Calah and I have been watching seasons of The Amazing Race. Now we’re on in Season 7, and there’s an episode in Argentina where they have to ride horses. They keep saying, “Horsing around,” and all I can think about is:

Yesterday I missed DOWNWIND. I had a high school teacher who repeatedly made the joke: “What did Louis XVI say when he was told he peasants are revolting? ‘Stand upwind, and you won’t notice!'” French Revolution jokes can be funny the first time, they get funny again at the 135th time. If you are questioning me about that, try it! The people around you will make you believe.

Meatier Misses

HOODOO: A religion practiced in parts of the Caribbean and the southern US and characterized by sorcery and spirit possession; voodoo.
WIDOWHOOD: The state or period of being a widow or widower.

Today’s summary

Final score: 14 words for 68 points.
Genius minimum: 68 points.
First word: RURAL.
Pangram: JOURNAL.
Tweet:

Had to. #nytsb #ntyspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/foUc6JXowk

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 18, 2021

I’ve started to stream Rocket League on Twitch. I set up my computer to capture my PS4 controller in addition to my screen. When it works, it adds to the fun of watching me play the game. I’ve had up to two spectators at one time, I think. Pretty good for someone new to streaming on twitch! I think I’d probably have more viewers if I talked during the games, but I don’t have my mic on, so that’s how it goes.

Yesterday I missed DODGING, DOXXING (though I got DOXING), INDIGO, IODIZING, IONIZING, NOODGING, ONGOING, and ONION.

Meatier Misses

DOXXING.

Doxxing is like a personal major earthquake.

If you’re unfamiliar with doxxing, it’s when someone maliciously posts information about a person that can help people who aren’t that person’s friends to identify any combination of that person, that person’s family, and that person’s friends. It’s a very unkind thing to do.

Just like how small earthquakes happen frequently in general, so do mean comments/replies.

The difference between The Big One and doxxing is that the latter doesn’t have to happen.

Today’s summary

Final score: 19 words for 66 points
Genius minimum: 62 points.
First word: LOWDOWN.
Pangram: DOWNHILL.

Netflix’s The Circle is back! Calah and I have watched the first installment of four episodes, and it’s not the same as the first season. I think it was smart of Netflix to avoid trying to replicate the magic of Joey and Shooby. It would have fallen flat. I don’t know how they lucked into having those two on the first season. But this second season is different. It’s good in its own right. Worth watching.

Yesterday I–wow! I missed the pangram and didn’t even know it. Hmm. Well, the pangram was NONALCOHOLIC. No wonder I missed it? I also missed AIOLI (again), CALLALAOO, CANONICAL, CILIA, LANOLIN, LOIN, NONCLINICAL, NONILLION, and NONLOCAL.

Meatier Misses

COLCANNON: An Irish and Scottish dish of cabbage and potatoes boiled and pounded. Just sounds Old World to me.

LOACH: A small elongated bottom-dwelling freshwater fish with several barbels near the mouth, found in Eurasia and northwestern Africa.

Today’s summary

Final score: 23 words for 138 points.
Genius minimum: 136 points.
First word: ZONING.
Final word: NOGGIN.
Pangram: OXIDIZING.

It’s Wednesday, which means we watch an episode of the 1968 show The Prisoner. Without spoiling anything, it’s hard to consider either that we’re close to the end or that it hasn’t ended already. I won’t say anything more about that show for now.

Special nod to Calah for steering me toward CLOACA today. She reads the blog and knows the ones that I miss. If we worked together on these, we might get Queen Bee a lot of the time. Something to consider.

Yesterday I missed BABBLE, BABE, BLEACH, CELEB, HALE, HEAL, HEALABLE, HEEHAW, HEEL, WELL, WHEE, WHEW.

Meatier Misses

LECH: informal, derogatory A lecher.
(Bonus!) LECHER: A lecherous man.
(Double Bonus!) LECHEROUS: Having or showing excessive or offensive sexual desire. Oh. That wasn’t worth all that work. But good times.

WEAL: A red, swollen mark left on flesh by a blow or pressure. So like a welt?

From etymonline:

weal (n.2)

“raised mark on skin,” 1821, alteration of wale (q.v.).

wale (n.)

Old English walu “ridge, bank” of earth or stone, later “ridge made on flesh by a lash” (related to weal (n.2)); from Proto-Germanic *walu- (source also of Low German wale “weal,” Old Frisian walu “rod,” Old Norse völr “round piece of wood,” Gothic walus “a staff, stick,” Dutch wortel, German wurzel “root”), from PIE root *wel- (3) “to turn, revolve.” The common notion perhaps is “raised line.” Used in reference to the ridges of textile fabric from 1580s. Wales “horizontal planks which extend along a ship’s sides” is attested from late 13c.

So let’s see if I’m right.

welt (n.)

early 15c., a shoemaker’s term, perhaps related to Middle English welten “to overturn, roll over” (c. 1300), from Old Norse velta “to roll” (related to welter (v.)). Meaning “ridge on the skin from a wound” is first recorded 1800.

OK I think I’m right. That brings up the origin of etymonline. While it’s amazing and authoritative, it’s also run by a dude. Or the government. Or spies. I don’t know. Seems like a crazy undertaking for a solo individual.

Today’s summary

Final score: 55 words for 230 points.
Genius minimum: 226 points.
First word: ALCOHOL.
Last word: CHINCHILLA.
Pangram: ALCOHOLIC.
Tweets:

Looking for love in all the wrong places #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee @ccaallaahh pic.twitter.com/KGWPzgRHwK

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 14, 2021

failure to communicate much? #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/GdnZy0C719

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 14, 2021

The internet went out again tonight. It seems to happen on Tuesday nights more than it happens on other nights. I don’t know why that is, but I’m certain it’s personal. Spectrum, man, I’m telling you. They told me that they do see that there’s an unplanned outage. They also said that they don’t know when it will be fixed. I’m writing this post in Notepad, and I’m going to try to toss it up on the blog by making my phone a hotspot as soon as I’m done writing. This certainly could be less annoying of a process. Using my phone’s browser, I looked briefly at T-Mobile for home internet. It doesn’t sound so bad. So I opened my computer to look more at the details. Of course I realized as I was typing that there was no internet to my computer, so that’s where my research has ended for the moment.

Yesterday I missed DOWDY, DOWRY, WILDWOOD, WILY, WIRY, WOOD, WOODY, WRYLY, and YOWL.

Meatier Misses

I guess luckily for me because the internet is down that the only words I missed were ones I really should have gotten. I’ve watched enough Project Runway to hear Tim Gunn say it. Though it’s always a shame that he has to say it at all. I also first consciously heard the word zaftig in that show. And to think they said learning stops after high school!

MANY GIFS OF TIM GUNN USING DOWDY WOULD HAVE BEEN HERE BUT FOR THE INTERNET OUTAGE. EVERYONE CAN THANK SPECTRUM FOR BEING ROBBED OF THAT COMPILATION.

Today’s Summary

Final score: 26 words for 104 points.
Genius minimum: 102 points.
First word: CHEWABLE.
Pangram: CHEWABLE.
Tweet:

WHAT A WOOKIEE!!! #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/Vpyjz5Z9h7

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 13, 2021

I decided to make a pizza because I’m hungry. I looked in the fridge after having had to throw away one bag of cheese today because it was moldy and found a second bag of moldy cheese. Completely sealed. Sell by July of this year. I do not understand. I’m glad I had one more bag of cheese. Now it’s open. I’ll have to get more.

Yesterday I missed NEOCON and a bunch of words I don’t know.

Meatier Misses

FLOUNCE: Go or move in an exaggeratedly impatient or angry manner. This is the second pangram. I’ve never heard this used. It also isn’t fluid ounce.

From etymonline:

flounce (v.)

1540s, “to dash, plunge, flop,” perhaps from Scandinavian (compare dialectal Swedish flunsa “to plunge,” Norwegian flunsa “to hurry, work hurriedly,” but first record of these is 200 years later than the English word), said to be of imitative origin. Spelling likely influenced by bounce. Notions of “anger, impatience” began to adhere to the word 18c. Related: Flounced; flouncing. As a noun from 1580s in reference to a sudden fling or turn of the body; by mid-18c. especially as expressing impatience or disdain.

EFFLUENCE: A substance that flows out from something.
FECULENCE: The quality of or containing dirt, sediment, or waste matter. Essentially, crappiness.
LUNE: A crescent-shaped figure formed on a sphere or plane by two arcs intersecting at two points.

NUCLEON: A proton or neutron.

Today’s summary

Final score: 17 words for 94 points.
Genius minimum: 88 points.
First word: WILLOWY.
PangramS: ROWDILY, WORDILY.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who works in the accounting and consulting side of restructuring businesses. We agreed that I look at accounting with businesses continuing to survive. You really can only work with a company on credit if you think it will continue to exist, and that is what the going concern principle is. The concern will keep going. But since he works in the restructuring and bankruptcy, he lives by different rules. I offered that he uses the going, going, gone principle. I’m not so smart that I’m the first person who has ever made that joke, but I’ve not heard it anywhere, so I came to it on my own.

Yesterday I missed ADDEND, ADDENDA, ADENINE, AGENDA, AIDE (though I got AIDED), DEAN, IDEA, KINDA, NAIAD, and NANNIED. Shame on me for missing ENGAGE, ENGAGED, and ENGAGING.

Meatier Misses

ENNEAD: A group or set of nine.
NANKEEN: A yellowish cotton cloth.

Today’s summary

Final score: 33 words for 120 points.
Genius minimum: 116 points.
First word: FUNNEL.
Pangram: CONFLUENCE.
Tweets:

my remote control car agrees #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/Z9f6KIxoJ1

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 11, 2021

I guess I'm alone in thinking this is enough in the morning #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/9vyywbJGoq

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 11, 2021

Today would have been my bubbie’s (grandmother’s) birthday. She passed away years ago. But this would have been her birthday.

There was an article that today the vaccines are open to everyone 16+ in Los Angeles. With spikes in many places in the country, this is a good thing! Let’s get the world back on track!

Yesterday I missed ADMAN, ADMIN, AIRMAN, AMID, IAMB, IAMBI, and IMAM.

Meatier Misses

MIDRIB: A large strengthened vein along the midline of a leaf.

Today’s summary

Final score: 40 words for 187 points.
Genius minimum: 187 points.
First word: NAKED.
Pangram: KNEADING.
Tweet:

Well, yeah, but if Elon Musk wrote the #Nytspellingbee… #nytsb #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/3qMUwXCnwC

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 11, 2021

Finally I got the pangram, and that it was MIDBRAIN and that it was a guess seems very appropriate for me. I certainly am glad it’s the weekend because I am wiped. A crazy thing is that in less than a week, all Californians will be eligible for the covid vaccines. Could it be that we’re getting out of this thing? I’m still waiting for the world to be declared safe to be convinced that the world is safe again.

Yesterday I missed BLIN, BLINI, and IBEX.

Meatier Misses

LIBELEE: Someone who is a victim of a published false statement that is damaging to a person’s reputation; the subject of an undue/inaccurate written defamation.

from etymonline:

libel (n.)

c. 1300, “formal written statement, a writing of any kind,” especially, in civil law, “plaintiff’s statement of charges” (mid-14c.); from Old French libelle (fem.) “small book; (legal) charge, claim; writ; written report” (13c.), from Latin libellus “a little book, pamphlet; petition, written accusation, complaint,” diminutive of liber “book” (see library). Meaning “false or defamatory statement” is from 1610s. Specific legal sense of “any published or written statement likely to harm a person’s reputation” is first attested 1630s.

Today’s summary

Final score: 33 words for 151 points.
Genius minimum: 131 points.
First word: MANDARIN.
Pangram: MIDBRAIN.
Tweets:

Oh just you wait #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/jKzUi5xu7Y

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 9, 2021

when you really just need 87 breakfast but want to pay more. #nytsb #nytspellingbee #spellingbee pic.twitter.com/WlxpD4FrUD

— Matt Raab (@theraab) April 10, 2021

Short one today! I make up for it with more etymology from yesterday’s misses. Speaking of getting things wrong, I’ve been watching The Blacklist. There are so, so many inaccuracies that pull me out of the show. Just one example: Why does Elizabeth have a clearance that lets her go to a black site? But then again, Jared. So maybe it was just ahead of its time.

Yesterday I missed APOLOGY, GLOOMY, LALLYGAG, LOAMY, PAPALLY, PLAY, PLOY, and PYGMY.

Meatier Misses

AMYL: The straight-chain pentyl radical —C₅H₁₁.
LOGY: Dull and heavy in motion or thought; sluggish.

From etymonline:

logy (adj.)

also loggy, “dull and heavy,” 1847, American English, perhaps from Dutch log “heavy, dull” + -y (2); compare Middle Low German luggich “sleepy, sluggish.” Or perhaps a variant of loggy.

MAMMALOGY: The branch of zoology concerned with mammals.
PALMY: (especially of a previous period of time) flourishing or successful.

palmy (adj.)

“triumphant, flourishing,” literally “worthy of the palm” (of victory or triumph), c. 1600, from palm (n.2) in the “triumph” sense + -y (2). The meaning “full of palms” attested from 1660s.

Today’s summary

Final score: 17 words for 82 points.
Genius minimum: 73 points.
First word: BELIEF.
Pangram: INFLEXIBLE.