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

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?

Okay no neoteny or poteen

But thankfully no hoopoe

I never play this because a) it costs money and ii) the idiosyncratic dictionary sounds super annoying. Just found a free version which uses a public domain dictionary: https://freebee.fun/play/

also https://spellingbeegame.org

oh cool! the first uses a full unedited dictionary so might include super obscure words - I also found this which is edited and definitely doesn't include uk slang (e.g. footy, hotty): https://dianthusarts.github.io/Spellbound/ - will see how this other one compares.

I have tried these clones, as well as others, but it's not really the same experience for me.

Personally I crave the validation of nailing the nyt version, using its established grid system, and being in community with others who are trying to attain the same goal.

I also like paying for stuff that I enjoy

ANYHOO was on the NYT word list the other day. c'mon bro

Yesterday's was more frustrating than usual.

No nappy, nanna, nonna/nonno*, nano*, but ANYHOO is allowed? muthafukn.

*I'm almost certain the've allowed thhose before

First one, though it has fairly innocuous meanings in other dialects, has unfortunate racial connotations in the US.

Nano by itself hasn't been accepted AFAIR, though something like nanobot has been. Nana is accepted regularly, though.

There's one I can't get today, even with the hints. Some kind of shoe?

The shoe is BROGAN. Civil War buffs know that one.

The one I absolutely did not know today was BAZOO, allegedly a slang term for a face.. Got the rest with no trouble.

yeah that second one was new to me too

Ah, I know that one from crime dramas.
It always annoys me when the three clue guys all just the same clue for a word. If I didn't know what it was when Kline said it, I'm still not going to know it now. Give me alternatives, dammit!

all just GIVE the same clue. I should go to bed.

I haven't ever reached queen bee on my own without any hints and am probably still a long way from it

Same. I have some rules: I do as much as I can completely unaided. When I start to flail, I refer to the grid/2 letters to jog my mind. Only once I get to Genius am I allowed to read the Hivemind chats for clues. And I hate that the moment I do, I see words that should have been obvious and somehow werent.

Closest Ive got is only having to use clues for one word to get to QB but usually I come up at least 4 or 5 short.

I have similar rules from myself. I at least have to get to Genius, or Genius +1, on my own before going to look at the grids.

Usually I can get to Queen Bee using the two-letter list. I will only check the Forum hints if I have one word left in a particular two-letter sequence.

It's all arbitrary and all pretty silly, but those are my personal rules.

The comments are helpful when I'm out of steam. I'm just not patient enough to spend all day figuring it out on my own

I've gotten to QB a few times recently with just the letter clues

I've been shocked at how often I miss the simple 4-letter words

Most often I miss words that are just not going to come to mind unless you're north american, which is frustrating. I've just had to put such words in the mental bank, like hockey and baseball slang, american spellings, and use of hispanic words.

Mind you yesterday's had one I don't understand how it could be used. Triton? Thats a moon (thus a proper noun) or a God (ditto) so how come it counted?

Also a type of sea snail.