I actually don't look directly at the letter counts, but I do note how many words begin with each letter? It just makes me linger longer on a letter and try to wring a couple more out of it.
― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 13:47 (two years ago) link
in orbit, that makes sense - also lets you know when you're going down the wrong rabbit hole (like today with EN- and UN- and ON- prefixes)
― gin and catatonic (Ye Mad Puffin), Wednesday, 3 November 2021 13:51 (two years ago) link
fun and relatively attainable (no extremely obscure words, most four letters) 21 word QB today. i lol’d at the pangram
― flopson, Thursday, 4 November 2021 15:46 (two years ago) link
i got everything but the pangram but i did get fairly close with MEGACOCK
― scanner darkly, Friday, 5 November 2021 02:54 (two years ago) link
lol
― Dan S, Friday, 5 November 2021 02:58 (two years ago) link
I got QB yesterday but spent an embarrassingly long time 1+ points away because I was overlooking COOK.
― Leee Tigre (Leee), Friday, 5 November 2021 17:39 (two years ago) link
Yesterday I am having a tough time forgiving lunular. On the margin of acceptable is landau.
Today we have a reasonably charming pangram situation. For me, genius status arrived early at 30 words but that means a long and potentially exasperating 13-word slog if I am to pursue QB.
― gin and catatonic (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 7 November 2021 14:13 (two years ago) link
Hope that we can all get one of Sam's favorite birds today.
― A Frome of One's Own (Leee), Thursday, 11 November 2021 17:10 (two years ago) link
Not without this thread
― jaymc, Thursday, 11 November 2021 17:55 (two years ago) link
I got most of them, but didn't think of noncom as referring to a non-commissioned officer
― Dan S, Friday, 12 November 2021 00:50 (two years ago) link
in 1950s manhattan everyone would have known what a noncom was therefore it’s validwhich is why WOOT is so upsetting, it exists outside the wes anderson diegesis
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 November 2021 09:17 (two years ago) link
i mean there are other reasons too
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 November 2021 09:18 (two years ago) link
I QB'd yesterday! NONCOM I got as a guess. I guessed COMMIT too, rhyming it with "comet" and thinking "this is some silly textile arts term"
― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 12 November 2021 12:19 (two years ago) link
Thanks also to the thread title for the freebie
both husband and i got genius yesterday and got most words between the two of us except for this very common word: COMMONfacepalm
― scanner darkly, Saturday, 13 November 2021 03:53 (two years ago) link
Omg we got QB tonight! 1st time ever!
― Jaq, Sunday, 14 November 2021 02:29 (two years ago) link
i'm two words away and stumped ;_;
― flopson, Sunday, 14 November 2021 03:41 (two years ago) link
QB as well but really because i got lucky just randomly getting DOETH
― scanner darkly, Sunday, 14 November 2021 04:06 (two years ago) link
ha that was my last word as well and i only got it from the grid telling me i needed a DO 5 letter word
― just sayin, Sunday, 14 November 2021 04:08 (two years ago) link
the two words i was missing yday where TEETHE and TOOTHED. i had TEETH, TEETHED, TOOTH 🤦
surprised they didn't take DOLDRUM today
― flopson, Sunday, 14 November 2021 20:39 (two years ago) link
same
― just sayin, Monday, 15 November 2021 00:45 (two years ago) link
This got me trying to sign up for a bloody NTY games account, and something went weird. It half-did a transaction, said it errored, didnt take my money, and now I cant try again and they have the WORST "contact us" help links.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 15 November 2021 02:24 (two years ago) link
i don't know if this will help you Trayce, but if you do try again later and you have a paypal account, you should use that to sign up for any NYT subscriptions rather than your credit card.
NYT deliberately makes it difficult for you to cancel/modify subscriptions by making you call in to customer service - you can circumvent all that bs by just canceling your automatic payments on the paypal site.
― Roz, Monday, 15 November 2021 07:31 (two years ago) link
Today leans heavy on food again with CARBONARA, BARBACOA, CORNCOB
Weirdly quiet on the avian front
― weregoats of boston (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 15 November 2021 12:52 (two years ago) link
Thanks Roz, alas I dont have paypal :( i alredy have a NYT sub is the stupid part, and I just cant add a games sub to it. its weird, it sort of half-worked initially and I was able to access the full games site? then the pending charge disappeared and now its locked out again. Gah.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Monday, 15 November 2021 21:24 (two years ago) link
lol’d at today’s pangram. well played, sam!
― scanner darkly, Tuesday, 16 November 2021 17:15 (two years ago) link
the site’s been down for me for the last half hour or so
― donna rouge, Tuesday, 16 November 2021 18:06 (two years ago) link
I saw that, it should be back up now.
― A Frome of One's Own (Leee), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 18:34 (two years ago) link
Also, I'm a little miffed that a Y4 (YEGG) that I learned from SB isn't being accepted today.
― A Frome of One's Own (Leee), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 18:36 (two years ago) link
That's a hobo/criminal word, very rarely used these days
― I'm a sovereign jizz citizen (the table is the table), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 19:34 (two years ago) link
Last time I read it was my last re-read of Jack Black (not that one).
― I'm a sovereign jizz citizen (the table is the table), Tuesday, 16 November 2021 19:35 (two years ago) link
Today's prominent category of obscure words is... foreign currency! Birds and pasta strangely underrepresented.
― popcornoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 19 November 2021 15:25 (two years ago) link
I think it's been close to two full weeks since we've last had a bingo (where each of the letters has at least one word that starts with it), which to me and my OCD is kind of distressing.
― Nelleee Hooper (Leee), Friday, 19 November 2021 18:47 (two years ago) link
Hm, I have never really tracked that
― popcornoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Friday, 19 November 2021 20:37 (two years ago) link
I found the schef (adam schefter ha ha)'s government name, to no avail.
― jaymc, Friday, 19 November 2021 20:59 (two years ago) link
discovering the hints has made it easier to get QB (i only look at them after i've hit genius) which i've now gotten like 3-4 times in the last week but it came at the cost of me wasting way more time on this game
― flopson, Friday, 19 November 2021 23:53 (two years ago) link
the hints feature doesn't work on my partner's phone! nothing at all happens when you click "today's hints." maybe it's for the best.
― I Am Fribbulus (Xax) (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:05 (two years ago) link
after genius I usually give up. Today I got friar, but not friary. also of course fray, but not affray and the puzzle didn't accept miliary (which is a common medical term), or milliary, referring to a Roman mile
― Dan S, Saturday, 20 November 2021 02:50 (two years ago) link
Dr. C., I also find that the hints page doesn't work from in the app, but it does work from a web browser. Which actually is better because it makes it easier to toggle back and forth.
― popcornoscenti (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 20 November 2021 04:57 (two years ago) link
Ok today's PG is pretty obscure, and I had to cheat to get it.
― Nelleee Hooper (Leee), Saturday, 20 November 2021 18:01 (two years ago) link
Agreed. I got it and thought "WTF dude, how can you know that and not know so many other common words?"
― Jaq, Saturday, 20 November 2021 18:37 (two years ago) link
I got genius yesterday and today Ive only found six words... is saturday always hard?The crossword was quite hard too.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:40 (two years ago) link
Also how is pfft a word and not pepito?
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Saturday, 20 November 2021 22:46 (two years ago) link
NYT's crosswords progress in difficulty, starting on Monday (easiest) to Saturday (hardest). Sunday is longest -- sometimes it's hard, more often it's more gimmicky.
The Bee doesn't seem to adhere to any kind of difficulty progression, meaning that any given day could be really hard -- at least in my experience.
― Nelleee Hooper (Leee), Sunday, 21 November 2021 01:01 (two years ago) link
one of the hardest spelling bees ever today
― flopson, Sunday, 21 November 2021 01:06 (two years ago) link
don't know how but I got the pangram today, some distant memory of an archaic word
― Dan S, Sunday, 21 November 2021 02:11 (two years ago) link
I always have the most trouble with the compound words, got tipoff, but not tiptoe or tiptop
― Dan S, Sunday, 21 November 2021 02:15 (two years ago) link
also didn't get potpie
― Dan S, Sunday, 21 November 2021 02:19 (two years ago) link
managed to get to genius without the pangram which felt like a real achievement. was v surprised that pfft was accepted
― just sayin, Sunday, 21 November 2021 05:40 (two years ago) link
Considerably more palatable today! (Although I know some players don't like the high point total days.)
― Nelleee Hooper (Leee), Sunday, 21 November 2021 18:57 (two years ago) link