NG 214

New game 214 is now available.


Round 1: E E S O T H D E T

I had TOES, THOSE / ETHOS, TEETHED, SHEETED, and ESTHETE (variant spelling of AESTHETE: "someone who cultivates the sense of the beautiful; one very sensitive to the beauties of art or nature").  I was not certain that ESTHETE would be allowed, but later checking confirmed that it was acceptable.  After time I noted SEETHED as another seven.

Seven looks like the best, with the others being TEETHES and SHOTTED (past tense of SHOT as a verb: "to load or supply with shot").

My selection: SHEETED


Round 2: O A O L S C E R L

I had LOOS, COALS, SOLACE, SOLACER / ORACLES, RECALLS, and COLLARS.  After time I noted down the other sevens of SCLERAL (not listed in the Macquarie, for some reason; the SCLERA is "a dense, white, fibrous membrane forming with the cornear the external covering of the eyeball") and CREOSOL ("a colourless oily liquid [...] with an agreeable smell and burning taste, resembling carbolic acid; obtained from wood tar and guaiacum resin").

It seemed a plausible mix for an eight, although I was not able to find one.  But the later search turned up a single eight-letter word: COROLLAS (not the car; here COROLLA is "the internal envelope or floral leaves of a flower, usually of delicate texture and of some colour other than green; the petals considered collectively").

Update: Commenter Victor points out that CORELLAS is also good.

The other sevens are COROLLA, COALERS, COOLERS, CELLARS / CALLERS, AEROSOL / ROSEOLA ("a kind of rose-coloured rash"), LOCALES, and OCELLAR ("related to an ocellus", where an OCELLUS is "an eye-like spot, as on a peacock feather").

My selection: ORACLES
Best: COROLLAS


Round 3: Target 446 from 25 100 2 7 7 9

Bleah, I got lost here.  Obviously the standard method seems like a good start, with the target being 4 away from 450.  450 is 9*50, which could be either 9*25*2 or 9*100/2, but I was not able to get either to work.  On the other hand, 49 is close to 50 and that enabled me to get down a fallback one-away 445 = 7*7*9 + 100/25.

Still within time, I was considering things like 892/2, 7*64 - 2, and 425 + 21 (this last rather tempting because of the 7's).  I was not able to find a solution, though, which in retrospect is disappointing given that some of those approaches were workable.

There turn out to be three solutions.  One is of the form 7*64 - 2; I was not able at the time to make 64 from 100, 25, 7, and 9, but that was because I didn't think of it in those terms.  Had I done so, I might have seen the answer: 446 = 7*(7 + 9)*100/25 - 2.

Another applies the 425 + 21 approach.  The 21 is 3*7, which is 2*7 + 7 and there is some tweaking leeway.  Again, I did not get to the point of considering it this explicitly, but the remaining task of making the 425 is achievable, and the resulting solution is 446 = 9*25 + 2*(100 + 7) + 7.

The final solution is perhaps the simplest in form; it makes the target as 450 - 4 after all, with the help of a little tweaking: 446 = (7*25 - 2)*2 + 100, where one of those 2's is 9 - 7.  I feel particularly embarrassed not to have seen that way of getting the 4.

My selection: 445 = 7*7*9 + 100/25  [1 off]
Best: 446 = 7*(7 + 9)*100/25 - 2


Round 4: A U I T T M O B P

I had MUTT, PUTTO (thanks to yesterday's game: "a representation of a young naked boy, often as a cherub or cupid with wings, in Renaissance and baroque painting and sculpture"), AMBIT ("boundary; limits; sphere"), and was rightly dubious about OUTAIM.

There are some sixes here, though: UTOPIA, OPTIMA, and BITMAP ("a computer graphics image consisting of rows and columns of dots stored as bits").

My selection: AMBIT
Best: UTOPIA


Round 5: E O R T U P G A R

I had TORE, OUTER, POUTER / TROUPE, OUTRAGE, GAROTTE, rejected OUTRAGER (rightly so), and amused myself with the idea of a GROUP RATE.

Seven looks like the limit here, with the others being GROUPER / REGROUP, PORTAGE, RAPTURE, TROUPER, and GROUTER (colloquial for "an unfair advantage").

My selection: OUTRAGE


Round 6: Target 499 from 25 75 10 7 10 3

Definitely a case for the standard method; I started with 499 = 10*(75 - 25) - (7 + 3)/10, then saved a number with 499 = 7*75 - 25 - 10/10.

My selection: 499 = 7*75 - 25 - 10/10


Round 7: I E A D Q R A N R

I had AIDE / IDEA, DRAIN, and DRAINER.

DRAINER is the only seven, and the best to be done (RANDIER is not explicitly listed).

My selection: DRAINER


Round 8: Target 441 from 75 100 7 10 2 6

Thanks to round 3 it was still fresh in my memory that 441 is 7*63, so I wrote down 441 = 7*(75 - 2*6) in short order.  Then I considered 425 + 16 to get 441 = 7*75 - 100 + 10 + 6, and finally got back to the standard method proper with 441 = 6*75 - 7 - 1.

My selection: 441 = 6*75 - 7 - 2


Round 9: GLAD IT ATE

I was just a bit too slow here, finding the answer of TAILGATED at 34.6s.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: TAILGATED