NYT Spelling Bee

[Langue_doc]

ab_grp, the monthly bonus crossword is out. I usually do the puzzles on my Kindle. I can also access them on my Android phone. I'll have to get back to you later about the monthly bonus on my droid and your other questions/comments.

Crosswords are calling.

[Langue_doc]

Oh yeah! I keep forgetting to mention... seems like Android users may now have some other puzzles (vertex, tiles, sudoku, but not LB) in their apps? Husband does.  Not me on my iOS, unfortunately, though I would only do LB on there.    I also noticed on the website puzzle page where I do LB and sudoku that there is a monthly bonus crossword? I don't think I've ever noticed that before.  I will give that one a try tomorrow to see what kind of difficulty level it's aimed at.  I don't see that one in my app, either.

I've had access to the crosswords, SB, LB, vertex, tiles, and sudoku for over a year (much longer than that) now on my android phone. The monthly crossword however doesn't show up on the android, but on the kindle, and I'm assuming on the computers as well. I've been doing the monthly as soon as it's released. Not sure if you can access the old monthlies but it wouldn't hurt to contact the Games person at NYT.

[ciao_yall]

I have all of the puzzles you listed on my Android phone. I do the Mini, SB and LB. Occasionally Tiles. My screen is a bit small for the Crossword but I sometimes do the Friday or Saturday. My regular crossword is the WSJ.

LB yesterday - FRIGHTEN-NOVELS. Close to the official solution - I even got VISION at one point.

On to today's... happy solving, everyone!

[ab_grp]

Interesting that the different apps have different games! I've checked for an update, but it doesn't look as though there is one, so I don't know when they might appear in my app.  And I had no idea there was a monthly crossword.  I will give it a try a bit later.

Congrats on your 2fer yesterday, ciao_yall.  I had FRIGHT-TELEVISION, which I guess was the official one.

Quick crossword today, long bee.  Whew.  I am at 313 with 2 pangrams, so about 83%, long way to go yet even to Alpha.

I don't usually read the crossword blog anymore, but I didn't recognize the constructor's name so read the constructor notes.  Pretty impressive! The youngest female constructor to date, a high school student from my old neck of the woods.  Her debut NYT puzzle, and she just started constructing them in August!! Wow.  I also see they have some new games editorial group.

Good luck and have fun, all!

[Langue_doc]

Made it to genius. That's it for today's SB. Haven't looked at LB. Crosswords are done though, including the monthly bonus.

Happy solving, all.

[Parasaurolophus]

Oof, long one today. I'm about halfway there so far.

[ab_grp]

Still not at Alpha, though I've gained a few points (331).  Husband reports existence of a third pangram, which I have not yet found.  Congrats on genius, Langue_doc!

I tried the monthly bonus crossword.  I would maybe put it at a Wednesday or Thursday level?

Some weak contenders in LB, but that's it so far.

ETA:  Good luck, Parasaurolophus! It is really long.

[Langue_doc]

I almost gave up as I had found three pangrams before reaching genius. It was mostly playing around with the endings. I won't be grappling with it till the bitter end.

As for the monthly bonus, agree that it's at a midweek difficulty level. It seems that the crosswords are getting easier, but that could be my imagination.

[ab_grp]

I just took another look at the bee because I really wanted to get to Alpha, and I finally figured out the third pangram and got past the Alpha threshold! At least now I feel like maybe it's okay to compare lists. But I need to look back at what I have now that the pangram has suggested something to me.  And I kind of don't want to quit at this point! Although I just realized I still have something like 30 points left to QB somehow.  Geez louise.  Maybe giving up would be a kind thing to do for myself.

As for the crossword difficulty, I am slowly making my way through the archives and would definitely say that it seems that the older ones are harder.  I'm back in 1999 right now, and though I can usually do any of the days of the week with little trouble these days, Saturdays (and a lot of Fridays) just seemed a lot tougher back then.  I guess some of it could be currency of pop culture or political references? But I think it's more than that. 

[cathwen]

Ab_grp, congratulations for making Alpha!  That is impressive! 

I finally made genius on today's SB, and am now at Beta, but I don't think I have the wherewithal to persist further.  I found two pangrams, and now that you've mentioned a third, I may pop in and out during the day to see if it occurs to me. 

On yesterday's LB, I got the same as ciao_yall:  FRIGHTEN-NOVELS. 

Today, I got a very strange 2-fer, one of which was overspecialized, and another slangy—even thought LB accepted them—so I looked again and found two more normal words.  I'll be curious to see what others got.

On to the crossword! 

[ab_grp]

Thanks, cathwen, and congrats on your 2fers and Beta! We eventually gave up, which is good because I don't think we would have found the final three words.  I hope you find the third pangram if you take another look or two at it.

Still no real luck with LB, but I got other stuff done so will go try on that again.

[ciao_yall]

Trailing back here - SB is still at Amazing, and LB still at 3fers and B4SS. Good candidate words that eat up a lot of letters but don't match up.

Of course, as soon as I post I'll probably find the solution...

[johnr]

Excuse my semi-laziness.  What is the Alpha and Beta level to which you all refer?  In my defense, I did a search for the term here and found its use, but not its definition.  I'm semi-lazy because I did not plow through all 60 something pages of posts on this thread. I gather that it is something higher than genius, but less than QB? 

[cathwen]

Greetings, johnr!  To explain the terms:  To get to Genius, you have to get 70% of all possible words.  So Beta Bee is 80%, and Alpha Bee is 90%.  These last two terms were invented in the group (I can't remember offhand who first proposed them).  How to find the maximum number of words?  I use nytbee.com.  There may be other sources as well.

Happy solving!

[Langue_doc]

As for the crossword difficulty, I am slowly making my way through the archives and would definitely say that it seems that the older ones are harder.  I'm back in 1999 right now, and though I can usually do any of the days of the week with little trouble these days, Saturdays (and a lot of Fridays) just seemed a lot tougher back then.  I guess some of it could be currency of pop culture or political references? But I think it's more than that.

I distinctly remember being often stumped on Fridays in the good old days before the online editions, when I had to do them manually (pencil on paper). I don't think I spent much time on the Saturday ones, but would check the answers the following day. They were definitely more difficult.

Got to genius on SB. As for yesterday, there were a couple of words that I wouldn't have guessed, but the frustrating part was that a handful of words that I typed on the kindle are missing from my solution--analog, yogi, oily, and a couple more. I don't think I'm going to be spending much more time on today's puzzle.

LB--I wouldn't have thought of the first word in the official solution--I tried rejoin, joint, enjoin, and so on, and had to give up on getting the rest of the letters to form a single word.

Crosswords and sudokus are done, as is vertex.

Happy solving, all.