NYT Spelling Bee

[ciao_yall]

Morning!

I got INCUBATOR yesterday so kudos to all of those who figured out EMOJI! My brain couldn't think of any words that ended with "I" so I stayed on the "R" side of that word in trying to find solutions.

On to today's...

ETA: Already got a 2fer with one of my first words. So maybe there are a few more 2fers in there?

[ab_grp]

Welcome, Johnr! The Alpha and Beta levels just give us some interim benchmark goals between Genius and QB, as cathwen described.

I'm at 148 on the bee today (~76%), so a ways to go.  No pangram yet, though husband found one.  It would help to have those points! We missed yogini, longan, and onlay yesterday.  Ugh.  Seems to be picky again today about which words to accept with particular endings.

I never would have gotten the official LB solution yesterday, especially the J word, so echoing kudos to those who have.

Congrats on your 2fer today, ciao_yall! I'll give it a try in a bit, but my computer is doing its random freezing business again. 

Congrats on genius, Langue_doc!

Happy solving, and good luck!

[johnr]

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!

Thanks!  I did not know that Genius = 70% of words! 

[cathwen]

Congratulations on genius, Langue_doc, and congrats also to ciao_yall for the 2-fer on LB!

I'm still stuck at Amazing on SB today (Delta Bee?), with only a few points to go until genius, so I'll keep at it.  I have not found the pangram yet.

I found a 2-fer fairly quickly on LB, and I wonder if it's the same as ciao_yall's!  Yesterday I got the official solution (EMOJI-INCUBATOR). 

Now on to the crossword, and then I must finish writing a quiz! 

[ciao_yall]

Congratulations on genius, Langue_doc, and congrats also to ciao_yall for the 2-fer on LB!

I'm still stuck at Amazing on SB today (Delta Bee?), with only a few points to go until genius, so I'll keep at it.  I have not found the pangram yet.

I found a 2-fer fairly quickly on LB, and I wonder if it's the same as ciao_yall's!  Yesterday I got the official solution (EMOJI-INCUBATOR). 

Now on to the crossword, and then I must finish writing a quiz!

Maybe. I felt like cathwen when the 2fer came so fast.

[ab_grp]

Congrats on the 2fers, ciao_yall and cathwen! I have a couple reasonable contenders, but no mates yet.

Made a little more progress on the bee, 163 pts (~83%), and still no pangram! Hope we can find it, cathwen.

[Langue_doc]

Got the two-fer.

Spoiler alert for SB. Look at your list of words and see if you can add something before or after one of them.

Haven't made much progress though. Have to update three sections of a module and do some grading.

[cathwen]

I'm at 150 points on SB, and still no pangram for me, either.  But at least I made genius.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all got for LB!  Congratulations on your 2-fer, Langue_doc!

[ab_grp]

Just came here to report that I got to Alpha and then finally got the pangram! Take heed of Langue_doc's tip.  I just happened to try it and was surprised.  I'm at ~96% now, but I think I will just give up, with medium sudoku to finish, hard to do, and LB to keep at, among other non-puzzle stuff.

Congrats on genius, cathwen! And congrats on your 2fer, Langue_doc!

[cathwen]

Ab_grp, same here!  I'm at Alpha and I did find the pangram.  Oddly, though, it was a word I had already tried--or thought I'd tried--before, but was rejected.  I must have mistyped it.

[ab_grp]

Ab_grp, same here!  I'm at Alpha and I did find the pangram.  Oddly, though, it was a word I had already tried--or thought I'd tried--before, but was rejected.  I must have mistyped it.

Hooray!! It is not fun thinking you already tried something that ends up working, but congrats!

[Langue_doc]

Greetings, all!

SB--stuck at amazing, but found the pangram early. Haven't looked at yesterday's solutions yet.

LB--official solution, but only after several attempts.

Crosswords and sudokus are done.

Happy solving!

[cathwen]

Good morning!  I'm just a few points beyond genius on SB, and not sure I'll pursue it any further, as I have to get some real work done today. 

Congratulations, Langue_doc, on LB!  My solution yesterday was similar to the official one—I had CHAMPIONING-GALAXY.  Of course, the official answer, CHOMPING, is a more efficient use of letters. 

I got today's LB, after a bit of hair-pulling.  I kept wanting an R or an N.

[ciao_yall]

LB - CHOMPING-GALAXY. I found GALAXY first and after a little playing around with "ING" it came together.

SB - Thanks Langue_doc for the tip - finally found the panagram.

[ab_grp]

Good morning, all!

I'm at about 79% on the bee today and found the pangram right away but am struggling at this point.  Seems like some words that are not too recent, so I guess the familiarity does help on other days.

Congrats on all the 2fers yesterday in LB.  Wow, I was not near the solutions despite having a better contender list than usual.  I kept trying to make PHALANX work in the beginning, but no luck.  Congrats on already getting a 2fer, cathwen!

Time to start sudokus...