NYT Spelling Bee

[ciao_yall]

Genius and a 2fer that is pretty clean - no letter used more than once. So if it's not the official solution I don't know what is.

[ab_grp]

Awesome, ciao_yall.  You and I definitely have different solutions.  Your sounds more likely to be official.

Enjoy the read, Langue_doc! 700 pages seems long for a detective novel.  If you finish and like it enough to recommend it, please let me know or post on the reading thread. 

I'm still working on today's hard sudoku and not making much headway, but I am sure that I am just missing some key inroad as usual.  Taking some breaks to shred stuff and trying again.

[Langue_doc]

Congrats, ciao_yall.

ab_grp, I've been rereading P. D. James mysteries. This one is "Death in Holy Orders".

If you like British fiction, then you could start with "Devices and Desires" or "The Lighthouse". These should be available in kindle formats through your local public library. They do tend to get a bit melodramatic toward the end though. In addition, as one of the reviewers put it, one does have to read about the "tiresome Emma" the detective's love interest. My eyes are glazing as I'm typing this because this particular character is rather blah. The plots are good and the narration riveting. Since I've read these before, I tend to skip some of the tiresome (for me) parts.

During the past month or two, I reread the two abovementioned novels as well as "Original Sin", "The Private Patient", "The Murder Room", and "A Taste for Death". Some of the older novels are quite interesting, but might not be on kindle. "A Shroud for a Nightingale" and "Cover her Face" come to mind.

[Parasaurolophus]

Easy Bee today, but I'm reminded just now that I had some complaints about yesterday's which I've now forgotten. Drat!

[Langue_doc]

I think there were a couple of w-initial words that were quite archaic in Wednesday's puzzle. Wight, probably?

Last night, made it QB and also LB. My first words were thump and pejorative, which I later amended to hump and pejorative (I can think of lewd sentences with the second pair of words). SB wasn't too bad once I'd found the second pangram.

Today's isn't too bad either. Just made it to genius.

Completed today's crossword and the sudokus before retiring last night.

Happy solving all!

ab_grp, finished the novel, at 2.30 in the morning. It's going to be a long day today and tomorrow, catching up with course prep.

[ab_grp]

Easy Bee today, but I'm reminded just now that I had some complaints about yesterday's which I've now forgotten. Drat!

If you remember, please share them.  And congrats on the bee!

Langue_doc, congrats on your QB and LB! We ended up missing cocoon and cocooning yesterday in our haste, so ugh.  I got hump and pejorative for LB, too.  Now I'm curious what ciao_yall got.  And yay on genius for today so far! I am at about 95% of total (125 out of 131 or 132) but can't figure out the final word or words right now.  Took forever to get the pangram.  I'm going to take a look at the books you listed today, so thanks.  And hooray on finishing the book and the puzzles! Hopefully course prep won't keep you away too much from more enjoyable pastimes.

Haven't done any of today's sudokus or LB yet, and I still have yesterday's hard sudoku and the 1/3 hard sudoku saved to try to finish. 

[ciao_yall]

Missed a few easy ones yesterday so didn't make QB. Hit "genius" this morning in one sitting, but cranky they didn't take "oohed."

LB - I had hump-pejorative, and other than thump-pejorative it didn't seem that that crowd found any more 2fers. I found pejorative then hump was the only letters left. It's not a big group that does LB. On to today's.

ETA: Got a 3fer, and lots of great words except for the same side thing. So a 2fer is probably in sight.

[ab_grp]

Hooray for genius, ciao_yall! We finally gave up with two words left.  Probably should have gotten one of them, probably wouldn't have gotten the other.  Oh well.

Still no luck on LB.  I have about 12 contenders, some of which I think are pretty good, and I was SO close with one but stupid same side got me int he end.  Argh.  Good luck on that too, ciao_yall.

And still no luck on any of the hard sudokus I have yet to solve.  But I did get a lot of shredding done and necessary paperwork.

[ciao_yall]

LB - so I went to the wordplay column and got humbled. They found three 2fers.

1) Got some help from Google for a term I have never heard of and seems it would be a proper name. Already had the other word.
2) Figured out the word, again, with help from Google but LB didn't accept it. I believe they are doing it through a computer program which might be how they got it.  Again, already had the other word.
3) Didn't know where to start. Got nothin'.

I'll share the answers and hints tomorrow so you can be with me in my struggle.

But yeah, lots of 3fers and a few 2fers-but-for-the-same-side-thing. So it's all good. At least  they weren't solutions staring me in the face.

[Langue_doc]

Made it to Alpha Bee yesterday. Couldn't find any two-fers in LB, so gave up. I found several possibilities, including my favorite one, trumpery, but couldn't find a second word with the remaining letters. I doubt if I would have found the solution, especially the second word, so am glad that I didn't spend too much time on the puzzle.

Today I'm past amazing, and have yet to find the pangram.

Crosswords and sudokus completed last night, but they all took a long time to solve.

Happy solving, all!

[ab_grp]

Ciao_yall, which 2-fers did the column folks find? I tried everything I could think of with "graphy" at the end and came close with topography, only had EKMU T left over... could have had kempt if not for that darn u.  I tried in vain to think of a "graphy" with a u in it.  I also had photography and almost got makeup, but u and p couldn't be next to each other. 

Langue_doc, congrats on your Alpha Bee yesterday.  Today's is longer, and I am at genius + currently (about 73%) and still have not found a pangram either.  I am usually pretty swift with the crossword, but today's was tough for some reason.  The NW corner was worst for me. 

Still haven't tried today's sudokus yet, but I am sad to hear they are difficult.  I am amassing unsolved sudokus in separate tabs and getting nowhere with any of them.  Haven't looked at LB today yet.

[ciao_yall]

LB from yesterday.

1) Hint was: K-A (7 letters),A-H (9) Ancient Gospel preaching, signature

KERYGMA-AUTOGRAPH. Yeah, I just Googled "ancient gospel preaching" and found out there is a thing called Kerygma.

2)  A-H (13), H-Y (5) A device for recording involuntary bodily movements, however corny

AUTOMOTOGRAPH-HOKEY. A bit of Googling after various logical letter combos made sense, AUTOMO---GRAPH but when I found the actual word (and letter count) the puzzle wouldn't take it. Someone on the thread mentioned having a python program and generating solutions, so I think this is how they got that one.

3) H-E (8), E-E (9)

Website for microbiologist studying cell nuclei.

I got nothin'.

Yesterday I had makeup-photography but for the same side thing, kraut-tomography left an "e" hanging... lots of 3fers, lots of good words, but no cigar.

Official solution was AUTOGRAPH-HAYMAKER. Hm.

On to today's.

ETA - oh the same side thing is going to drive us batty. You'll see... but already managed a 3fer.

[ab_grp]

I can't figure out what they meant by the third set of clues! Never would have gotten kerygma.  But I did get a 2-fer today, got lucky on my second contender.

And managed to solve medium sudoku in a reasonable time without errors.  Still stuck on the hard one.  Now if I can get some more bee words...

[ciao_yall]

Yep, got a 2fer pretty quickly as well. Took more time lamenting all the great words I could have had - bodily, albino, donuts, stairs...

[ab_grp]

Hurrah on the 2-fer!

After husband also got to genius +, we compared and then each found one more word but were still short by 11 points.  The final two were ones we've missed before.  Oh well! At least I also managed to solve the hard sudoku without errors in a reasonable time for me.  Still have to go back to the old ones, and I guess the new ones will come out this afternoon.