NG 306

New game 306 is now available.  I hope everyone had a nice Australia Day!


Round 1: T I R A A T N A T

I had TIARA, TRAIT, TARTAN, ATTAIN, and wanted a final L for TARLATAN ("a thin, open, stiff cotton fabric, not washable").  No such luck, so I continued with RATTAN and wondered about TANTRA.  I was not too surprised when later checking confirmed that the capital letter was required for it.

Shortly after time expired I spotted the seven of ATTAINT ("Law History to condemn by a sentence or a bill or act of attainder") -- those three T's were useful, after all.  The other seven here is TANTARA ("a blast of a trumpet or horn").

My selection: TARTAN
Best: ATTAINT


Round 2: N E E R D I P C H

I had NERD, NEREID (a type of marine worm), PRINCE, PINCHED, and CHIRPED.  After time I noted PERCHED as another seven.

There's a few eights here: ENRICHED, ENCIPHER, CIPHERED / DECIPHER, and EPHEDRIN (variant spelling of EPHEDRINE).  The other sevens are PIERCED, INHERED, RIPENED / REPINED (REPINE: "to be fretfully discontented and out of sorts"), and PINCHER / PHRENIC ("Anatomy of or relating to the diaphragm") / NEPHRIC (synonymous with RENAL: "of or relating to the kidneys or the surrounding regions").

My selection: PINCHED
Best: ENRICHED


Round 3: Target 471 from 75 25 7 7 8 1

The offset of 4 is hard to make; the offset of 21 is more tempting with all those 7's, but also proves difficult.  In the end I tweaked my way to one off with 470 = 7*(75 - 8) + 1, and that was the best I could do.

The straightforward way to solve this is to make it as written: 400 + 71.  71 is 8*8 + 7, so a quick tweak solves it: 471 = (75 - 25 + 8)*8 + 7, where one of those 8's is 7 + 1.  There's only one other solution, making the target as 496 - 25 (or, viewed another way, getting the offset of 4 as an offset of 8*13 = 104) via 471 = (75 - 7 - 7 + 1)*8 - 25.

My selection: 470 = 7*(75 - 8) + 1  [1 off]
Best: 471 = (75 - 25 + 7 + 1)*8 + 7


Round 4: V S O L C E M A O

I had a dubious VOLS (not valid -- VOL. is listed as an abbreviation, but the full stop is not allowed, of course), CLOVES, CAMEOS, hoped for a final I for CAMISOLE but was disappointed, and VAMOOSE.  After time I noted that an N instead of the M would have allowed VOLCANOES.

The other sevens are ALCOVES / COEVALS (COEVAL: "a contemporary"), and COELOMS (COELOM: "the body cavity of a metazoan, as distinguished from the intestinal cavity").

My selection: VAMOOSE


Round 5: U F S S O A C U N

I had FUSS, FOCUS, wondered about UNFOCUS but did not like it (indeed, it is not listed, although UNFOCUSED is), noted that an E instead of one of those U's would have yielded the eight of CONFUSES, and then somehow dredged up the seven of FUSCOUS ("dark brownish grey") from the recesses of my mind.  I've no idea where I encountered that, but it's a highly satisfactory result.

FUSCOUS is the only seven; the six here is SNAFUS.  There's a few other fives, of which I'll just mention SOFAS.

My selection: FUSCOUS


Round 6: Target 120 from 25 10 9 2 9 3

Reasonably easy in the small numbers alone; I went with 120 = (9 + 3)*10.

My selection: 120 = (9 + 3)*10


Round 7: O B G K D T A I L

I had BOAT, noted DAKOIT (good in Scrabble) but knew that the Macquarie only had the DACOIT spelling, was similarly aware that GALIOT / LATIGO keep showing up in my Scrabble search but neither is in the Macquarie (Chambers lists GALIOT as a variant form of GALLIOT: "a small galley; an old Dutch cargo-boat"; LATIGO appears to be a type of leather), and settled on BIGOT for five.

After time I noted GLOAT and TIDAL as other fives, amused myself with OBLADI, wondered about BIGLOT (not valid; the right form was DIGLOT: "bilingual"), and an uncertain KITBAG (valid: "a long canvas bag in which soldiers, etc., carry their personal belongings").

The sixes are DIGLOT (as mentioned) and  DIALOG (American spelling of DIALOGUE in a computer context) / ALGOID ("like algae").  But there is a seven lurking in this mix: TABLOID.

My selection: BIGOT
Best: TABLOID


Round 8: Target 271 from 100 3 10 2 9 4

My first instinct was to start with 3*9*10 = 270, but it's not possible to adjust by one from that start.  I fooled around with a couple of ideas, first finding success with 280 - 9 as 271 = (100/4 + 3)*10 - 9.  Then I looked at more standard approaches of descending from 300, getting 271 = 3*(100 - 10) + 9 - 2*4 and 271 = 3*(100 - 9) - 2.

My selection: 271 = (100/4 + 3)*10 - 9


Round 9: SHADE FOOL

I chose this conundrum after being presented with the similar SELFHOODS.

My selection: [N/A -- conundrum chosen explicitly]
Best: FALSEHOOD