NYT Spelling Bee

[ab_grp]

For LB yesterday, I got the official solution (Langue_doc's) eventually but had snowscapes as my initial contender word that I was trying to make fit.  I have a good contender today but would dearly love an E to make my wordmate work.

The bee didn't go too badly today.  We each found a dumb word, and after comparing we were just 7 points away.  I managed to recognize the final word, thanks to one my husband had found.   I keep trying boytoy too.  The other day I mentioned that there was a word that no longer seemed to be accepted: duad.  I had it several times in the database, so I think it was previously accepted but is not now.  Does anyone remember it being accepted before?

Got through the easy sudoku puzzle in reasonable time and actually finished the medium (though at 38+ minutes), thanks to some guidance I found online after Cathwen's post.

[ab_grp]

I can't modify my previous post now, but I did get a 2-fer in LB.  Not sure if it's the official solution or not, but the words are common enough.

[Langue_doc]

Congrats on the two-fers, ciao_yall and ab_grp.

I don't think I'll get to LB today (thanks for the hints) as there's the crossword, QB, and the grading (unrelated topic!), not necessarily in this order.

ab_grp, I do recall seeing duad some time ago in one of the puzzles. SB isn't very consistent. Today's puzzle accepted the name of a comics superhero which I thought was surprising as this is the name of a character and hence a proper noun.

[Parasaurolophus]

Haven't found today's superhero yet... still about 20 off from genius, but it'll come.

I feel like yesterday's SB has been repeated several times.

[ab_grp]

I feel like yesterday's SB has been repeated several times.

If you go to the bee solver page (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20201217.html is yesterday's), you can see which other puzzles used the same pangram and with which center letters.  Yesterday's exactly matched another puzzle from last June (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20190627.html).  Same letters, different middle letter (m) in March of this year (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20200327.html).  Good memory!

[Langue_doc]

Haven't found today's superhero yet... still about 20 off from genius, but it'll come.

It's a young'un.

/quote]

They keep getting recycled. Several words in today's puzzle have been cropping up during the past several weeks and also this week.

ETA: I can't get the quote function to work--my apologies.

[Parasaurolophus]

I feel like yesterday's SB has been repeated several times.

If you go to the bee solver page (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20201217.html is yesterday's), you can see which other puzzles used the same pangram and with which center letters.  Yesterday's exactly matched another puzzle from last June (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20190627.html).  Same letters, different middle letter (m) in March of this year (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20200327.html).  Good memory!

Oh! Thanks, I didn't know about that! I don't durdle around the site much.

[ab_grp]

I feel like yesterday's SB has been repeated several times.

If you go to the bee solver page (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20201217.html is yesterday's), you can see which other puzzles used the same pangram and with which center letters.  Yesterday's exactly matched another puzzle from last June (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20190627.html).  Same letters, different middle letter (m) in March of this year (https://nytbee.com/Bee_20200327.html).  Good memory!

Oh! Thanks, I didn't know about that! I don't durdle around the site much.

I don't tend to much, either, but I thought I had seen some info like that.  As a data person, I think some of the stuff on that site is kind of neat.  Of course, I would still like to be able to find out other things like which words were included in which puzzles, which were accepted but are now not, and vice versa.  Maybe it's in there somewhere or on another site.

[ciao_yall]

I like to go here:

https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords

And read today's puzzle/comments. There is always under "reader picks" a crowd of Bee solvers who share different types of hints.

There are a few LB-ers lurking around as well. That is how I tripped over CARIBOU the other day.

[Langue_doc]

Thanks for the links above.

As for today, made it to genius and got the two-fer. Now I can get on with the rest of the day.

[Parasaurolophus]

So... what was the superhero, in the end?


EDIT: oooh, batboy. I found it, it just didn't click!

[ciao_yall]

Thanks for the links above.

As for today, made it to genius and got the two-fer. Now I can get on with the rest of the day.

SB: Last night got up in the middle of the night and made it to "amazing". It wouldn't take "orlon." Maybe I can get to "genius" on my own?

LB: Just got up and poured coffee. Found a few candidate words but a few lingering letters that need to find a home.

[ab_grp]

I didn't know what the superhero was, either! I thought about Tallboy, but Batboy makes more sense. 

About 13 points left to QB today, so we'll see.  My LB words yesterday were not the official solution.  Of course I now realize I did not write down my solution, but I think it was STOPLIGHTS-SUNLAMP.  I also had gunships, gunsights, and topologist as contender words but couldn't get anywhere with them.  I think I wanted the E for GUNSHIPS-SOULMATE.  Oh well.  At least I got some solution.  Hopefully today's won't be too difficult.  The crossword wasn't bad for a Saturday, though the top half came way easier than the bottom half for me.

ETA: Okay, got a 2-fer.  Not too tough, luckily!

[ciao_yall]

SB - At genius with a few hints from my friends at NYT Crossword Comments.

LB - I didn't have the official either - I got SUNLIGHT-TAMPON. Today, still working it. Haven't had that "snap" yet.

[Langue_doc]

Mine were humans and spotlight, I think. It's interesting that there are so many possibilities.

ETA: Just deleted my paragraph on batman as I realized that I was confusing 'batman' with 'batboy'. My brain is still foggy from all the grading and late nights.