NG 36

New game 36 is up.


Round 1: M C R A E D O C N

I had CRAM, CREAM, COMRADE, and ROMANCED.

ROMANCED is the only eight; the other sevens are ROMANCE, CAROMED, and ROADMEN (plural of ROADMAN: "a man who repairs roads").  Thanks to Jan for finding that last, which was not in the word list that I use.


Round 2: L U C A P O D I S

I had CAUL, CUPOLA ("a rounded vault or dome constituting, or built upon a roof"), CUPOLAS, and CUSPIDAL ("of, like, or having a cusp").  I also correctly rejected CUSPOIDAL and PLACIDOUS, not that either was particularly tempting.

The other eight here is PLACOIDS, PLACOID being any member of a particular group of fishes that includes sharks and rays.

The other sevens are PLACOID, UPLOADS, COPULAS (one plural form of COPULA: "something that connects or links together"; the other is COPULAE) / SCOPULA ("a small tuft of hairs, as on the feet of some spiders"), and SPICULA (variant form of SPICULE: "a small or minute, slender, sharp-pointed body or part").


Round 3: Target 713 from 25 2 7 8 8 3

Working from 700 seemed more plausible than from 725, and a little tweak on the options saw me home with 713 = (25*8/2 + 3)*7 - 8.

Later checking shows that there are a couple of solutions based on the factorisation 23*31, as well as one other making it as 47*15 + 8.  Details left for the interested reader to find. *chuckles*


Round 4: M A T O N A R I F

I got a bit distracted by the not-there FORMATION, alas.  I had ATOM, MANTRA, and wondered about FORMANT but decided against it.  It would have been valid, though: "any of several frequency regions of relatively greater intensity in a sound spectrum [...]".  Oh, well.  I also noted MARTIAN, but was rightly confident that it would require the capital letter.

There are two eights here, though: A relatively straightforward ANIMATOR and a somewhat less easy FORAMINA (plural of FORAMEN, which I mentioned back in episode 402: "an opening, orifice, or short passage [...]").  I recognised FORAMINA immediately when the word list yielded it, but I have to admit that I'm not likely to ever spot it within regulation time.

The other sevens are TAMARIN (a type of monkey) and the musical direction ANIMATO.


Round 5: G M R D A I I D S

I had GRAM, a slightly uncertain MIDAIR (I could imagine it being hyphenated), GRAMS, and GRIDS.  I briefly flirted with MIRIADS as a misspelling of MYRIADS, but gave up on that and decided to go with MIDAIR.  That turned out to be the right thing to do.

After time I saw the possibility of DIGRAMS (thinking of both the BIGRAMS and DIGRAPHS meanings), but it turns out that the Macquarie does not allow it.

It does, however, list MIDAIR with a noun sense ("a collision between two aeroplanes which takes place in midair"), so MIDAIRS is a valid seven and looks like the only one.

The other sixes are DISARM, MISDID, and GADIDS (GADID being a type of fish).


Round 6: Target 676 from 25 75 9 6 10 9

The target is the square of 26, which I would have liked to use but was not able to manage to.  Once I stopped looking for that I realised that it was just one away from 9*75, and the next step was trivial: 676 = 9*75 + 10 - 9.


Round 7: S O I E C J K T H

I almost talked myself out of trying a dubious word here, but I'm glad I took the risk.  I had JOCKS, JOKES, rejected HOCKIES, SOCKET, ITCHES, HICKEST (single-syllable rule for adjectives), and CHOKIEST.  I vacillated a bit about CHOKIEST; it looks pretty unlikely, but I thought that CHOKIER had come up before.  (That is correct; I've mentioned it in episode 34 and episode 398.)  I decided against it, then changed my mind at what I consider the last reasonable moment, and was relieved when checking confirmed my recollections.

After time I noted KITSCH as another six.

CHOKIEST looks like the only eight, and although some sources would allow HOKIEST and JOKIEST the Macquarie does not.  But commenter Jan did well to find the only seven of HOCKETS (HOCKET: "a stylistic feature of medieval polyphony whereby two voices, with single notes or small groups of notes, are rapidly alternated, one part resting while the other sounds").


Round 8: Target 693 from 100 75 5 2 9 3

Thanks to the previous numbers round I noticed that the target was near 9*75 this time, and the offset of 18 was also divisible by 9.  A quick tweak gave the solution 693 = 9*(75 + 2), and then I realised that the target was a familiar 11*63 = 7*9*11.

After time I experimented with making the target as 618 + 75, eventually finding the solution 693 = (9 + 2 - 5)*(100 + 3) + 75.


Round 9: RIM SNEERS

I pulled out the -NESS fragment early, but still took 6.7s to untangle MERRINESS from that.