NG 319

New game 319 is now available.


Round 1: E G C R E I S U B

I had RICE, CRUISE, BRUISE, and SUBERIC ("of or relating to cork").

The eight in this mix is ICEBERGS.  The other sevens are ICEBERG and BURGEES (BURGEE: "a swallow-tailed flag or pennant, in the merchant service generally bearing the ship's name").  One might be tempted to try RUGBIES, but the Macquarie does not list a plural form and it would have been rejected (which is fair enough in this case, I think).

My selection: SUBERIC
Best: ICEBERGS


Round 2: F N L I O S T E O

I had LION, LIONS, FOILS, TOONIES (TOONIE being a Canadian term for their two dollar coin), and LOONIEST / OILSTONE ("a fine-grained whetstone whose rubbing surface is lubricated with oil").

Those appear to be the only eights; the other sevens are LOTIONS, LOONIES, FESTOON, FLOOSIE (variant spelling of FLOOZY) / FOLIOSE ("leafy"), FOOTIES, FOOTLES (FOOTLE: "to talk or act in a silly way"), OLEFINS (OLEFIN being any one of a certain family of alkenes), STOOLIE (colloquial for "a stool pigeon") / TOOLIES (TOOLIE: "a young male who is older than the school leavers who gather for schoolies week, but who joins them in pursuit of sex") / OSTIOLE ("a small opening or orifice") / OOLITES (OOLITE: "a small spherical to ellipsoidal concretion, usually calcareous, formed in shallow water under special conditions"), and ISOTONE ("one of two or more atoms whose nuclei contain the same number of neutrons, although they have different atomic numbers").

One might get away with TEFLONS, too, although I'd regard it as risky (but arguably no riskier than a lot of other substance plurals that I've accepted before).

My selection: OILSTONE


Round 3: Target 488 from 50 75 25 7 6 8

The target is 8*61, which naturally caught my eye since we had an 8.  The 61 was also manageable, yielding the solution 488 = (75 - 7*50/25)*8.  Then I looked at more standard options, and since 7 + 6 = 13 the approach of 475 + 13 looked promising.  That also worked out to give me another solution: 488 = 8*50 + 75 + 7 + 6.

My selection: 488 = (75 - 7*50/25)*8


Round 4: L P R D E O D H O

I had PLED, PORED, wondered about HODDLE (not valid; I worked out later that I was trying to recall HEDDLE), briefly amused myself with the idea of DOPELORD, and finally settled on DROOPED for seven.

The other sevens are DROOLED / DOODLER and PLODDER.

My selection: DROOPED


Round 5: C T R T C T U E A

Gah, the duplication.  I had CURT, TRUCE, CUTTER, and TATTER.  CUT-RATE is listed, but only hyphenated (or as two words).

Six looks like the best to be done; the others are ACCRUE, CURATE, and TAUTER.

My selection: TATTER


Round 6: Target 345 from 25 100 50 3 6 9

The target is 3*115, which worked out easily enough: 345 = (100 + 6 + 9)*3.  It is also 15*23, which took a little more effort but was manageable: 345 = (9 + 6)*(25 - 100/50).

My selection: 345 = (100 + 6 + 9)*3


Round 7: R O P H R O E G N

I had POOR, HOOP, GROPE, and GROPER.  I also noted that an A instead of one of the O's would have allowed the eight of PARERGON ("subordinate or secondary work, standing apart from one's main occupation").  After time I noted that turning the P into an A instead would have allowed the full monty of GONORRHEA.  If only almost-there words counted... *chuckles*

The probable seven in this mix is HONORER.  (It's the usual story: HONOURER is listed as a derived form of HONOUR, and HONOR as a variant spelling of HONOUR.  But HONORER itself does not get a direct mention.)

Aside from HONORER, six is the best to be done.  The others are GOPHER, POORER, and PERRON ("an outside platform upon which the entrance door of a building opens, with steps leading to it"). 

My selection: GROPER
Best: HONORER (probably)


Round 8: Target 603 from 75 25 10 9 8 7

The standard method quickly led to 603 = 8*75 + 10 - 7.  I noted that the offset of 3 is also an offset of 72 (one of those patterns which I am hoping to spot more quickly in due course), which is handy with and 8 and 9 around.  That meant the target could be made as 675 - 8*9, and a quick tweak finished it off: 603 = 9*(75 - 8).  It was only at that point that I finally realised the target was obviously divisible by 9; sometimes I definitely take the scenic route to these observations!

My selection: 603 = 9*(75 - 8)


Round 9: AVERAGE IT

I was admittedly presented this conundrum in a more gettable form, but still pleased to find VARIEGATE ("to make varied in appearance; mark with different colours, tints, etc.") in three seconds.

My selection: VARIEGATE (3.0s)