Hello from Day 14 of the current California COVID curfew!

I almost gave up before genius level because this spelling bee was almost unbearably long. The short ones have grown on me tremendously.

Yesterday I missed LILT, TILL, and TOMTIT.

LILT and TILL, sure.

Argh! TOMTIT is the birds in the chickadee family. So I was very close to Queen Bee.

I like not knowing how far I missed Queen Bee by until the next day. As regular readers know, sometimes I think I’m close, and I’m like a dozen words away; sometimes I think I’m close, and I miss it by a word. But I don’t even know how long that word until it’s too late to act on it.

Final score: 44 words for 214 points.
Genius minimum: 214 points.
First word: CLAIMANT

Update!

Final score: 45 words for 224 points.
Genius minimum: 214 points.
First word: CLAIMANT
Final word: MILITIAMAN

Update!

Final score: 45 words for 229 points.
Genius minimum: 214 points.
First word: CLAIMANT
Pangrams: CLAIMANT, ANTICLIMACTIC
Final word: MANIC

Tweet:

looking for nas in all the wrong places #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/3Abo19ttjg

— Matt Raab ∛ (@theraab) December 3, 2020