NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

Big congrats on your QB last night, Langue_doc! I'm glad you mentioned the words and tried again.  What was your final word? Mine was "caul".  And congrats on your 2-fer as well!

For LB yesterday, I was trying too many "join" words.  Nowhere near the solution.  I don't think I would have ever thought of fjord either.

Will try the sudokus today and see if something magical gives me bee words, but yikes.  Still have to look at LB today as well.   Hopefully more straightforward than yesterday.

Thanks, ab_grp. My last word was lacuna; this isn't a word that I would use on a daily basis, but one that I have come to associate with Barbara Kingsolver's novel of the same name. As for today's SB, I made it to genius. Several of the words are outliers that we've encountered recently. Today, however, they're all in the same puzzle, which makes the solving difficult.

I also had several -join words for LB. The sudokus are getting more difficult, or I'm getting slower solving them.

Are we all having a hard time on bee? I'm usually at least at Amazing by the time my coffee gets cold. I'm still on Solid.

3fers coming along on LB. I need to work on that K for a while.

Regarding yesterday's LB, I did find "coital" - was that the naughty word Langue_Doc was referring to? There was another word, but for the same side thing, that was naughtier. I wouldn't expect men to be able to find it.

ETA: Got a 2fer!

Congrats on the two-fer! My naughty word was fornication.

cathwen, I didn't realize that there were two pangrams. I don't have the energy to look for more words in SB, so this is it for today.

Incidentally there was a fun word, rather long, in today's puzzle.

[ab_grp]

Incidentally there was a fun word, rather long, in today's puzzle.

I think you're referring to one I had to look up in the answers.  If so, it is fun, but it's another example (to me) of accepting something iffy while not accepting what seem like more appropriate words.  The second pangram was the other word we were missing.  And I agree about lacuna.  If it hadn't shown up in other puzzles, I don't think I would have guessed it.  I guess caul probably showed up before, too, though I don't remember that one well.

Still no real luck on LB.  I did finish today's sudokus but am still stuck on yesterday's.

Yay about the 2-fer, ciao_yall!

[ab_grp]

Finally got a 2-fer, just as I was about to quit for the day.  Whee.  Still no luck with yesterday's hard sudoku, though.

[Langue_doc]

I had to give up on LB, but found the second pangram last night so I was probably Alpha Bee. I also managed to complete today's crosswords and sudokus yesterday.

Made it to slightly above genius on SB--it wasn't too difficult.

nebo113

NYT Tiles
« on: January 12, 2021, 06:07:59 PM »
Quote
Darn....another addiction.
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Liquidambar


Re: NYT Tiles
« Reply #1 on: January 12, 2021, 09:31:21 PM »
Quote
Totally.  I had to cut myself off.  Tile free since mid-December!

The basic games had gotten boring, but then I'd made extra rules for myself to make them more challenging.  (For example, in the one with yellow, blue, and white tiles with the four-pointed stars in the middle, you need to clear all the other stuff first and save the stars for last.)
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Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all. ~ Dirk Gently

nebo113


Re: NYT Tiles
« Reply #2 on: Today at 06:22:19 AM »
Quote
Quote from: Liquidambar on January 12, 2021, 09:31:21 PM
Totally.  I had to cut myself off.  Tile free since mid-December!

The basic games had gotten boring, but then I'd made extra rules for myself to make them more challenging.  (For example, in the one with yellow, blue, and white tiles with the four-pointed stars in the middle, you need to clear all the other stuff first and save the stars for last.)

LOL!

As for tiles, some of them are interesting, but others are quite blah! I get to them about once or twice a week. I don't fancy the flower ones or the ones with a variety of colors or patterns--just an idiosyncratic dislike on my part. I prefer vertex.

There are a couple of word games on the kindle, monkey wrench and red herring, which I try to solve every night. These are quite easy, more like appetizers rather than real puzzles.

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Congrats on your Alpha Bee yesterday, Langue_doc! And genius so far today, and the sudokus and crosswords.  Today's crossword seemed a little easy for a Wednesday, but that's good.  And thanks for mentioning the other word games you play on the Kindle.  I'll have to check them out. 

After some struggling, I finally got to Alpha Bee today.  One pangram so far, but I only have about 10 points left to QB so suspect there aren't any others.  And my LB solution yesterday was the official one, JUNIOR-ROADBLOCK.  We'll see how today's goes.  I'll have to get to the sudokus as well.  My computer wants to restart, and I still have a hard sudoku from a few days ago open, so I might print that just in case.  I doubt I will ever solve it, if cathwen had to make a guess to get it solved!

[ciao_yall]

LB - "junior-roadblock" was the only solution the NYT crowd found as well. But for the same side thing, I would also have had journal-laidback and adjourn-niblick.

On to today's - already some 3fers and "but for the same side" - are those going to be called B4SS?

[ab_grp]

B4SS might be a good term for it.  I did manage to find a 2fer today, luckily! And I also thought niblick yesterday, though I just had to look it up to find out what it actually is.  Must have heard it somewhere before.  Good luck turning 3fers into a 2fer!

[cathwen]

A better day today!  It didn't take long to reach genius in SB.  I'm now 15 points from QB; not sure I'll make it, but after yesterday, just getting to genius feels like a victory.

And miraculously, I found a 2-fer for LB without too much fuss.  I'm a little annoyed with myself for not having found junior yesterday, though.  I must have tried just about every other possible j-word!

I do Tiles and Vertex every day in addition to the others—part of my post-breakfast routine.  For Tiles, I like the set that includes the wolf's head and bee, and also the one that looks like construction materials. That one is a toughie, but solving it is very satisfying. 

[ciao_yall]

Got a 2fer as well! Not sure it's the official one but I'll keep it.

Tiles - sometimes I do them before I doze off. Zen mode drives me batty because sometimes you do run out of matches and then it's not very Zen, is it?

[Langue_doc]

Got a 2fer as well! Not sure it's the official one but I'll keep it.

Tiles - sometimes I do them before I doze off. Zen mode drives me batty because sometimes you do run out of matches and then it's not very Zen, is it?

Look at the number of your posts! 1111! Looks like an auspicious number.

Congrats all on the two-fers, ciao_yall, ab_grp, and cathwen. I came up with the same side problem this morning, and haven't had the time to take a second look.

I aslo like the ones that I assume are the heraldic symbols and the more difficult red, white, black, and yellow geometric shapes (doors I think).

I'm probably Alpha Bee today.

[ab_grp]

Happy auspicious number post, ciao_yall! And congrats on the 2fer.

Congrats on Alpha Bee, Langue_doc.  Good luck if you try for QB, and good luck on 2fer attainment.  Also, I have now tried both games you mentioned and am particularly into red herring so far.  I'm trying it on hard, and sometimes it's definitely harder to figure out what the categories are.

Congrats to cathwen on the 2fer as well.  I got roadblock first and found junior from the remaining letters.  I don't think I would have been able to find junior first.

Still stuck on the hard sudoku from today and the one from 1/11 but will probably have to give up on them and restart my computer and get it over with.  Maybe it will keep today's progress, but I think the old game will go away.  Oh well, I'm sure I will accumulate more to work on solving!

[Langue_doc]

Morning, all.

LB--I had the official solution; SB--made it to QB last night. Today's crosswords and sudokus have also been completed.
Today, I'm at Alpha Bee; it's a relatively easy puzzle as you need only 56 or 57 points to get to genius. LB looks more complicated though.

ab_grp, I'm glad you like Red Herring. You can reset the puzzle to medium if you're at a loss for the right categories. I sometimes have to do that as I'm practically illiterate as far as sports--teams and vocabulary--are concerned. You also have access to the older puzzles. As for the sudokus, you can print them out and work on them later. I like to do the crosswords and sudokus by hand, but now that I'm into "streaks", I am forced to do the former electronically, which slows me down. One of my friends sent me a book and went to the trouble of wrapping it in the comics and games section of her local Sunday paper. The first thing I did was to work on the crossword and sudoku!

[ab_grp]

Good morning!

Wow, congrats on QB last night, Langue_doc! And LB! I didn't get the official LB solution either.  Mine was MUSTARD-DISCHARGE.  Just got up a bit ago so haven't tried much with the bee yet.  No pangram so far.  Crosswords first when coffee is ready.  Also have to check trivia league standings, as we are in a minileague right now.  Yay on all of today's puzzles and already getting to Alpha Bee!

I did have to switch back the red herring difficulty last night! Well, the wine didn't help.  Some of the categories are also a little obscure, but I do like trying at first to see if I can get one or two of the categories figured out and filled before I have to lower the difficulty.  Anyway, fun!

I "printed to PDF" both sudokus but don't know if they have an archive of solutions so I could check if I did complete it on paper.  I gave up on the 1/11 puzzle with the computer restart and figured I'd spend a few minutes trying out different features on it (hint, reveal cell, etc.).  It is pretty embarrassing how many of those I had to use before I could finally "solve" it.  I still don't really understand the hint feature.  I guess it suggests a cell that you should try to work on? At least I still have yesterday's to work on after today's.

Sounds like your friend picked just the right wrapping paper, intentionally or not.  Bonus gift!

ETA: After a successful crossword run, I managed to make progress on the bee and identify the pangram and am one or two points from QB.  I suspect there is just one four-letter word left, but I can't find it! Will keep trying after some other puzzling adventures.

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm one point short of QB this morning, so I'm hoping to get there soon!

You guys are awfully good at these!

[ab_grp]

Well, obviously you're good at it too, Parasaurolophus! I am curious if we are both missing the same word.  I guess we can check in tomorrow about it! Good luck!