NG 69

New game 69 is up a bit early.


Round 1: G R S A A A R D E

I had RAGS, SAGA, AGARS (AGAR: "Biology a culture medium with an agar-agar base"), GRADS (GRAD is not short for GRADUATE, because that form needs a period, but instead is a unit of angular measurement equal to "one hundredth of a right angle"; to put it another way, it is nine-tenths of a degree), GRADES, GRADERS, and ADAGES.

The other seven here is REGARDS.

My selection: GRADERS


Round 2: T J M O O E N L O

I had MOOT ("subject to argument or discussion; debatable; doubtful"), TOME, MOLTEN, and MOONLET.  Unfortunately I was the victim of faulty memory here; as I mentioned in episode 79, I've looked this up before and it's not in the Macquarie.  Bother.

Six is the best possible, and the others are both anagrams of MOLTEN: MELTON ("a smooth heavy woollen cloth, used for coats, hunting jackets, etc.") / LOMENT ("a legume which is contracted in the spaces between the seeds, and breaks at maturity into one-seeded indehiscent joints").

My selection: [invalid -- MOONLET]


Round 3: Target 150 from 50 25 75 100 7 5

A disappointingly easy target; I wrote down 150 = 100 + 50 and left it at that.

My selection: 150 = 100 + 50


Round 4: T I R E W U H T O

I had RITE, WRITE, WITHER / WRITHE, contemplated WHITEOUT but correctly rejected it -- it is listed, but requires the hyphen -- and WITHOUT for seven.

Seven is the best after all; some sources would have allowed OUTWRITE or OUTTHREW, but they are not in the Macquarie.  The other seven is the radioactive mineral THORITE.

My selection: WITHOUT


Round 5: P T A E C D A U F

I had TAPE, ACTED, and UPDATE.  After time I noted FACADE as another six.

The other sixes are FAUCET, TEACUP, and ACUATE ("sharpened; pointed").

But there is a seven: CAUDATE ("having a tail or tail-like appendage").

My selection: UPDATE


Round 6: Target 649 from 100 3 4 6 9 5

Using 6*100 is an obvious start, which just requires getting to 49 with the small numbers and possibly a tweak of the 6.  A little experimentation turned up the solution 649 = 6*(100 + 9) - 5, and then I tried applying the same idea to work down from 700 instead.  That also worked, and my second solution was 649 = (4 + 3)*(100 - 6) - 9.

My selection: 649 = 6*(100 + 9) - 5


Round 7: P C E E T G O E R

I had an uncertain COPT (invalid -- it is only listed capitalised: "An Egyptian descended from the ancient Egyptians"), POET, and PROTÉGÉ.  I then wondered if this was one of those situations where there are forms for both genders and wrote down PROTÉGÉE also.  I wasn't sure enough, though, so I stayed with the seven.

It would have been valid, however, and PROTÉGÉE is the only eight here.  The other seven is CORTEGE ("a train of attendants; retinue").

The sixes are COPTER and RECEPT ("Psychology an idea formed by the repetition of similar percepts, as sucessive percepts of the same object").

My selection: PROTÉGÉ


Round 8: Target 567 from 25 2 10 5 7 1

The factor of 7 is obvious, and the cofactor of 81 is 27*3 amongst other forms.  I first went with 567 = ((25 + 5 + 10)*2 + 1)*7 and then used that second idea to get 567 = (25 + 2)*(10/5 + 1)*7.

My selection: 567 = ((25 + 5 + 10)*2 + 1)*7


Round 9: LENS BANDS

The choice here was really between the -LESS and -NESS endings.  The latter turned out to work better this time, and I found BLANDNESS a bit over five seconds in.

My selection: BLANDNESS (5.3s)