NG 95

New game 95 is now available; apologies for the delay, it took a while to recover from the failed hard drive at home.


Round 1: W F D H O I O E M

I had DHOW ("an Arab coastal vessel, usually lateen-rigged"), HIDE, HOMED, a venturesome FWOOMED (not valid), and decided to chance WIFEHOOD.  My heart sank when I saw WIFEDOM (the only valid seven, incidentally) listed under the entry for WIFE, but fortunately WIFEHOOD merited a standalone entry.

Those are the only eight and seven; the sixes are HEMOID (variant spelling of HAEMOID: "bloodlike"), WOOFED, FOODIE ("a connoisseur of food"), HOOFED, and HOODIE ("a jacket with a hood").

My selection: WIFEHOOD


Round 2: M S R U I E P S B

I had RUMS, RIMS, MIRES, IMPURE, ERBIUMS (ERBIUM is element number 68) / IMBRUES (IMBRUE: "stain with blood"), UMPIRES, BRUISES, and then a word which was more in the news a couple of years back: SUBPRIME ("US of, relating to, or designating a loan, usually a housing loan, which is risky because the borrower is less than ideal or has an ability to repay which has not been accurately assessed").  I very briefly pondered SUBPRIMES, but was confident that it would not have been nounified yet.

The other eight is PRIMUSES (PRIMUS: "a portable cooking stove burning kerosene. [trademark]").

The other sevens are SIMPERS / IMPRESS / PREMISS (variant form of PREMISE in the sense of "Logic a proposition (or one of several) from which a conclusion is drawn"), BUMPERS, BUMPIER, UPRISES / SUSPIRE (an archaic term for "to breath"), MISUSER / MUSSIER (MUSSY being listed as an American colloquialism for "untidy, messy, or rumpled"), SURMISE, and PURISMS ("scrupulous or excessive observance of or insistence on purity in language, style, etc."; it is also "an instance of [the previous definition]", so definitely pluralisable).

My selection: SUBPRIME


Round 3: Target 965 from 25 7 6 4 5 9

The offsets of 10 and 15 don't look particularly promising, and the corresponding multiples of 25 are 39*25 and 38*25; taken together this doesn't look like a good fit for the standard method, although it did give me a fallback position with the one-away 966 = (7*5 + 4)*25 - 9.  I spent the rest of the time unsuccessfully trying to get a solution of the form 5*193.

With further thought after time I managed to get that to work; the important step was to notice that 193 is 25 + 168, and the latter number is familiar as the number of hours in a week, which is to say 7*24.  That led me to the solution 965 = (4*6*7 + 25)*5.

Another solution which I should have seen earlier -- since I was trying to make it work -- follows from an alternative split of 193 as 175 + 18.  That requires making 18 from 4, 6, 9, but somehow at the time I failed to find it.  While writing this up I saw what I had missed: 965 = (7*25 + 9*(6 - 4))*5; this was the solution that commenter Victor found.

There's actually a fair number of solutions; one that I like makes the target as 940 + 25 like so: 965 = (9*6 - 7)*5*4 + 25.  Another makes it as 960 + 5, which should have been tempting because of the many factors of 960; the corresponding solution is 965 = 6*5*(25 + 7) + 9 - 4.

My selection: 966 = (7*5 + 4)*25 - 9  [1 off]


Round 4: S R N A O K E G A

I had ARSON, RANKS, REASON, and ORANGES.  I also noticed that changing the E to a second O would have allowed KANGAROOS.

Seven is the best; the others are SOAKAGE, ONAGERS (ONAGER: "an ancient and medieval engine of war for throwing stones"), ANGORAS (the entry is capitalised but admits that lower case is acceptable; as a pluralisable noun it can refer to an Angora rabbit, goat, or cat), and ANORAKS.

My selection: ORANGES


Round 5: R T H T N I A U R

I had HINT, HAUNT (that U finally killed the possibility of THIRTEEN), TRUTH, amused myself with the idea of ANTIHURT, and then found TRUANT for six.

After time I saw NUTRIA (another name for the coypu) as another six; the only other six is UNHAIR.

My selection: TRUANT


Round 6: Target 238 from 50 25 6 8 2 1

The standard method suggests making this as 250 - 12, and I soon had a solution of 238 = 8*25 + 50 - 2*6.  Then I tried to make it as 240 - 2, finding the alternative solution of 238 = (25 + 6 - 1)*8 - 2.

My selection: 238 = 8*25 + 50 - 2*6


Round 7: D S N S I A E E L

I had DINS, SANDS, LEADEN, ANISEED, a probable ANISEEDS, DIESELS, correctly rejected LEADINESS, DENIALS, and ISLANDS.  I decided that ANISEEDS was probably good, and that was the correct decision.

The other eights are LINSEEDS / IDLENESS, IDEALESS, and DELAINES (DELAINE: "a thin woollen fabric, often having a printed pattern").

Update: Commenter Victor points out the full monty of IDEALNESS.  The Macquarie does list it; I'm a bit surprised it was not in the online word list I use.  Nice catch, Victor!

My selection: ANISEEDS


Round 8: Target 141 from 100 25 50 4 8 10

Such a small target should be easy, right?  Not so for me, at any rate, with the lack of odd small numbers proving troublesome.  A fallback one-away 142 = 100 + 50 - 8 was trivial, but I was unable to get to the target within time.

After time I hit upon the idea of making this as 282/2.  It took a little prodding to get that to work, but I emerged with 141 = (10*25 + 4*8) / (100/50).

An alternative way to use that approach is 141 = ((25 + 4)*10 - 8) / (100/50).  There's a few other solutions, too, of which my favourite is 141 = (50 + 8)*25/10 - 4.

My selection: 142 = 100 + 50 - 8  [1 off]


Round 9: LOCAL HITS

I got distracted by the not-there ALCOHOL fragment, but once I put that aside I was fortunate enough to hit upon CLOTH and thus find SAILCLOTH in good order.

My selection: SAILCLOTH (8.7s)