's not like you just give up completely. That's how I found the last few words yesterday.

Plus the NYT Sunday, variety puzzles and so much more!