NYT Spelling Bee

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm well past genius on SB, but haven't found the pangram yet.

[ab_grp]

It took me a lot longer than usual to find the pangram today, though not as bad as a couple days in the recent past.  Good luck!

[Langue_doc]

I probably have all the words except for the pangram, which has so far refused to jump off the page. I might just give up on this one.

Coir and noil are some of my favorite attempts in SB, despite knowing that these words aren't recognized by the program. I keep forgetting about chai and acai; I should know from experience that these two show up with such predictable regularity. Chai was the last word I found either yesterday or the day before.

Woohoo ab_grp on solving the hard sudoku.

[ab_grp]

Thanks! I just managed to finish the medium in waaaay too much time, but no mistakes along the way that needed to be rectified.  I think having one of my husband's spectacular chocolate chip cookies helped me to find the inroad I needed.  I think these are the first cookies he's ever made for me, and they are so good they're dangerous.  But, if they are potentially the key to future successes in sudoku, I'd probably better keep eating them.  I still have the hard sudoku from 1/3 to finish (nearly 3.5 hours of clock time into it so far), so maybe I should ask him to pop a couple more in the oven.

There's another word that I think should be in the bee today, and I keep trying it each time the relevant letters come up.  But you never know if they will add the words in the future, so it might be worth it to keep trying.   I can try to give a clue to anyone who feels like PMing.

Uh oh.  I think I am lost in the sudokus.  I went back to the one I had just finished and clicked the play another sudoku button, which I was surprised to see there considering I thought I had finished them all for the day, and now there is a hard puzzle there that has not been started yet with today's date! Ack.  Which one did I just solve? Holy hand grenade.  I think something might just be wrong, because switching back and forth between easy/medium/hard, they're getting switched around (says I finished easy in 1:15:something and medium in 4:something instead of vice versa).  I do think the hard one is the one I did earlier today because it has that 517 wall that seems familiar.  Hmm.  Sorry for the tangent, but if anyone else notices anything else weird, please let me know.

[cathwen]

I got to genius on today's SB, but just.  I did find the pangram, a word I was sure would be rejected, because although it adheres to rules of English word formation, it seems unlikely that it would ever be used in normal conversation.  At least, not very often.

Ab_grp, you are right about always trying words that have been rejected.  One case in point is "annal," a former reject, which a friend of mine complained about rather strongly (I'm sure she wasn't the only one).  Then they added it!  I am hoping that "coir" will be added someday.  I always try it.  Same with the much-mentioned "chacha"! 

Yesterday, I got "flunky" for LB, but did not get "apéritif."  I have failed to solve today's LB, although I've found a lot of good words.  The best I can get is a 3-fer.  If I have time, I'll get back to it this evening.

[ciao_yall]

Made it to genius on my own.

After several 3-fers and same-side thwartings, went to the NYT comments thread where I got a hint that led me to the 2fer. Again, not one I think I would have found on my own. Maybe because I didn't think it was a real word?

[Langue_doc]

Thanks! I just managed to finish the medium in waaaay too much time, but no mistakes along the way that needed to be rectified.  I think having one of my husband's spectacular chocolate chip cookies helped me to find the inroad I needed.  I think these are the first cookies he's ever made for me, and they are so good they're dangerous.  But, if they are potentially the key to future successes in sudoku, I'd probably better keep eating them.  I still have the hard sudoku from 1/3 to finish (nearly 3.5 hours of clock time into it so far), so maybe I should ask him to pop a couple more in the oven.

There's another word that I think should be in the bee today, and I keep trying it each time the relevant letters come up.  But you never know if they will add the words in the future, so it might be worth it to keep trying.   I can try to give a clue to anyone who feels like PMing.

Uh oh.  I think I am lost in the sudokus.  I went back to the one I had just finished and clicked the play another sudoku button, which I was surprised to see there considering I thought I had finished them all for the day, and now there is a hard puzzle there that has not been started yet with today's date! Ack.  Which one did I just solve? Holy hand grenade.  I think something might just be wrong, because switching back and forth between easy/medium/hard, they're getting switched around (says I finished easy in 1:15:something and medium in 4:something instead of vice versa).  I do think the hard one is the one I did earlier today because it has that 517 wall that seems familiar.  Hmm.  Sorry for the tangent, but if anyone else notices anything else weird, please let me know.

Husband seems to have started a new tradition, so yay for you both!

The sudoku timings do get switched around and are at times arbitrary especially if you take a break in the middle.

I decided, unilaterally, that there should be a category between genius and QB for those of us who score points well above genius, but do not always make it to QB. I've been giving myself the title of Supreme Bee several days this past week. I'm still playing around with the name, so on some days it's Genius Plus, and on others it's Gee!Bee!

Congrats on the geniuses to all (we have to exclude you, ab_grp), and for the two-fer, ciao_yall.

[Parasaurolophus]

Got it, in the end. Still a couple short of QB, alas.

[Langue_doc]

No QB for me yesterday either.

As for today, made it to genius in about 20 minutes. A word that I thought was a perfectly acceptable compound was rejected.

Pictogram, indeed! My words were product and taming. I found several other interesting first words, but couldn't get the other letters to form a single word.

Easy crossword which I completed before retiring. Did the sudokus, which I think of as workouts for my brain, so do not get emotional about my performance or lack thereof.

Happy solving, all!

[ab_grp]

Hey, I made it to genius (132) before we compared yesterday!  I like the idea of other levels.  I have given it some thought.  It's weird that they track up to genius (70%) and then skip to QB (100%).  Why not use 80% and 90%? I came up with a few ideas but figure you professors might like the idea of 80% being "bee" (B), and 90% being "alpha bee" (A).  The other ideas did not lend themselves as easily to remembering which level is which.  Just an idea!

I got to genius pretty quickly today but wasn't sure I would make it to QB... but I did! Hopefully it is the bee is as good to all of you as it was to me.  Helped to have an easy crossword puzzle.  So if we used the above system, today genius is 74 points, bee is about 85 points, alpha is about 95 points, QB is 106.  Good luck! Congrats to Langue_doc on genius so far!

Now I have more time to try to get LB and sudokus done.  I had a bunch of good LB words yesterday, I thought: dramaturg, paradigm, paramount all led to few letters left.  No luck, and nowhere near the official solution.  Today's another day.

ETA: Managed to hit a 2-fer on my second contender word! Woohoo! Now I am certain that the sudokus will be my downfall.

[Langue_doc]

ab_grp, I like alpha bee (makes me sound and feel like the head of a wolf pack). Bee is too pedestrian. You have no idea how many students complain about getting (not earning) a mere B! We could also rename the SB categories. Alpha Bee would be a much better replacement for QB (IMHO) and QB would be more fitting for 90% scores.

Congrats on making it to QB and the two-fer. I'll have to wait until later this afternoon to get back to SB. I did complete the vertex puzzle though. Like the sudokus, it's another way for me to take a break or jumpstart my brain.

[ab_grp]

Yeah, I guess I can see bee being too pedestrian.  I thought of it as after genius you transcend past human into bee territory as you approach QB.  But if we want to rename other categories, there are lots of possibilities.  Possibilibees.  Har har. 

And thanks! And I actually solved the medium sudoku without errors in only about 21 minutes today, so hooray.  Maybe hard won't be too bad (though that's unlikely) and maybe I will eventually solve the 1/3 hard puzzle.  I haven't tried vertex yet, but I have absolutely no spatial ability, so I'm not sure that will ever be in my wheelhouse.  Maybe a good brain stretcher to try if time allows.  Sounds like congrats are in order for your completion of that puzzle, too!

[ciao_yall]

No QB for me yesterday either.

As for today, made it to genius in about 20 minutes. A word that I thought was a perfectly acceptable compound was rejected.

Pictogram, indeed! My words were product and taming. I found several other interesting first words, but couldn't get the other letters to form a single word.

Easy crossword which I completed before retiring. Did the sudokus, which I think of as workouts for my brain, so do not get emotional about my performance or lack thereof.

Happy solving, all!

I had "product" and "taming" in two separate 3fers but didn't put them together until I saw the hints online.

Onward to today's...

ETA: "genius" and a couple of 3fers, so hope the 2fer will appear soon.

[Langue_doc]

Got the two-fer! Effortless solution today--wish life were this easy.

[ab_grp]

Got the two-fer! Effortless solution today--wish life were this easy.

Congrats! And true enough about life.

I did manage to solve the hard sudoku in under 40 mins, though I had to check my answers and delete some at one point.  On to chores now.  Fun...