Monthly Archives: October 2021

NYT Spelling Bee 10-23-21 final

Tonight Calah and I got our booster shots for the vaccine. How am I eligible? My lovely wife works with the infirm, and I live with her, So as scary as it sometimes is knowing that she intentionally goes into places where the people are guaranteed to be sick to the point of knowing that they need medical attention, there’s the benefit in knowing that I’m at an elevated risk of catching scary stuff. I know that tomorrow is going to be a bear, but 🤷‍♀️.

Yesterday I missed DIME, EDDIED, FIEF, HIDE, HIED, MEDIUM, MUDDIED, and MUMMIFIED.

Meatier Misses

It was a short Spelling Bee, and I didn’t miss anything too nuts.

Today’s summary

Letters: ADEIHNP
Final score: 44 words for 218 points.
Genius minimum: 213 points.
First word: ADDENDA.
Pangrams: PINHEAD and PINHEADED.

NYT Crossword Puzzle October 23, 2021 Complete (contains spoilers)

I pulled out 15A Like cranks: GROUCHY because I’ve found that the only crossword thing worse than a puzzle edited by Will Shortz is a puzzle edited by Will Shortz and written by Sam Ezersky. The NYT Spelling Bee has a lot of nonsense, and when Sam writes a crossword puzzle, it’s not much different. A lot of the words were weird, and the tougher answers weren’t rewarding.

The best part was that there was no theme for this Saturday puzzle.

Finished this one in 24:23.

DayThis WkBestAverage4-Wk AvgStreak
Monday7:413:499:235:3980
Tuesday7:105:2213:118:604
Wednesday15:527:3817:0317:4221
Thursday24:1112:1228:2022:157
Friday18:5210:2930:5817:3621
Saturday24:2320:1132:4824:2520
Sunday15:1152:4140:337

NYT Crossword Puzzle 10-22-21 Complete (contains spoilers)

I’ve run out of time to write this post, so I’ll get back to this

Finished this one in 18:52.

DayThis WkBestAverage4-Wk AvgStreak
Monday7:413:499:235:3980
Tuesday7:105:2213:118:604
Wednesday15:527:3817:0317:4221
Thursday24:1112:1228:2022:157
Friday18:5210:2930:5817:3621
Saturday20:1132:4831:5920
Sunday15:1152:4140:337

NYT Crossword Puzzle 10-21-21 Complete (contains spoilers)

More later, but I’ve run out of time and have an early morning. Go Dodgers! Two more to win to get to the World Series 😮 😮 😮

I pulled out 20A Number of Emily Dickinson poems, out of the 1,700+ she wrote, that were published during her lifetime: TEN because I find it amazing that she only had 10 items published while she was alive and people are talking about her a century later. Meanwhile I’m nearing 1000 posts on this blog, and I have no illusions that people not related to me will know about me a quarter of a century after I’m wormfood.

Finished this one in 24:11.

DayThis WkBestAverage4-Wk AvgStreak
Monday7:413:499:235:3979
Tuesday7:105:2213:118:603
Wednesday15:527:3817:0317:4220
Thursday24:1112:1228:2022:156
Friday10:2930:5817:3019
Saturday20:1132:4831:5919
Sunday15:1152:4140:336

NYT Spelling Bee 10-19-21 final

I don’t know what will happen by the time this post publishes at 11:58pm, but it’s looking bad for the Dodgers.

Yesterday I missed BINNING, BOBBIN, NOGGIN, and UNION.

Meatier Misses

GIBING: Making insulting or mocking remarks; jeering.
NUBBIN: A small lump or residual part.

Today’s summary

Letters: FACELTU
Final score: 42 words for 159 points.
Genius minimum: 158 points.
First word: FAUCET.
Last word: FETAL.
Pangrams: FLUCTUATE and EFFECTUAL.

NYT Crossword Puzzle 10-19-21 Complete (contains spoilers)

I pulled out 22A Dead even: ALLTIEDUP because right now the Dodgers are up by two after one inning, and all tied up would be the best case outcome of tomorrow’s game. Now I’m back to this post, and Dodgers are down 5-2 at the Seventh Inning Stretch. Ridiculous.

Theme!

19A *Children’s book whose title character says “If I can fool a bug, I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs”: CHARLOTTESWEB.
6D *Chain known for its soft pretzels: AUNTIEANNES.
25D *Prominent left-leaning political action committee: EMILYSLIST.

28D Literary trio found in the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues: THEBRONTES. Charlotte Bronte, Anne Bronte, and Emily Bronte.

Finished this one in 7:10.

DayThis WkBestAverage4-Wk AvgStreak
Monday7:413:499:235:3979
Tuesday7:105:2213:118:603
Wednesday7:3817:0315:5719
Thursday12:1228:2026:545
Friday10:2930:5817:3019
Saturday20:1132:4831:5919
Sunday15:1152:4140:336

Woodworking: Kitchen Cart Workbench Project (Part 2)

Last week I left off having installed the mounts for the vise to this workbench.

The focus this week was to attach the mounts for the belt sander disc sander combo.

This stage was delayed dramatically by the excessive winds we have had in LA and the rain in LA. I also diverted a lot of my time on Sunday to my next project, a cutting board from scratch. You’ll see this workbench in the next series without the anchors for anything but the vise.

As usual, I started out with drawing where the holes would be.

And to keep the holes vertical, I made use of the bubble level.

I stepped up one bit at a time so as to avoid any mistakes.

They were shaping up nicely.

Cleaning up the debris took about five seconds with the Vacmaster.

For easier insertion of the anchors while preserving maximum bite, I drilled out the tops of each hole to make it stepped.

See?

And there. I didn’t care about the tearout because this is a workbench.

Finally time to put in the anchors. There are only two mounting holes for this belt sander disc sander combo. I think if I’d designed it, I’d have made it with three or four mounts, but the manufacturer clearly thought that would be overkill. And in my uses of it to date, I haven’t yet disagreed.

That wouldn’t do, of course.

Far superior.

Perfect.

Same process for the other anchor,

All six mounts flat against the surface. No protrusions and full grip. Very proud!

But did I align it properly?

Yes!

And yes!

Next week will be the conclusion of this series with the installation of the table saw. I won’t take the same approach as I had for the coffee table for a reason you’ll see then.

NYT Spelling Bee 10-18-21 final

Ugh the Dodgers lost yesterday after blowing a 2-0 lead and then a 4-2 lead. I’m super annoyed at this 0-2. It should be 2-0.

Yesterday I missed INDUCTEE (the second pangram), DEDUCE, DUETTED, DUNE, DUNNED, NUDE (despite having gotten DENUDE, DENUDED, and NUDIE), TUTTED, TUTTI, UNDID, UNEDITED, UNIT, and UNNEEDED.

Meatier Misses

EDUCE/EDUCED: Formal Bring out or develop (something latent or potential)

Etymoloygy!

educe (v.)

early 15c., in the literal sense, “to draw out, extract; branch out,” from Latin educere “to lead out, bring out” (troops, ships, etc.; see educate). Meaning “bring into view or operation” is from c. 1600. Meaning “to draw a conclusion from data” is from 1837.


ENDUE/ENDUED: Literary Endow or provide with a quality or ability.

Today’s summary

Letters: IBGNOUX
Final score: 21 words for 138 points.
Genius minimum: 122 points.
First word: BOXING.
Pangram: UNBOXING.
Tweets:

Because GNU’s not Unix!