NYT Spelling Bee

[Parasaurolophus]

As usual, made it to genius while brushing my teeth before bed. Tough one today.

[Langue_doc]

Did you see today's? It's a pain in the behind. 376 to genius! What in the world were the editors thinking? That we belong to the leisurely class of yore?

I'm at nice with 158 points and one pangram.

[ab_grp]

Yep, a whopping 537 points total?! Or about that?! But remember he said the word list wouldn't necessarily be longer, so I guess the words are longer.  I managed to get to about 235 and 2 pangrams while getting ready.   Luckily there are a lot of big (but not difficult) words.  But I wouldn't necessarily call it a challenge, unfortunately.  Maybe the letters start to disappear or the device starts sparking at some point.

[Parasaurolophus]

I have six pangrams and 296 points (amazing) so far.

Edit: 333 now.

[OneMoreYear]

So many pangrams today! I definitely don't have the attention span to make it all the way through that many points, but for those who will find all the words, I salute you!

[ciao_yall]

Yeah, today's SB is what I call a "grinder." Lost count of panagrams. At amazing and 304 points, hope to hit genius soon.

Yesterday's LB was bungalow-witch. I found witch, but I think the tricky thing about bungalow was that "witch" was easy to find, but left a lot of blank letters on the same side. Intuitively one avoids that situation due to the b4ss issue. And I was stuck not finding a lot of words that ended with "w."

Found a very odd 3fer today so far. If nothing else, LB is making me open to crazy possibilities! So that's good for my brain.

Happy solving today, y'all.

[ab_grp]

Well, I'm up to 428 points and a bunch of pangrams, but Alpha Bee is about 484 points! Yikes.  Probably sudoku for a bit and get back to it and hope to hit Alpha, at least.  I had made my way to about 305 points and decided to look back at my list to see what obvious ones I had forgotten that were related to ones I already had and made it quickly up to almost 390.  Lots of bookkeeping.

Crossword wasn't bad at all for a Friday, though like others in the comments I had a few thoughts on the "football powerhouse" of the Big 10. 

I thought of "witch" for LB yesterday but figured it would leave too many letters leftover.  Also tried glitch, wagon, unlatch, and antilog, and a compound word that they apparently don't accept as they did not accept the first "naughty" (?) part of it.  Oh well, maybe today's will be easy, though it doesn't sound like it from what ciao_yall has reported.

Good luck, everyone!

[Langue_doc]

Made it to above genius with several pangrams. I think I need a stiff drink but it's too early for that.

[cathwen]

I guess I'm on a roll with LB.  I got yesterday's official answer, and after some gnashing of teeth, found a 2-fer today as well.

I am just one point beyond genius in SB.  I may get back to it, although I have some actual work to do, so maybe not!   Langue-doc, if you're pouring stiff drinks, I'll have one, too.  SB is a real grind today.

Ab_grp, 428 points is awesome! 

[ab_grp]

Wow, cathwen, you really are on a LB roll! I still haven't had much luck but had a 2-hr call with a friendly colleague take up some time.

Langue_doc, I could use one as well if you're pouring.  I managed to get to 508 points or so, so finally past Alpha Bee, but still 30 some points left to go? Yeek. 

[Langue_doc]

Cheers all. I inched up to 440 or so. I was gone most of the morning, and then had course work, so haven't even looked at LB.

[cathwen]

508 points!  Egad, ab_grp, that is astounding!  I'm only up to 425. 

[ab_grp]

Thanks, cathwen! I am now at 521 points.  This bee is taking a long time, but I'm trying to tell myself it is an unusual day and to go with it.  I don't want to give up.  Husband and I had the same number of words and different number of points, so we have some disparity in our lists but won't compare for a bit if at all.  I am still hoping for QB and am still finding words I should have found before, so maybe there is a glimmer of hope.  No real tough words so far, so I think it is more persistence than anything.  I could be wrong.  More good luck vibes all around!

[ciao_yall]

Genius, 381 points, over it. Tackling LB. A few 3fers and almost 2fers but for an odd letter or two, so hope I'm close.

[Langue_doc]

The words are all familiar ones. If you play around with the endings, you can find more words and pangrams. Think prefixes and suffixes!

Just over 500 now.