NG 72

New game 72 is now available.


Round 1: H D O E L G A U E

Gah, five vowels to start.  On the other hand, it worked out adequately.  I had HOLE, HOLED, LODGE, and LAUGHED.  Note that if the last vowel had been an I then DIALOGUE would have been available for eight.  After time I added LEAGUED as another seven.

Those are the only sevens.  The sixes are LEAGUE, HAULED, HEALED, HALOED, DELUGE, GOALED / GAOLED, EAGLED, and ELODEA (a type of aquatic plant).

My selection: LAUGHED


Round 2: K M S E O A P W U

I had SMOKE and SPEAK.  I could not do any better within time, despite the letters seeming somewhat reasonable.  After time I noted MOUSE and AMUSE as other fives, briefly toyed with AWSOME as an optimistic alternative spelling (it is not valid, unsurprisingly), and then finally saw MAKEUP for six and MAKEUPS for seven.  I was concerned about the possible issue of hyphenation -- the main entry is hyphenated, but the unhyphenated version is provided as an alternative -- and the question of plurality, but one of the meanings of MAKEUP is "a wharf labourer who supplements a gang as required", so MAKEUPS is clearly fine.

The other possible six here is OAKUMS (OAKUM: "loose fibre obtained by untwisting and picking apart old ropes, used for caulking the seams of ships, etc.").

My selection: SMOKE


Round 3: Target 124 from 100 75 9 10 3 8

This one's a little amusing from the point of view of following thought processes.  I noted that the target was one off 5*25, saw that I could get the 25 from 100 - 75, then that the 5 was available from 8 - 3, and that the rest would give the required offset of 1.  So I had an easy 124 = (8 - 3)*(100 - 75) - (10 - 9).  Then I took a mental step back and looked at it again and found the much simpler 124 = 100 + 3*8.  Heh.

My selection: 124 = 100 + 3*8


Round 4: M T D E A I R F U

A mostly-familiar mix, with an option that I knew to avoid.  I had TAMED, FRAMED, MURIATE ("any chloride [...] used as a fertiliser"), and MATURED.  A final O instead of that U would have been nice for MEDIATOR or FORMATED (FORMATE as a verb: "(of aircraft) to group in formation").  I knew to avoid MURIATED thanks to episode 362 and more memorably due to episode 388.

Seven is the best possible; the others are FRUITED and READMIT.

My selection: MURIATE


Round 5: T Z R O I C T A I

I had TRIO, TRICOT (I mentioned this recently in NG 60: "a warp-knit fabric, usually of rayon, with the right and wrong sides different"), and wondered about CITATOR but decided against it.  That was the right decision; although CITATOR is in Scrabble word lists, the closest the Macquarie comes to listing it is CITATORY.

I got distracted for a bit, and when I came back I immediately saw RICOTTA in this mix.  That is the only seven.

The other sixes are AORTIC, IATRIC ("relating to a physician or to medicine"), COTTAR ("Scottish a person occupying a plot of land under a system similar to cottier tenure"), and AZOTIC ("of or relating to azote; nitric"; AZOTE is an obsolete name for the element nitrogen).

My selection: TRICOT


Round 6: Target 414 from 25 50 1 4 9 7

There's a couple of ways to make an eight, so my first attempt was a one-away 413 = (7 + 1)*50 + 9 + 4.  Then I saw that the other option worked well to give a solution of 414 = (9 - 1)*50 + 25 - 7 - 4.  And finally I looked at the factor of 9 and found the much simpler 414 = 9*(50 - 4).

My selection: 414 = 9*(50 - 4)


Round 7: D A L T E I N R B

I had DEALT, DILATE, RETINAL, BLANDER, TRAILED, and LIBRATED (LIBRATE: "to oscillate; sway").  That last was at least in part thanks to David spotting LIBRATES in episode 355.

There's a good many sevens in this mix, but the other eight is BILANDER ("a small merchant vessel with two masts, used on canals and along the coast in the Netherlands, etc.").

My selection: LIBRATED


Round 8: Target 116 from 25 8 4 7 6 4

Getting close with 4*25 was clear, and then the rest was just a tweak away; my answer was 116 = 2*(25 + 4).

My selection: 116 = 4*(25 + 4)


Round 9: SOME TOPIC

I can't report a sensible time here, as what I was originally presented with was PIETOSMIC.  I saw the almost-COMPOSITE there between one and two seconds in (eventually trying for a hopeful misspelling of COMPISITE).  The intended answers for the original form were either IMPETICOS or POETICISM, but the Macquarie does not list either.  As a result I decided to just choose COMPOSITE for the conundrum.

My selection: COMPOSITE (1-2s, dubious)