NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

I also have "highlight conflicts" on for sudoku, but I don't turn the check answers feature on unless I get a conflict, and then I don't feel like erasing everything or trying to backtrack for the harder puzzles.  But I try to turn it off right away.  I also use the check puzzle feature for the crosswords (only when doing archive puzzles because I don't want to lose my streak).  But I think once you turn that on, you can't turn it back off.  I'll have to see if that's true.  Anyway, it's nice to have the easy crosswords at the start of the week so that there's more time to spend on other puzzles as needed.

Langue_doc, you are ahead of the game today, sounds like!

In the good old days when bookstores were aplenty, I used to get sudoku books and work on the puzzles, usually in ink. Some of those had 365 puzzles, one per page, in large print. I don't turn on the 'check answers' for Sudoku, as I can work around the conflicts. Like you, I don't use the 'check' feature in crosswords as I don't want to lose my streak. I usually miss Saturdays and Sundays, or don't manage to solve them before the 10 PM deadline, so these either show up as blue or white on my crossword page.

The only reason I'm ahead today is because I woke up in the middle of the night and started working on SB--and managed to get the pangram and to genius without much effort. I just looked at LB and went aaarrrggghhh! I used to dread waking up in the middle of the night, but not so much now as I know that if it's after 3 AM, I can work on the SB for the day. I did get to QB--with the help of a word that I consider to be Hawaiian, one of Far Eastern origin, one definitely South American, and one of African origin.

ciao_yall, what were your LB words yesterday? From the hint you gave me, I suspect that the first one was grownup.

ETA: ciao_yall, I think we both posted simultaneously; plinths sounds much more succinct than my philologist! Today's SB isn't too bad; see the hints above. As for the pangram, think of a music video, especially of the performance.

[ab_grp]

Morning!

SB - Yesterday made it to "genius" on my own. Not sure I'll see QB until I learn the funky words that NYT uses... that said, I should have gotten all the ones I missed. But by "genius" I'm ready to move on to other things.

Good morning! Or afternoon, as I suspect some of you have crossed past noon by now.  Hope the coffee helps.  Just remember that Genius is the official victory in the bee.  QB is just a cherry on top.  So, you won!

Langue_doc, I can deal with the conflicts in the easy sudoku easily enough, but when I get them in medium or hard I am usually far enough into it (but at the cost of so much time because it is so slow going for me right now) that the answer check helps.  I hope to leave that crutch behind as I get better at it (if I do).  For example, today I was cruising along in medium, feeling really good about it, and ran into a conflict.  Checked answers, and probably 70% of what I had filled in was wrong. :-(  I was reasoning it out and don't know where I went awry, but if I had to go back and undo one by one I would have gone nuts since it had already taken me at least 20 minutes to get that far.   As for waking up or being up to work on the puzzles in the middle of the night, the bee comes out at 1 AM my time, and once or twice I have been up and felt like giving it a try, but then it just sticks in my mind too much and prevents me from sleeping.  Crossword is another thing because those are pretty easy and quick for me to complete.  I had a pretty good streak going but broke it earlier in the year (May?) by accident because my phone had somehow logged me out of NYT and I thought I was supposed to use my husband's log in.  We figured it out pretty quickly when we were both doing the crossword at the same time and his letters were getting filled in really quickly (by me).  Oops.  It didn't occur to me to try to just sign in with my log in and try again.  So there went a 285 day streak.  Now I'm at 222, so it would have been over 500 if I hadn't been so dumb about it.  For a while I was doing all the archive puzzles from the beginning on, but now I just do the Saturday and Sunday archives.  I think the Saturdays were harder back then.

I still don't have any really good words for LB yet (thanks, partially, to the complete fail at medium sudoku, which I am trying to fix now).  Husband kindly woke me up earlier than usual to ask me if I was awake, so I am a bit sluggish today.

[ab_grp]

Okay, got a 2-fer after many contender words and a lot of drudgery.  I wish the medium and hard sudokus were treating me better, but I am flummoxed.  I thought a shower might bring some pep into my step, but neither that nor the coffee seems to have given me the required energy.

[Langue_doc]

Woohoo! Congrats on the LB.

I'm impressed by your crossword streak, ab_grp. Mine is nowhere near your accomplishment. As for the sudokus and other seem-to-be-stuck puzzles, sometimes a break from the puzzle helps.

I haven't even thought about LB today as I consider the QB and crossword to be major accomplishments.

Just got back from a trip to the grocery store--I should have my head examined for deciding to drive through several miles of city blocks to get to the nearest Whole Foods which was overpriced, didn't have the prepared dishes that I can find at the other locations that I used to go to before the pandemic, and had to ward off people from practically manhandling me in their attempt to get to the items on some of the shelves. So the LB will have to wait until I recover from the shopping expedition.

I've also been sidetracked by two books I'm reading, one on the Norman conquest and the other the first of the Caro books on LBJ. I think this should go on the reading thread.

Gook luck with the sudokus, ab_grp, and with your puzzles, ciao_yall. You probably got the two-fer, as you usually do!

[ab_grp]

Thanks, and the QB and crossword (and the shopping... ack!) are major accomplishments.  I did include a little hint or two in my previous post about the LB 2-fer if you get around to that after you recover.  As for my crossword streak, once I realized that was a thing I figured I would just try to keep at it.  And nearly lost my mind when I broke it in May, then realized it was pretty freeing.  I do the crossword every morning over coffee, so why not try to keep the streak alive (but be less type A about it).  I have always loved crosswords growing up.   You mentioned a break from the sudokus, which I am trying to do, just cycling back to them now and again (no luck), but with crosswords I definitely find that a break can help if I get stuck.   Fortunately, they are usually pretty easy with the exception of proper names or "naticks". 

Anyway, please do post about the books on the reading thread, and I hope you can recover well and quickly from your trip to the store. 

[ciao_yall]

Woohoo, got a 2fer! Finally!

[ab_grp]

Woohoo, got a 2fer! Finally!

Yeehaw! Congrats!

[Langue_doc]

Two-fer and the crossword -- what more can one ask of life.

Thanks for the drudgery hint. Am on kindle, so can't type names with underscores.

ETA: and the sudokus with help from the 'highlight conflicts' setting.

[ab_grp]

Hooray, and I'm glad the hints helped for LB yesterday.  I went through parabola(s), bilious(ly), anorak(s), and others before finally getting to laboriously and then figuring out I had to drop the ly.  As for underscores, I wouldn't be offended if you dropped mine or just called me something else.

Crossword today was kind of fun.  For today's bee, I got the pangram and genius but still have 30 points to QB.  Yesterday I missed a pretty obvious word that I won't repeat because it's in today's.  At least a lot of the letters are similar to some recent puzzles, so I am trying not to forget the ones I missed previously.

When I got to my computer this morning it was frozen, so I had to reboot, and apparently it went ahead and opened the hard sudoku without me noticing as I went about my morning coffee crosswords/bee routine.  So I am at 1 hour and 10 minutes on it with no effort thus far.  Oh well, not like I'm trying for time on that one.  I never did make very much headway with medium or hard yesterday but wasn't awakened early today so will hopefully have a better shot at them.

[ciao_yall]

LB - Yesterday I got BANKS-SPURIOUSLY. Almost first thing in the morning I would have had BUNIONS-SPARKLY.

Onward to today's!

[Langue_doc]

ab_grp, I liked the crossword too. I think my LB words were laborious and spunky (haven't looked at the solution yet). I like to get the s at the end as it also works well as an initial letter.

As for SB, I got the pangram and was short of 5 letters to genius this morning. I too noticed words from recent puzzles. Had to do a bunch of errands, so I'll have time to get to the rest of the words (hopefully) this afternoon.

It's a shame about the computer and its effect on your sudokus. Good luck solving them.

I've had on occasion to reboot my frozen computer only to find that it started updating, and nothing would induce it to let me get to it until and unless it had taken its sweet time completing the updates.

ciao_yall, I think we posted almost simultaneously. I did get the alert to check the latest before hitting 'post', but suspected that it was probably your post.

On another note, I am not going anywhere near the prep thread! no, no, no. This is my well-deserved break.

[ciao_yall]

SB - ran out of gas at "Amazing" but should hit "Genius" soon. Very close. Am starting to remember oddball words I have missed in previous puzzles so who knows, maybe I'll achieve QB? What is the prize? Can I get a Bee tattoo to match yours? With a little crown?

LB - got a 2fer! Probably not the official solution as it's two rather long words but I'll chalk it up as a win.

[Langue_doc]

Woohoo!

[ab_grp]

Thanks for the sudoku support, Langue_doc! I got easy over with.  It's taking me longer to do those now because I'm trying to use the pattern stuff that I am trying with the harder puzzles rather than just fill them in, but I think it's a good habit to try to work on.   As for the bee, we compared and got to within one word that I am mad at because I tried something like it but had no luck.  I don't think I would have figured it out, though I probably should have.  Good luck with your solving!

Congrats on the 2-fer, ciao_yall! I have a couple contender words so far, and I think one might be a winner if I can figure out a match with the few remaining letters.  That is a big "if", and I don't want to get stuck on that word if it is not a possible 2-fer candidate.  I like the idea of bee tattoos!

[cathwen]

Congratulations on solving LB, ciao-yall!  I am still stuck at 3 words. 

I did get SB eventually.  I kept seeing words using letters that were not there!