So today is the 365th day in a row of blogging. The consistency is thanks to my beautiful, caring wife, Calah, who encouraged me to blog daily to get out from the depths of my pandemic funk a year ago.

Yesterday I missed ALKALI, KICK, KILO, and TIKI.

Meatier (Chickenier?) Misses

KOLA: The seed of the cola tree, which contains caffeine and is chewed or made into a drink. I couldn’t for the life of me remember this word. I kept trying KOKA without success.
TIKKA:

Today’s summary

Letters: TACDILW
Final score: 24 words for 102 points.
Genius minimum: 102 points.
First word: TWIT.
Pangram: WILDCAT. I could have sworn that I’d tried this on my phone, and it did not take it.

So it turns out that it DID rain last night, AND there was lightning like there hasn’t been lightning in Los Angeles in a long time. The thunder was so loud that the structure shook frequently.

Yesterday I missed ACAI, ACIDIC, DEICE, DEICED, EDDIED, IDEA, IMAM, MACADAMIA, MIDDAY.

Meatier Misses

DIADEM: A jeweled crown or headband worn as a symbol of sovereignty.

Today’s summary

Letters: KACILOT
Final score: 25 words for 88 points.
Genius minimum: 72 points.
First word: COCKATOO.
Pangram: COCKTAIL.

The Jewish holidays are over for now, so I’m back with the Spelling Bee. Woohoo! It’s been threating rain today in LA, and as of 3:30pm, it hasn’t rained in my part of town. Maybe by the end of the day we’ll have gotten the thunderstorms the government promised. Slight chance or no slight chance.

Yesterday I missed OPIOID, RIGID, RIGOR, and YOGI.

Meatier Misses

DIPPY: Stupid; foolish.
PIROGI: (Plural of pirog) Russian meat pies.

Somehow PIROG was not a word in the list, so I’m guessing it was a dumb spelling of pierogi. Now I’m in the mood for pierogi. I will make them for dinner. Well, I’ll heat them up. I got them from Costco.

PRIG: A self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others.

Today’s summary

Letters: IACDEMY
Final score: 35 words for 148 points.
Genius minimum: 137 points.
First word: ACADEMIC.
Pangram: IMMEDIACY.
Tweet:

Watch this space!

Meatier Misses

Today’s summary

Letters:
Final score: 40 words for 176 points.
Genius minimum: 173 points.
First word:
Pangrams: DEMONIZE, DEMONIZED.
Tweets:

Calah and I decided to take a little road trip, so we’re on that now. I’m actually writing this in the wee hours of Sunday morning before going to bed, but we’re heading out early and we’ve got a lot of road ahead of us. It’s just a short trip, but since I’ll have unreliable access to this stuff on Sunday, I’m writing it now. Yay!

Yesterday I missed DEFINE, DENIED, DIGNIFIED, DIGNIFY, DIGNIFYING, DING, DINGED, DYEING, EGGING, ENGINE, EYEING, FENDING, FIEF, FIEND, FIFE, FIFED, FIFING, GENIE, GENII, INDIE, and INNIE.

Meatier Misses

FINNED: Has fins.
INDIGENE: An indigenous person.

indigenous (adj.)

“born or originating in a particular place,” 1640s, from Late Latin indigenus “born in a country, native,” from Latin indigena “sprung from the land, native,” as a noun, “a native,” literally “in-born,” or “born in (a place),” from Old Latin indu (prep.) “in, within” + gignere (perfective genui) “to beget, produce,” from PIE root *gene- “give birth, beget,” with derivatives referring to procreation and familial and tribal groups.

Indu “within” is from archaic endo, which is cognate with Greek endo- “in, within,” from PIE *endo-, extended form of root *en “in.” Related: Indigenously.

Today’s summary

Letters: MBEILOZ
Final score: 24 words for 95 points.
Genius minimum: 90 points.
First word: ZOMBIE.
Last word: EMBEZZLE.
Pangram: IMMOBILIZE and MOBILIZE.

So I like to say about August that it’s the most august month of the year. I’m running out of time to say it, so here you go: August is the most august month of the year.

Yesterday I missed AHOY, ANYHOO, HOMONYM, HYMN, and MONONYM.

Meatier Misses

GAMY: (of meat) having the strong flavor or smell of game, especially when it is slightly tainted.
HOMOGAMY: Marriage between people from similar sociological or educational backgrounds.
HOMONYMY: The existence of the concept that there are two or more words that have the same having the same spelling but different meanings and origins. Also a word that I had to check the spelling of many times to make sure I got it right.
YANG: (in Chinese philosophy) the active male principle of the universe, characterized as male and creative and associated with heaven, heat, and light.

Today’s summary

Letters: IDEFGNY
Final score: 49 words for 303 points.
Genius minimum: 302 points.
First word: DEIGNING.
Last word: ENDING.
Pangrams: EDIFYING, DEIFYING, DEFYING.
Tweet:

It’s nice to be back to the Spelling Bee–especially when the genius minimum is not 278 points. Today has been hot and humid in LA, which isn’t the most pleasant of weather. Certainly not the worst, though.

Yesterday I missed AUNT, AUTO, NUNHOOD, THOU, and UDON.

Meatier Misses

UNHAT: To take off your hat to show respect.
UNHOOD: To remove a hood from, esp. a falcon.

The Purpose of Falconry Hoods

The purpose of the falconry hood is to control the moments a trainer and bird of prey interact so that the bird recognizes the trainer’s role in positive and neutral moments and minimizes negative stimuli. This means that the amount of time the bird is hooded is not a constant and can fluctuate in response to the trainer’s growing reinforcement value. Because birds of prey don’t have many social reinforcers and the relationship does rely largely on reinforcers such as food, the trainer can avoid filling up the raptor’s crop by transporting it with a hood, thus removing the need to deliver food for staying on the glove and not try to fly off, either in response to a scary stimulus or in anticipation of its next opportunity.

A falconry hood can be a critical tool in preventing problems because it can be so hard, if not impossible, to train a raptor to be calm in all circumstances. This means when unpredictably scary stimuli arise and we have a raptor with us, it can associate us with the fearful situation, whether we choose to restrain it on the glove or it flies off, leaving us in a lose-lose scenario. In the case where we do have food that we can use to counter condition the bird of prey to stressful stimuli, we are limited by the raptor’s appetite, and if it is fully flighted and able to fly, there is a good chance we can overfill it and lead to a situation where it loses the motivation to stay on the glove as well. The same can also be said for changing and unpredictable circumstances when we can no longer rely on food motivation to help us work the bird through in a calm manner.

Same place.

Today’s summary

Letters: YAGHMNO
Final score: 19 words for 93 points.
Genius minimum: 93 points.
First word: HAMMY.
Last word: MAYO.
Pangram: MAHOGANY
Tweets:

The return of the Spelling Bee! As Nick got his first Genius level result today (congrats!), I have done my first post-wedding NYTSB.

Today’s summary

Letters: UADHNOT
Final score: 18 words for 64 points
Genius minimum: 60 points.
First word: DUNNO.
Final word: DONUT.
Pangram: HANDOUT.
Tweets: