NYT Spelling Bee

[ab_grp]

Congrats on the 2fers, OneMoreYear and cathwen! I got one word that seemed like it used a lot of good letters and thankfully recognized its mate because I happened to see it somewhere recently and hadn't known what it meant.  Interested to find out solutions tomorrow!

As for the bee, I finally had to ask husband for some hints on my final word.  Ugh.  Figured it out, but not sure I would have in a timely fashion otherwise.  Congrats on QB, cathwen.  And good luck, ciao_yall! Your remaining word is not the same as mine based on length.  I am rooting for you!

Cathwen, glad you love your shades despite the earlier distraction!

And I am still struggling with hard sudoku.  Argh! I asked for a hint, tried the what-ifs from it numerous times and got nowhere so did what-ifs with other cells.  Got a few more numbers in, tried to see if it would give me a different hint.  Nope.  I am determined to conquer it but am not sure if I am just being a really big idiot, nitwit, and dimwit, or what.  ;-)

ETA: FINALLY!!! Got the danged hard sudoku done.  That hint still did not end up helping me at all!

[Langue_doc]

Peeked at the solutions--there were a couple of words I wouldn't have found, so was glad that I stopped when I did. Got a twofer, so decided to call it a day.

cathwen, glad you got new shades.

[ciao_yall]

QB - Needed a nudge from Shunn to get the last (weird) word.

LB - And needed Wordplay hints to get the final 2fer. I had a few good 3fers but wasn't even warm.

Now to teach a night class.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Almost genius, no pangram yet.

unclip/pitchfork

Two-fer already. Finding words in LB is similar to seeing birds. You don't "find" them, but they appear when they are ready to be seen. I put together the letters for the second word, and it worked.

Happy solving, all!

[ciao_yall]

QB - Made it to QB-1, then last word with help from Shunn was abloom

LB - unclip-pitchfork with help. 3fers prolific-cit-thunk, tip-prolific-thunk, prolific-chunk-kit, lift-tropic-chunk so I wasn't even in the neighborhood.

Happy puzzling!

[OneMoreYear]

LB yesterday was pitchout / trunkful. I was surprised it accepted pitchout
I'm spending today recording asynchronous lectures, so no more puzzling for me.

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Got to GN4L pretty easily, had a little trouble with the 4s, and then Alpha, both pangrams.  Two words to go.  Time for a break!

For LB, I got pitchfork-knurl.  I only remembered the latter word because it was in the crossword a week or two ago, and I had never heard of it.  I was so excited! Hope to have some good bird sighting luck today! ;-)

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good afternoon!

I am at genius with both pangrams today.   

Congratulations on Alpha, ab_grp!  Langue_doc, I agree that finding words and bird watching are in a way similar in that words and birds just appear. 

But yesterday!  My last word was broomball.  BROOMBALL?  What kind of word is that?  I only got it through the definition on Wordplay which referenced Harry Potter and quidditch.

LB:  Scrolling through looking for that definition yesterday, I saw a hint on Wordplay:  u-p, p-k.  I figured that p-k had to be pitchfork so then found unclip (why didn't I see that before?).  So, not a very "pure" 2fer.

Today I have a 2fer (my own!). 

I think that will have to do it for today, as Middle Daughter and Grandson are arriving soon.  Grandson (12) has just finished a "Whales and Things" week which involved learning about whales and going out on whale watches.  He loved it—so much so that I have been warned that he will hardly be able to stop talking about it.  That's fine with me! 

Anyway—happy puzzling!

[ab_grp]

Cathwen, broomball was my final word, too, the one I needed help with from husband.  I am with you on that one! And congrats on your 2fer and have fun with Middle Daughter and Grandson! What a great age for whales and things.  I'm sure you will be regaled with many delightful stories and facts.

A couple contenders for LB so far but no luck.  I did finish sudokus, at least, without the issues I had yesterday.

Oh oops I almost forgot that husband and I got down to 2 words each and decided to compare first letters since we had team QB based on number of points left and how many points each word we needed must have had.  So we did each end up getting to QB after that, and a team QB, but impure individual QBs.

ETA: Got a 2fer!

[Langue_doc]

QB. Other than the last word, there weren't any surprises. Kept looking for it because of the hint on Wordplay.

I would never ever have found broomball.

[ab_grp]

Yeah! Congrats on the QB, Langue_doc! For some reason, I ended up finding some what I think of as the more difficult words earlier today because I was looking for them.  My final one was definitely one I had found before and am much more familiar with.  Strange how that happens sometimes.  Husband's final word also wasn't one of the difficult ones.  Guess we'll see what everyone ended up with tomorrow.

[ciao_yall]

QB -  learned 2 new words. Had gotten one of the tricky ones but not the other.

LB - was super close! Then got a little nudge from the Wordplay blog to make it work.

[Langue_doc]

Good morning!

Pangram and genius so far. The chemical words in yesterday's puzzle were tricky. I found tritium early on, but got stuck as I kept misspelling yttrium.

quiches/skybox. I thought that my second word was original, but gah!

Effortless two-fer today.

cathwen, happy visit with daughter and grandson. Do tell us about the whale sightings.

Happy solving, all.

[cathwen]

Good morning!

I am also at genius with the pangram.  Yesterday I was at QB-2, missing tritium and yttrium.   They are now on my list.

Quiches-skybox was also my LB solution.  I wonder if there were any variations?  I have found a 2fer today.

Grandson instructed us on how to identify whale species, and also individual whales, and the different ways they move in the water.  The whale watch was apparently a huge success, with several species appearing, some whales close to the boat.  But he was also full of information about the "Microscope Adventures" week he attended, describing in detail one bacterium devouring another, and throwing around words like "prokaryotes."  The kid keeps me on my toes! 

Annoyingly, I have to attend a department meeting this morning, so I had better get ready for that.  Then time for family activities! 

Happy puzzling!

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

QB - last two (new) words were arum and tritium. I was so proud of myself to have rememberd yttrium.

LB - with a nudge from Wordplay got quiches-skybox. I had squicky-yes-shoebox so was in the neighborhood. I guess I think of SkyBox (tm) as being a proper noun?

On to today's...

ETA One word short of GN4L, and a 2fer. Someone on another thread said today's LB contains a vulgarity and now I'm trying to find it!