💾 Archived View for tilde.cafe › ~spellbinding › gemlog › 2021-12 › 2021-12-07.gmi captured on 2023-09-08 at 17:39:38. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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This is a gemlog for the SpellBinding puzzle, in which you construct words using the specified letters (each word must contain the anchor letter).
The move to tilde.cafe has disturbed my rituals and cobbled-together scripts. I apologize for rudely ending this game late - my cron-fu is inferior.
AMASS ASSAY ASSESS AWESOME EASE EASY ESSAY MASS MASSE MESA MESOSOME MESS MESSY MEWS MOOSE MOSEY MOSS MOSSY OSMOSE SAME SAMOSA SEAM SEAMY SEAWAY SEEM SEESAW SESAME SOMA SOME SOMEWAY SOMEWAYS SOYA SWAM SWAY
The 'S' presents some problems. NYT simply removed all words containing 'S' to avoid any discussion. I thought it was too much, so yes, S is allowed, but there are permanent rules about it: 'No plural -S words' and 'No third-person -S' words. That creates some strange situations with words that end in -S and also look like plurals, but are not. Which brings us to:
Pangrams: SOMEWAY SOMEWAYS. SOMEWAYS was a hard one for me to decide on. It's a pangram, worth 15 points, and it looks like an -S plural. It looks wrong and I felt like I should not include it. But it is _not_ a plural of SOMEWAY - it is its own thing. I am sure an etymologist could explain it better. So if you didn't get it, don't feel bad - it is genuinly a weird word. There are a few others you will probably see in the future - like anyways, noways, etc.
MESOSOME: "an organelle of bacteria that appears as an invagination of the plasma membrane". Note to self: add "invagination" to the dictionary. OK, I happen to know it because in my non-neurotypical way, as a 14-year-old, I decided to learn everything about how cells work. I sat for a few weeks at the school library working through two volumes of 'The Cell' written in maybe 1950's by the look of the books. I can't remember much about cells, but I did fail most of my other classes.
OSMOSE is another weird one. You hear of osmosis, but not of something osmosing, but there it is.
MASSE is a trick pool (or billiards) shot. That one was new to me.
For foods (there are usually foods in each puzzle, and I always look forward to what's on the plate) -- we have SOYA, SAMOSA, and SESAME and SOMA! A non-anglo diet. I should MOSEY over to the kitchen and have some food now.
Another day.