NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

I'm around 180, and have a two-fer.

Hope you are feeling less demoralized this morning, Langue_doc, and that the retake goes well.

ab_grp, I'm not too worried about the scores but I do need to know how to recognize birds that most of the birders seem to know because I've signed up for a couple of birding trips. One group lugs what I think of heavy equipment around, so I don't want to come across as an ignoramus. I also like the challenge of learning to identify birds. The year before last, I recall going on trips during the migratory seasons where the trip report listed sightings of more than 60 species in a two-hour period. I'll be reviewing this course and also trying to complete another one before my Saturday outing.

[ab_grp]

I wish you all the best with your studying up and lots of successful identifying on Saturday! And you know, it's not the size of the equipment that matters. ;-)

Husband and I gave up on the bee, and I am glad to have done so.  There were probably three words I wouldn't have gotten.  There were two others that I was able to find or should have found.  Oh well, close enough.  He was much closer, only needing one word before we compared, and he probably could have gotten his final word. 

[cathwen]

Congratulations, Langue_doc and ab_grp on your 2fers!  And for your SB scores.  I'm not nearly as far along.

Langue_doc, are you taking the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology course?  Good luck on the test, the studying, and the outing!  (Your mention of a test reminded me of when I signed up for Project Feeder Watch.  I had to take a test that asked me to identify a variety of similar-looking brown birds--a variety of sparrows and some house finches.  It was kind of nerve-racking.).

Anyway, the Bee...I am limping along at 168 points, so not even Beta.  I doubt that I'll be able to put in much more time on it tonight.  But at least I made genius, which I did not think would happen for a while!

[ab_grp]

Oops, I forgot to say congrats on your 2fer, Langue_doc!

And congrats on your bee progress, cathwen! Some days are just uck.  I wonder if they're throwing some harder ones in there. 

I salute you both for being able to identify different birds.  I'm okay at identifying different types of things through taxonomies, but visual stuff is definitely not my forte, and I wouldn't be able to do it from memory!

[ciao_yall]

Tight 3fers and 2fer b4ss... but the 2fer is just not busting loose. I'm sure when I find out what it is, if I don't find it on my own, it will be a headsmacker.

[Langue_doc]

ciao_yall, it's a lopsided two-fer, if that helps. I think the first word was much shorter than the second.

ab_grp, good point about size. The group was quite welcoming on my first outing with them a couple of weeks ago, and three or four of that group have signed up for the one on Saturday. They did let me look through their scopes as they didn't think my binoculars would be enough. I don't see myself lugging one of these and a stand around on trips though. As for the identifying, the group identified several species of ducks in one location. A couple of them, I was told, were migratory ducks and would not stay in this area much longer, They also identified several species of songbirds.

[ab_grp]

Langue_doc, hopefully they will lug their equipment along this weekend (as long as they let you use it again)!

Good luck, ciao_yall.  Like Langue_doc's (maybe the same pair), mine is lopsided, and the word that comes first is much shorter.  I actually found the shorter word earlier on and made a note but usually try to find longer ones and had abandoned it due to too many letters remaining.  But, maybe once you find the first word the second will pop out at you.  I think my longer one was initially a more moderate length, but I was able to add to it to use up more letters.  Maybe you have something in your current word list that you can add to and make a longer word.

[ciao_yall]

Got it with a little hint from the LB solver. As it turns out, the second word appeared to have been an alternative spelling of a word. I found it with the "regular" spelling but not the alternative spelling... so now I don't feel so bad. I think.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Got a twofer on my first attempt! I must have channeled cathwen. word/dysfunction yesterday.

Missed alkane, alkene, and nankeen. I'm at amazing with one pangram today.

Happy solving, all!

[cathwen]

Good morning! 

I had dysfunctions-sworn for LB yesterday.  I found a solution today, too, but on the third try, not the first!  Congratulations, Langue_doc!

With a score of 168 points yesterday, I clearly missed a lot of words.  Ah, well...  Today I am at amazing with the pangram.

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

SB - At amazing already with one pangram, so hope the genius will tip soon.

ETA: Found a second pangram but it wouldn't take! Grr.

ETA^2: Genius with a word I thought I already tried.

LB - Already have a 2fer this morning. Yesterday got crowd-dysfunction. I had 3fers with disfunction where I was trying to figure out what to do with the y. Thought I tried dysfunction and it didn't take, but maybe I had a typo in there... or maybe I thought disfunction was the proper spelling? Anyway, can't win 'em all.

Grading. Grading. Grading.

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

I also had word-dysfunction yesterday. 

And I missed the exact same words as Langue_doc, alkane, alkene, nankeen.  Like I said, glad I gave up when I did.  Husband somehow managed to get them, but he is also more science-oriented.  Weirdly, the word he was missing was kneel.  As a nice kick in the pants from the universe, I was doing an archive NYT crossword last night from 2003 with a clue "Alkene series hydrocarbon."  Not sure if seeing that first would have helped in the bee, but I thought it was kind of funny, as I don't think I had ever heard the word before yesterday.  Maybe it has been in the puzzle before and I just didn't remember it.

Today I'm a point short of Alpha (167).  Need some more coffee and will try to continue and take a look at LB and sudokus.  I completed the crossword successfully but had to read the blog about 10 times afterward to understand the theme.  Clever? I clearly wasn't awake enough, in any case.

Congrats Langue_doc, cathwen, and ciao_yall on your 2fers today!

Happy solving!

[ab_grp]

Argh! One word away from QB! At least I know how long it is, so hopefully I will find it.

A couple contenders for LB, but no luck just yet.

[cathwen]

Way to go, ab_grp!  You'll surely get there! 

I'm at 171/Alpha, which is farther than I thought I'd get! 

[ab_grp]

Thanks, cathwen, but I could get catarrhed out of it again.  We'll see.  And you are super close, too! Congrats on Alpha! I had previously just had the one point to go to get to Alpha but ended up finding a long word, so that definitely motivated me to keep trying.  Good luck!