NG 204

New game 204 is now available.


Round 1: T A E T L E E C H

I had TEAT, LATTE, ELATE, CHELATE, and CHATTEL.

Seven is the best on offer, with the others being ATHLETE, LATCHET ("Archaic a strap or lace for fastening a shoe"; it is also a type of fish), and THECATE ("having, or contained in, a theca", where a THECA is "a case or receptacle" plus similar meanings in biological contexts).

My selection: CHELATE


Round 2: R T S I E A G N P

I had STIR, TIRES, SATIRE, TEASING, and struggled a little to use the -ING before I realised that this was a retsina mix and found INGRATES / ANGRIEST.  It seemed like there should be a nine, but the only candidate I found after time was REPASTING, which is not valid (neither as REPASTE + ING nor REPAST + ING).  After time I noted down some other eights of GRANITES / GANTRIES and PANTRIES / PAINTERS.

I recalled Sam mentioning to me once that he had learned all the full monties arising from PAINTERS (and listing most of them), but that was not enough for me to recall the right option.  The full monty in the mix is TRAPESING, where TRAPES is a variant spelling of TRAIPSE.

There's a good many eights, as is to be expected from a retsina mix; I'll just mention some common ones: PERTAINS, SPEARING, and TAPERING.

My selection: INGRATES
Best: TRAPESING


Round 3: Target 785 from 75 25 10 2 5 9

I wanted to make this as 775 + 10, but it felt much more desirable to use the 10 to multiply the 75 by.  The offset is 35, and so I soon had a solution of 785 = 75*10 + 5*(9 - 2).  Then I realised that the 2 and 5 also made a 10 and so the original plan was workable with 785 = 75*10 + 25 + 2*5.

Seen while writing this up is that the option of 800 - 10 - 5 also works: 785 = (9 + 2)*75 - 25 - 10 - 5.

My selection: 785 = 75*10 + 5*(9 - 2)


Round 4: R R S U E I B C D

I had USER, BUSIER / BURIES, BRUISED, CRUISED, SUBERIC ("of or relating to cork"), CRUISER, and wondered about CURBSIDE but thought I had checked this before and that it was not valid.  (It is not valid, although CURB is listed as a variation of KERB and KERBSIDE is valid; such is the Macquarie's way.  I probably checked this for the similar mix in episode 57, although I see that I did not mention it then.)

After time I added BRUISER and CURRIES as other sevens.

That last word could have led me to find the only eight here: SCURRIED (which reminds me of Lily's round-3 remark in episode 301).  There's a few other sevens also, but I'll just mention SCRIBED and RUBRICS.

My selection: BRUISED
Best: SCURRIED


Round 5: F O S D U E S D O

I had FUSED, FUSSED, DOUSES, and DOUSED.

I thought it was a hard mix for anything longer, but there is one such -- the delightful DOOFUSES for eight.  The other sixes are DOOFUS, SOUSED, DOSSED, and DODOES.

My selection: FUSSED
Best: DOOFUSES


Round 6: Target 905 from 25 75 9 1 3 6

The standard method was clearly the go-to option here; I started with 905 = (9 + 3)*75 + 6 - 1 and continued with the minor variation 905 = 9*100 + 6 - 1.

My selection: 905 = (9 + 3)*75 + 6 - 1


Round 7: E C B A O W P O M

A tough mix, although even at the end I was hoping for an S for CABOOSE.  I had PACE, BOOM, CAMEO, COMBO, and POMACE ("the pulpy residue from apples or similar fruit after crushing and pressing, as cider-making").

Six is the limit here; the others are WEBCAM and the plant COWPEA.

My selection: POMACE


Round 8: Target 548 from 25 100 9 7 2 10

I got hung up for a while trying to make this as 550 - 2, without success.  I had to fall back to working up from 7*75, and the offset of 23 turned out to be tweakable since it is 2*7 + 9.  The resulting solution was 548 = 7*(100 - 25 + 2) + 9.

My selection: 548 = 7*(100 - 25 + 2) + 9


Round 9: TIE MY LOVE

I dismissed this one a bit early in my considerations, then reconsidered and found the answer.  But I don't know if I got there in time (I rather doubt it), so I'm scoring this as no answer.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: EMOTIVELY