Tomtit in the tilth -- the NY TIMES SPELLING BEE thread

Said with a knowing wink, btw.

Almost got my first QB without having to peek at the hive clues but alas, a couple of words escaped me. I'm starting to get the hang of remembering all those weird niggling little words the game always has that I'd never think of otherwise.

So yesterday gimmel wasn't accepted but today aleph was. Sigh.

today's pangram - well, one of them - is a word i've never seen before in my life and only managed to get by typing in a random string of letters lol

Ive seen multiple ppl say that, so Ive still no idea what it is lol. I got the other one fine.

Making H the centre letter is just mean.

today's pangram - well, one of them - is a word i've never seen before in my life and only managed to get by typing in a random string of letters lol
― donna rouge, Sunday, August 28, 2022

a bullshit pormanteau

*portmanteau

LOL that 2nd pangram! A friend has a "phone" she can barely hold with one hand, so I am familiar with the word. Wild that it's allowed though!

This thread should be for posting your most ridiculous guesses made in desperation even though you know perfectly well they're not real words, like when you stick verb suffixes at the end of a noun or w/e

so 'gingering' actually counts, who knew

There are some things I wish were allowed that aren't. Also a lot of things that aren't allowed that I wish would be.

This is the nature of a game (ndeed, a voluntary leisure activity.

OK Jaq's clue got it for me but lolll what the fuck is that non word.

I object to it for the same reason I object to the other ph word. They are WAY too arbitrary with nu-slang.

i downloaded an app that basically allows anything in any dictionary and it's awful -- you need to set it to five-letter words and 'avoid common endings' to even be playable

so i don't doubt that it needs an editor

but of course we all could do better

the paper version by frank longo is better, there i said it

a few reasons for this i guess:

- no four-letter words allowed, so less mindless box-ticking of specialist words like NENE etc

- they seem constructed more intelligently, with certain consonants playing a lot of different roles and different types of cluster available within the same puzzle

- longo refers to “our” word list rather than “the” word list and suggests that you count your own dictionary words if you think they’re worthy

editing is definitely necessary for playability, it’s the inconsistency that is annoying because you can’t follow some determinate rules on what is included and what’s not. it’s okay to exclude some words - it’s the inclusion of others that should be excluded using the same criteria that is annoying

take today’s bee, for instance. why is DUNNO included but OUTTA isn’t?

Or my previous complaint that one letter from the Hebrew alphabet was accepted but another wasn't.

But again, this sort of annoyance is also part of the game's appeal (albeit a pungent one), and it's sort of an exercise in knowledge/vocab/whatever to identify what we think is a glaring omission/inclusion.

I didn't have as much grumpiness today as yesterday - the completely bullshit "healable heatable hateable helpable" sequence was WAY worse than "phablet."

Dunno is sus but it's in keeping with Sam's generally high tolerance for cutesy-poo reduplicative and nonsense words. Gimme, booboo, wanna, etc. Plus cancan, bonbon, noob, etc.

doodad
woohoo

fuckin woot

Yes and do not get me started on pitapat, ratatat, patapan.

I only got "heeltap" by smashing random things that seemed like they _could_ theoretically be words in English.

*pattypan

(Which is an actual non-nonsense word; way more defensible because there is no other word for it.)

The one word in this general class of words that I find myself wishing was included? Haha. Like, haha as in a recessed fence or hedge.

Why no TUDOR ?

Proper noun

yeah well except PANAMA etc

CANCAN but no CHACHA

another proper noun in today’s

but no MOOK. some mid-century new yorker you are, sam!

feel like BACKROOM is a stretch given all the other compound words that don't make it, but i guess he needed a pangram. (i totally support BARROOM tho)

I thought MOROCCO would only be only a proper noun but it is accepted.

BACKCOMB is a compound word I have never heard of and would never have guessed

Dan's second one was the last one I needed for QB, but getting it felt pretty hollow.

gt absolute fo with ROMCOM

Any self respecting 80s goth/punker would get BACKCOMB ! :)

lol Robert Smith is the image reference on its Wikipedia page.

Zactly!

lol that grody is accepted today.

and yet porgy, which is an actual fish, is not

But dory is! Im suprised I didnt think to try porgy given my BOTW fandom.

Okay so galangal, hogan, longan, and oolong but not galena.

Or galah or goanna

Todays is killing me, I cant get the 2nd pangram even after looking at the hivemind clues.

...nm I got it. Yet another "I'm not american so it didnt come to mind" one.

Oooooo bold pangrams in the app this morning

i was fully expecting RANDO to be accepted

Nice themed set of answers in today’s!

I guess lardons not a thing in us?

Only if you're a trained professional [profession redacted] I think.

Yeah I'd tried it too. Didnt think it was that niche?