I thought I wouldn’t get this done before Yom Kippur started, but I have!

It was a long puzzle, and I found two anagrams. There may have been more.

Yesterday’s misses:
AEON: Just a stupid way of spelling EON. Ridiculous.
AGELONG: Shorter than an AEON, but also longer than AEON.
GALLEON: I missed this? That’s some ship!
GALLON: Embarrassed.
GONNA: Sad.
LLANO: I’m learning all kinds of botany from this game. That’s plain to see.
LOAN: Ugh.
LOLLYGAG: Pretty sure I’ve missed this before, which is a shame because it means dillydally–the point of this game.
LOYAL: My financee is going to give me some real side-eye when she reads this part of the post.
LOYALLY: Again.
NEON: Or she’ll take the noble position and let it slide.
NYLON: Sheer error.
OENOLOGY: Sure, wine not?
OGEE: It’s a good counter point.
ONLAY: A dental thing you can read about here that I don’t care to because dental things make me cringe.
OOLONG: I don’t care for tea, and that’s a good thing because tea prices are rising like crazy right now.

Wow, that’s a lot of missed words. So many chances to make it to genius level.

Today, final score: 47 words for 183 points.

I tore through this one pretty fast, but I can’t seem to find any more words, so I took some time to edit a photo for the first in a short series on haircut posts.

Unfortunately, the Pokémon WEEDLE was not an acceptable word, and DEWED didn’t work, either. That second one is most certainly a real word. Get it together, NYT Spelling Bee.

Yesterday’s missed answers:
ACACIA: Those trees in The Lion King
CALLA: A type of lily.
CALLALOO: A different type of plant. This one used for cooking.
CIAO: My bad here. I should have gotten this one.
COCCI: Scary balls!
GLACIAL: I should have gotten this one, too.
LAICAL: I got LAIC, so I don’t know what happened here.

Today I got pretty far beyond the minimum genius level, but according to my sister, I’m still far afield, so I’ll stop here.

Final score for me: 32 words for 143 points.

I’ve gotten to the genius level for today’s puzzle, but there’s more to go. Today I’m starting the breakdown of what I missed the day before. That way maybe I’ll start to get those words, too.

APORT: on the left side of a ship Makes sense. Shouldn’t miss this one again.
APPARAT: The administrative system of a communist party, especially in a communist country. I should get used to this word if Trump wins again.
ARHAT: (in Buddhism and Jainism) someone who has attained the goal of the religious life. I probably will miss this one again.
ATTAR: rose petal perfume. I may miss this one again, but I don’t know.
HATHA: This does not exist as a standalone word, so shenanigans.
HORTATORY: I hadn’t heard this word before, but the etymology is interesting, so here it is:

hortatory (adj.)
1580s, from Middle French hortatoire and directly from Late Latin hortatorius “encouraging, cheering,” from hortatus, past participle of hortari “exhort, encourage, urge, incite, instigate,” intensive of horiri “urge, incite, encourage,” from PIE root *gher- (2) “to like, want.” Older in English is hortation (1530s), from Latin hortationem.

OATY: What it sounds like. This one is on me for sure.
PARATROOP:

PORTRAY: Yup. My bad.
RAPPORT: Dang.
RATTRAP: And I make fun of restaurants with C’s in the windows!
ROTATORY: I hadn’t known this word wouldn’t receive a red squiggly.
TAPA: The food. I don’t think I’ve ever had tapas. But asking if someone wants to go to a tapas bar with you can get you into trouble if not heard correctly.
TARTAR: “I got so much tartar, I don’t gotta dip my fish sticks in shit!” -Mitch Hedberg z”l
TROTH: The etymology (now obviously) is truth. I have no familiarity with this word.

So there’s a lot to improve upon. I didn’t go much beyond genius level today, so there will be a list tomorrow, too.

I beat the buzzer with this one. It was funny because my heart was pounding as I got close to the deadline. I had been playing the new Rocket League with a buddy, and midnight was coming up quick.

So that I got AORTA as the word that pushed me over was fitting.

Still disappointed that PORTAPOTTY was not a valid word in this puzzle.

Final score: 59 words for 218 points.

Next one about to start.

I didn’t get any more than from the prior post, but I still was in excess of the 115 minimum.

Final score: 29 words for 120 points.

This game wasn’t nearly as bad. There’s still some time before midnight, so I’m pushing for a Queen Bee night, but that’s not going to happen.

TEXMEX was the latest in the looking for food in all the wrong places series.

Yesterday I missed a bunch of stuff that made no sense to miss.

Like how did I not see UNION? or UNCTION?

I really feel like I’m just one word away, and I just can’t get there. I’m looking forward to seeing what I’ve missed. The last time I’d missed just one was when I hadn’t gotten GOOGOL. Also that time I knew the max score and count, so my first Queen Bee would have had an asterisk on it anyway.

Final score: 36 words for 203 points.

So after Rosh Hashanah ended this evening, I went to work on this puzzle. I raced through a shocking number of pangrams and on to genius. I thought that this time I could go all the way.

Now I’m stuck. It’s a horrible feeling when you’ve hit a wall well in excess of minimum genius level. Every additional word found seems like it should be the last, but it just isn’t. I have a short amount of time before the day rolls over to tomorrow, but this is one of those really annoying ones.

So far 36 words for 203 points. And genius was way back at 149.

Wow! So much has happened in the last like 90 minutes! Ruth Bader Ginsburg z”l died. Why right now? Damn.

I did get all the way to genius, so that was good?

Final score: 32 words for 173 points.

Tomorrow I’ll be off from the Spelling Bee for Rosh Hashanah, but I have a couple posts queued up.

Shana tova!

This one is in the books. A little beyond the minimum for genius.

Final score: 32 words for 111 points.

I don’t blame myself for missing FLATFOOT, FLOODWALL, FOOTFALL, and FOOTWALL yesterday. Chrome gives me a red squiggly for floodwall and footwall, so I call shenanigans on that.

OFFLOAD and TWOFOLD are words I should have gotten.

Now for the next puzzle.