NG 122

New game 122 is now available.


Round 1: C A C E T A B F I

Ergh, hardly a reassuring mix to start!  I had BEAT, ABATE, noticed that an R instead of a C would give FABRICATE, wondered about BACCATE (it turns out to be valid: "berry-like"), FACIAE (uncertain, because FACIA is listed as a variant spelling of FASCIA, whose plural is FASCIAE, but FACIAE is not explicitly listed; I've encountered this before), and FACETIA.

I wasn't sure about either of the sevens, and I knew the six was a grey area.  I decided to try FACETIA, though, and that was unfortunate.  The Macquarie lists the plural form FACETIAE ("coarsely written books") explicitly as a plural noun, so the singular FACETIA is not considered valid.  I'll note that this is not just the Macquarie's vagaries this time -- Chambers behaves the same.  A little unfortunate, perhaps, but I wasn't unwarned -- I'd looked this word up for episode 71, as it turns out.

BACCATE is thus the only seven; the only six is ACETIC.

My selection: [invalid -- FACETIA]
Best: BACCATE


Round 2: L G O H E O S A E

I had an uncertain LOGH (invalid -- I was thinking of LOUGH, meaning a lake), HOLE, HOLES, and HALOES.  I amused myself with the idea of a GASHOLE, but it was only after time that I adjusted it to GASOHOL.  (Actually, it's slightly worse than that -- I saw GASOHOL within time but incorrectly thought it would be spelled GASAHOL; only after time did I get the spelling correct.)  I also noted EAGLES as another six.

GASOHOL looks like the only seven; the other sixes are GALOSH and GOLOSH (variant spelling of GALOSH).  David pointed out in episode 362 that the singular form was acceptable even though it is more usually seen in the plural.

Staying with only four vowels here would have brought in a C to replace the E, allowing the eight of GALOCHES (since GALOCHE is listed as another variant spelling of GALOSH).

My selection: HALOES
Best: GASOHOL


Round 3: Target 107 from 50 100 75 1 7 4

A trivial solution is 107 = 100 + 7, so I went looking for a more interesting one.  I started by multiplying the target by 7 to get a new target, and it all worked out rather neatly to give me 107 = (4*(100 + 75) + 50 - 1)/7.

My selection: 107 = (4*(100 + 75) + 50 - 1)/7


Round 4: C A P O S U R I B

I had CAPO ("a leader in the Mafia organisation"), CAPOS, CROPS, CURIOS, amused myself with BICARPOUS, worried about SUBPAR (it is not listed), then found CARIBOU and CARIBOUS for eight.  I recalled having looked this up in the past -- both CARIBOU and CARIBOUS are acceptable plural forms.

The other eights are BIPAROUS (oops -- I thought of this within time, but ended up confused between it and BICARPOUS and did not write it down; it means "Zoology bringing forth offspring in pairs") and SAPROBIC (adjective derived from SAPROBE: "an organism that derives its nourishment from dead and decaying organic matter").

The other sevens are PROSAIC (ah, I knew those seven letters made a word but I couldn't put my finger on it) / PICAROS  (PICARO being a variant form of PICAROON: "a rogue, thief, or brigand") and CARIOUS ("decayed") / CURIOSA ("books, pamphlets, etc., dealing with unusual subjects, especially pornographic ones (a term used by booksellers and collectors); erotica").

My selection: CARIBOUS


Round 5: N E R U D I D E F

I had RUNE, UNDER, UNDERFED, UNFIRED, UNDRIED, REFINED, and REFUNDED.

Those look like the only eights; presumably when the Macquarie catches up with Facebook we will have FRIENDED (and possibly DEFRIEND), but it's not there yet.  The other sevens are DEFINED, DEFINER, and ENDURED.

My selection: REFUNDED


Round 6: Target 779 from 75 100 4 3 10 9

Heh, I made life difficult for myself on this one.  I started want to make this as 770 + 9, but I split the 77 as 10*77 and could not make the 77.  Flailing around for options I ended up trying to get there from 900, and rather fortuitously the offset of 121 is 75 + 36 + 10; the resulting solution was 779 = 9*(100 - 4) - 75 - 10.  Then I took a mental step back and found the much easier way to split the 770, getting 779 = (4 + 3)*(100 + 10) + 9.

While writing this up I have seen yet another method: 779 = (10 - 3)*100 + 75 + 4.

My selection: 779 = 9*(100 - 4) - 10 - 75


Round 7: G O T E L I R O S

I had GOITRE, GLORIES, and ORIOLES (an ORIOLE being a type of bird).  After time I noted down some other sevens that I'd seen within time: GOITRES / GOITERS / GORIEST, LOITERS, SOOTIER, STOOLIE, and RETOOLS / LOOTERS.

There's several more sevens, but the eight to be had is OESTRIOL ("an oestrogenic steroid hormone [...] occurring in the placenta and in pregnancy urine").

My selection: ORIOLES
Best: OESTRIOL


Round 8: Target 516 from 75 50 6 1 4 8

I struggled a bit due to focusing overmuch on 8*75 as a starting point, but once I shifted tacks I was able to find a use for the factor of 4 via 516 = 4*(75 + 50 + 6) - 8.

My selection: 516 = 4*(75 + 50 + 6) - 8


Round 9: BOTTOM OAR

A bit of a hint in the conundrum, perhaps, which I could not resist providing.  Once I extracted the MOTOR fragment the answer of MOTORBOAT was clear.

My selection: MOTORBOAT (4.2s)