NG 150

New game 150 is now available.


Round 1: D G T E A N C E O

I had GATED, TANGED (TANG as a verb: "to furnish with a tang", where in this case TANG means "a long and slender projecting strip, tongue, or prong forming part of an object, as a chisel, file, knife, etc., and serving as a means of attachment for another part, as a handle or stock"), CANTED / DECANT, CONGEE ("a Chinese dish consisting of a thick soup or porridge made from rice or other grain [...]"), rejected ENCOATED (correctly), ENACTED, and then was pleased to spot ANECDOTE for eight.

After time I noted another seven of COGNATE ("related in origin").  No verb sense, though, so COGNATED is not valid.

ANECDOTE is the only eight; the other sevens are DECAGON, ACETONE, ENCAGED, TANGOED, NEGATED, and CONGEED (CONGEE as a verb: "to take one's leave").

The near-miss seven is CANT DOG ("a wooden lever with a movable iron hook near the lower end, used for grasping and canting or turning over logs, etc."), which must be two words.

My selection: ANECDOTE


Round 2: D N R E I M E D I

I had REND, DINER, MINDER / REMIND, and REMINDED.

The seven in this mix is ERMINED.

My selection: REMINDED


Round 3: Target 440 from 75 25 6 5 7 2

I started off in complicated fashion, for some reason fixating on 7*75 as a starting point.  I was able to make that work with 440 = 7*75 - 25 - 2*5*6, fortunately enough.  Then I tried the factorisation 44*10 and found 440 = (75 - 25 - 6)*2*5, and finally did the sensible thing and started with 6*75 to get the easy solution of 440 = 6*75 - 2*5.

My selection: 440 = 6*75 - 2*5


Round 4: P B K A A E B F T

I had BAKE and ABAFT (a nautical term for "at or towards the stern; aft").  I'd hoped that one of the last three consonants would have been a C for PEBCAK, but no joy on that front.

Five does seem to be the best on offer; the others are ABATE, KEBAB, and KABAB (variant spelling of KEBAB).

My selection: ABAFT


Round 5: S W Y A E M M I P

I had SWAY, EASY, wondered about SAMEY (not valid), similarly wondered about SWIMMY (also not valid), SWAMPY, and was rightly highly dubious of WAMMIES and YAMMIES (although YAMMIE turns out to be listed with a capital letter: "a Yamaha motorcycle").  After time I wrote down SPAMMY as another dubious try, but it also is not listed.

So at least I chose the valid six of SWAMPY out of all those wrong guesses, but it was not hard to see it as much more plausible than the rest.

There is a seven, though; the six of PYEMIA is a variant spelling of PYAEMIA: "the growth, in different tissues, of multiple metastatic abscesses, developing from emboli disseminated in the bloodstream as fragments of a disintegrating thrombus".  Consequently PYEMIAS is a seven in the mix.

The other sixes are SAMMIE (colloquial for a sandwich) and MAMEYS (MAMEY being a variant spelling of MAMMEE, a type of tree). 

My selection: SWAMPY
Best: PYEMIAS


Round 6: Target 892 from 75 7 4 2 1 6

The standard method is clearly the way to go, and fortunately a 12 is easy.  The rest is just a quick tweak: 892 = 2*(6*75 - 4).  There's many alternative ways to approach it similarly; the other that I found within time was 892 = (8 + 4)*75 - 8, where one 8 is 7 + 1 and the other is 6 + 2.

My selection: 892 = 2*(6*75 - 4)


Round 7: S L T R O A O D H

I had SLOT, ROOTS, and HARLOTS.  I searched for a more show-friendly word longer than five but without success.

That seems to be the only seven; the sixes are HARLOT, HOARDS, DROOLS / DOLORS, DORSAL, and THOLOS (variant spelling of THOLUS: "a circular building or part of one, as a dome, cupola, or lantern").

My selection: HARLOTS


Round 8: Target 553 from 100 50 10 9 3 6

An easy round for the standard method; I started with 553 = 9*50 + 100 + 3, then worked down from above instead with 553 = 6*100 - 50 + 3.  Then I looked for some tweakage and got that to work with 553 = 6*(100 - 9) + 10 - 3.

My selection: 553 = 9*50 + 100 + 3


Round 9: CHEESE BED

There's not too much rearranging required to turn that into BESEECHED.  There was even less required in the form that was presented to me, so I'm a bit concerned about my speed (as usual).

My selection: BESEECHED (1.7s)