I did not understand that either Bunny.

Omg today! Not the longest list but definitely one of the most annoying. i think all the words have been included before. Only one was not on my list of ”remember these for next time.”

I’m taking a cooking break. I’ll have fresh eyes on the puzzle after I cook. Making Ted Lasso Shortbread and Sous Vide Egg Bites, plus my no-recipe, throw in whatever you find, vegetable soup.

Kswl, i so agree with you about today’s puzzle. I thought I was just in a headache fog for a while. Then things finally started clicking, sorta. I’m still not finished. I looked to see how many words there were and was shocked at how many pangrams and words! Sheesh!

I got two of the pangrams and my husband got the 3rd. We often tag-team: I get the bulk of the words, but if I haven't gotten to Genius yet I'll put him on the case and he'll usually find enough to do it. I've only gotten Queen Bee a handful of times; I generally don't use the hints, but I will check on how many words and pangrams there are.

Does anyone here do the Bee in the actual paper (in the Sunday magazine section)? Slightly different rules - only 5 letter words and up are accepted.

This one is making me crosseyed. I keep spinning but not seeing much new. May have to settle for being Great.

Keep at it. It’s taken me most of the day, put it down, then trying again I finally just got genius after being great for many hours!

As I've mentioned, I'm a NYT subscriber but don't have the separate Games subscription. I can access Spelling Bee but it cuts me off with an encouraging message, sometimes after a few words, sometimes after a lot. I have never discovered a pattern for when it stops me but can't play to reach a level - I play to reach the little affirmation, which is fun to get! Anyway, yesterday I got one of the panagrams and then last night as I was drifting off, I thought of a second. I see there were three and I don't think I've ever run across that third word. I'm locked out and have forgotten it, so it will stay a mystery.

Yesterday's pangrams were:

Apricot

Capacitor

Patriotic

: )

@barncatz If you want to know, we can post them here for you!

@barncatz, I may be wrong, but I think it cuts you off at a certain score. It isn’t dependent on the number of words, but on the score. So if you want to play longer, avoid getting the pangram and any other long words.

I don’t know about that, bbstx. I’ve gotten cut off after one pangram, or 25 points, or 48 points (which may have been my highest), or anywhere inbetween.

@barncatz - me too - I am not a subscriber and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the cut off - today was 5 words, yesterday was 17.

There were SO MANY words/points yesterday, I wonder if it has to do with the percentage of possible words/points?

Yesterday's stats:

Number of Pangrams: 3

Maximum Puzzle Score: 352

Number of Answers: 65

Points Needed for Genius: 246

It feels to me as though the Bee will be very word heavy one day, and then the next day it has relatively few words. I like the former.

Barncatz, did you never see Back To The Future? The flux capacitor allowed them to travel through time.

I couldn't believe I got capacitor but missed apricot. I did also get patriotic. So 2 out of 3. I quit looking for the 3rd when I hit genius. I was exhausted by that time, lol! I never would have gotten queen bee because who has ever heard of priapic?

Priapic I have heard of (all that fertility art).

Capacitor - funny story. When i was a kid my Dad ran a company that made power supplies for

computers. When we were teens, he got us jobs. My sibs and I learned how to solder elements (like capacitors) onto printed circuit boards. I am guessing now the solder fumes were toxic. It was very good money for a job we could do on the side at home.

I still think moiety was out there.

Unbelievably, today’s vertex image is a rabbit’s foot. I posted about itt and when it showed up in the comments section, I had forgotten to remove an apostrophe that was “auto corrected” in and rendered ungrammatical when i edited my words. At least I wasn’t complaining about a spelling. 🙄

And another that's not allowed today which is a fine English word IMHO...whinge and whinging.

kswl, I have no idea what you're talking about....vertex image? rabbit's foot?

Annie, I did not either. Then I realized it is a different game on NYT, called "Vertex."

And here I am looking at Spelling Bee and thinking ... rabbit's foot? Wah?

PS It is fine to talk about today's disallowed words, that is not a spoiler. I am mad about wenge.

Annie, I admit it, I am a game girl. 🧩♟️🎲🀄️♦️👾♠️🃏♣️

Last week I dipped my toe in the shark-infested waters of the NYT Crossword. Jojo made me do it. There is definitely a learning curve. I kept forgetting that they ignore punctuation, that there are multi-word answers, and a lot of (bad) puns. Sports and popular culture are my weak spots.

Even so I was pretty happy Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs. Then Friday happened, and it was so bad I never even tried The Big Bad One, Saturday.

I feel as though I am letting down my ancestors, devout crossworders all.

If you got Thursday’s you are doing well. Will Shortz says Thursday is often the most difficult crossword. Have you seen the movie Wordplay? It’s a great peek into the crossworld.

Yes, I have, back when it first came out.

I was under the impression that Monday was the easiest, and they got harder each day, culminating in Saturday's puzzle (the hardest). Sunday is mistakenly believed to be the hardest because it is the biggest, but the target difficulty for Sunday is moderate,

That’s what I thought also, but he said it. To me also Saturday is hardest, but maybe by then I am just tired of it 🙄 For sports I ask (warning: cliché) my husband for help and for pop culture I ask my nephews.

ETA … I guess i should add that he said it in the mid 2000’s, and things do change!

Thursday is usually considered more difficult because there's usually some sort of trick to the answers, like putting two or more letters in one box, having some answers run backwards, and the like.

per the old gray lady herself:

The Saturday crossword is actually the hardest puzzle of the week. Mondays have the most straightforward clues and Saturday clues are the hardest, or involve the most wordplay. Contrary to popular belief, the Sunday puzzles are midweek difficulty, not the hardest.

I have done them solo so far. For clues I don't really know, I just wait until it becomes obvious. Most of it I have heard of, with one ear.

I did read somewhere that when asked if it was cheating to look something up, Will said "it is your puzzle, solve it however you like." Which at least frees me from the specter of his disapproval should I decide to cave.

it is your puzzle, solve it however you like

I agree with this, because you can't discount the journey.

Yes Saturday is the toughest xword or supposed to be. Sunday is targeted to be about a Thursday puzzle. I've been doing them for decades and still enjoy them.

Oh, THAT vertex. Got it. I've done it a few times, but it rarely interests me. I've gotten too involved with all the games at puzzle society for my own good. I spend way too much time at it.

Some more pairs that I missed yesterday: done donee; doyen doyenne....and codon hasn't been imbedded in my wheelhouse yet. But happy to get QB today.

Today the Bee disallowed diggity, from the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, ”hot diggity dog!”

Yes I see that a number of times, if the word can't be used standalone but is always paired with another word, then it seems to be disallowed. Of course other examples won't come to mind right now, but I've run into them.

Interesting…I do the xword every day, and I think Friday is the hardest.

What annoys me most is the tricks such as putting two letters in one box, because I do the puzzle online and as far as I can tell, there is no way to enter two letters in one space.

I’m such a nerd that when we’ve been away for a few days, I get excited that I have a few xwords waiting for me. I only do the xword on my ipad, and don’t usually bring it with me when I travel. I only wish they had archives for the spelling bee. But then I’d never get off the couch.

Sueb, online if you hit the esc key it will pop open a box where you can enter more than one letter. Or if you look on the right where the menu is, there's a button for "rebus" which will also open the box so you can enter more than one letter.

Yay mtn! Welcome to the dork side. I adore crossword puzzles. I generally just do Friday Saturday, Sunday puzzles of the New York Times because that’s when we get our paper delivered and i prefer a paper version. I can do much of Friday and some of Saturday. I get impatient and do Sundays on Saturday usually. (Shocking, I know) it’s rare that I don’t finish a Sunday one. But Sundays aren’t that hard and I love themed puzzles. Afterwards, I’ll go to a blog that dissect the nyt puzzles. It may take me an enjoyable hour to do finish the Sunday one and then I’m so chagrined to read all the people that say it was their personal best, did it in 10 minutes…. Like mentioned above, it’s my puzzle.

My goal is to create my own crossword. I’ve written lists of clues and themes, but not really sure how to move on. On my bucket list? To have my name on a New York Times crossword puzzle. But I think I need a collaborator. When I wake up in the middle the night I try and think of crossword clues. Usually the punny ones. In the light of day, it turns out most are keepers.
Has anyone here ever written their own crossword puzzle?

jojo, no, but I've often thought how fun it would be to get one done.

From what I've read, it's pretty much done with software these days. They have software that keeps track of clues and when and how often they appeared. They have software where you tell it the answers you want in it and it helps build the puzzle for you. So now authorship is a lot about the cluing for the answers and developing a unique theme that has the right number of answers that fit the symmetric grid. Sometimes I think how clever only to later learn from rex parker that it's been done X number of times before.

I suspect getting a collaborator with xword creation experience would be the best way.

Thanks Annie!

Another Spelling Bee giveaway today. Sam must have something up his sleeve…

Or maybe he's taking a vacation and turned it over to an intern!

Why not yoyo? And yet allows the most inane words.

I think it's because yo-yo is hyphenated. Doesn't stop me from trying it every time, though! 🤦‍♀️

Another freebie today.

I would have gueesed that today’s accepable yo word was hyphenated.

Unhyphenated yoyo is an accepted spelling, but not by Sam. I think today's accepted YO word is dodgy.

Isn’t yoyo a brand name?

I don't think so. We used to use Duncans and I think another brand. My parents banned me from doing Around the World in the house after the string broke.

I will consider these comments non-spoil-y because it is in the hints. I agree with you Bunny. Dodgy.