NYT Spelling Bee: GUARDVAN

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: VANGUARD

Fake pangram: GUARDVAN

A usually unmarked van on patrol.

(This is a cop-out fake pangram, but I couldn't come with anything better.  That V does not go well with these letters.  In fact, I didn't find a single valid word other than VANGUARD that uses the V.  I wonder if there even is one.)

Difficulty: Easy

VANGUARD fell instantly, and then I steadily filled in the rest, until the two variants of GRANDDAD pushed me to Genius level.  I was a little slowly than usual, but that's mainly because I was wrestling my youngest son while I was playing.  He's little enough so that I can keep him at bay with one arm, and play Spelling Bee with the other -- multitasking.

Olio: A tweet from puzzle editor Sam Ezersky:

DURAG has become a topic of discussion concerning inclusivity in word games, because it has yet to appear in the NYT crossword puzzle, even though it seems to be the favored spelling among people who might actually wear a DURAG... and most everybody else.  (It gets almost five times as many Google hits as its counterpart DORAG, which has appeared in nearly two dozen NYT crossword puzzles.)

I didn't even see DURAG in this puzzle.  However, I've added it to my personal word list.  I'm still debating whether or not I should delete DORAG or keep it.  I'll probably delete it.  I typically eschew the usage of less-common variants in my grid.

For what it's worth, Blogger puts a squiggly red line under both DURAG and DORAG, but I think it's anti-inclusivity -- literally.  It also does this for inclusivity.

NYT Spelling Bee: DAMPFUL

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: MUDFLAP

Fake pangram: DAMPFUL

An longer way to say damp.

Difficulty: Very easy

I flew through this one, reaching Genius level in no more than five minutes.  I feel like I've seen this pangram in previous puzzle, which probably helped.

Olio: I realized I didn't know how to spell APPALL.  I tried APPAUL, APALL, and APPAL, before I finally hit on the correct spelling.  That's weird, considering it's a normal six-letter word.  If you gave me a test on those, I bet I'd get close to 100%.

NY Spelling Bee: LARKDAMN

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: LANDMARK

Fake pangram: LARKDAMN

Any of several plants having heads with ray flowers, so named because they often act as an allergen for Old World songbirds.

Difficulty: Medium

I did most of this on paper again (trying to not stare at a screen so much when my kids are around), so my timing was off a bit, but I think this was mostly medium.  I got halfway to Genius level very quickly on the the strength of the pangram and a bunch of four-letterers.  After a brief breather, I then powered home hitting a bunch of cool longer words (ARMADA, MADMAN, RAMADA).  This one was fun.

Olio: MAMA but no DADA?

NY Spelling Bee: DOGHUNT

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: DOUGHNUT

Fake pangram: DOGHUNT

A search for an escaped dog.

My childhood dog used to escape frequently, and she was so fast and elusive that we used to just let her run around the neighborhood for a few hours, until she got hungry and came back.  I feel like this was a more acceptable practice in the '80s.  Like, if you did this now, your neighbors would be giving you the stink-eye -- Come get your damn dog! -- but back then it was all good.  There were all sorts of pets running around our cul-de-sac.  Now that I think about, I like it better now, actually.  Pets are overrated.  I mean, they're fine, but I wouldn't find if we all dialed back our pet adoration a few notches.

Difficulty: Challenging

This one took me much longer than usual.  I race up to the level right before Genius, and then I got a bad case of anagrammers block.  Finally, I tried UNHUNG and UNTHOUGHT, both of which I would've guessed were not valid, and pushed me over the brink.

Olio: What's up with OUTTHOUGHT being invalid?  It's a perfectly cromulent word, no?  It's in the dictionary.  That was my ace in the hole (10 points!), so I was confusedly bummed when it didn't take.  I even tried it twice, thinking I must have misspelled it the first time.

NYT Spelling Bee: DOHGIRL

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: GIRLHOOD

Fake pangram: DOHGIRL

A female stan of Homer Simpson.

Difficulty: Challenging

I got the pangram in short order, but stalled out longer than usual before getting to Genius level.  I tried many a moonshot phony -- GORILLO (male form of GORILLA), LORRID (portmanteau of LURID and TORRID), GRIO (a type of wine?) -- before seeing the real HORRID, which finally pushed me over the edge.   

Olio: Didn't we just see WOMANHOOD a few weeks ago?  It was before I started this blog, so I don't have it on record, but I'm pretty sure we did.  Maybe space out the -HOOD pangrams a bit more.  Other than that, a fine, if sparse, puzzle.  I like the word DOLOR; it's underutilized, for sure.

NYT Spelling Bee: BULLTHIGH

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: LIGHTBULB

Fake pangram: BULLTHIGH

A folksy term to for something sinewy and strong.  Cuz' of all the dirt roads 'round here, our truck tires need to be tough as bullthigh. 

Difficulty: Medium

It could be easy; I'm not sure.  I tried something new, and wrote down the letters on paper, as I'm trying to cut back on my phone time (which has gotten way out of hand).  But I read the rules wrong and thought it was 1-pt for every additional letter over four, not 1-pt for every total letter for words over four letters.  So, initially, I was drastically undercounting my actual score.  Once I figured out what was going on, I was already well past the Genius score.

Olio: My brain kept wanting GULLIBILITY, but, of course, there is no Y in the grid.  Maybe we will see it in the future -- this grid with a Y in place of the H.  You would lose the -IGHT words, though, so I'm not sure if there would be enough there to replace them to make it interesting.

NYT Spelling Bee: OUTMUNCH

Grid:

My Genius list:

Real pangram: COTTONMOUTH

Fake pangram: OUTMUNCH

To surpass in munching.

This fake definition reminds me once, in Bangalore, India, I saw a little restaurant called MUNCH BOX.  The women with me were like, Yes, please!

Difficulty: Challenging

I got COTTONMOUTH in the middle of my solve, which is strange.  Usually, I get the pangram right away, because I'm looking for it, of if I don't, I usually don't get it until the end, because I set it aside mentally and try to fill in everything else first.  In general, this one took me longer than usual.  I finally tipped over to Genius level once I started looking for OUT and UN words.  The last one to go in was UNCOUTH.  Weirdly, I got the much less common COUTH very early on.

Olio: I always want COUNTOUT to be valid.  It's a pro wrestling term.  I also always try to put in HONCH even though I know it's spelled HAUNCH.  I see now I missed HOOCH, which is a shame I love old-timey terms like that.