Babble: Archived Puzzle for Friday, April 23, 2004

12:51 am

lil

stuck at 52 744 probably dream of these letters

1:16 am

sapphie

the refresh time for me today is slow....ah well!!

1:28 am

minetmanie

to play or not to play... it's always more tempting when the puzzle is shiny-new and all homework is finished. my, the possibilities...

1:37 am

DTOX

aint no persia any more

1:50 am

flightclub.ws

re: ads -- read about host files...

1:50 am

flightclub.ws

... not that you shouldn't support this wonderful site or anything (how about some text ads, Doc?)

1:53 am

coolioisjesus

text ads would be nice, and certainly interesting based on these word lists.

1:53 am

samhain11520

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=stir

1:54 am

coolioisjesus

I think ads are genius for this site with the amount of impressions the average babbler gives out per puzzle.

2:05 am

lil

cool that they're about volunteering; oh no it's late, practically morning! 91 4.99 1433

2:23 am

Dr_God

re: ads

I'm testing out Fastclick, so I have very little control over the content of the ads. It's not cool that a lot of people are experiencing slow load times because of the new ads, however. :(

4:07 am

scraggle18

I find it amusing that "apeshit" is not a valid word. tee hee

4:07 am

scraggle18

I've never been censored before!! I feel like a badass.

4:09 am

scraggle18

sorry, i thought that one would be censored too. didn't mean to offend anyone!
- a well meaning law student that refuses to study for finals because this puzzle is just more fun

4:39 am

burns1

Can anyone tell me what their 'z' words were from yesterday? It nearly killed me trying to figure one out.

4:41 am

bacchae

You can go back and look at yesterday's puzzle, and click on people's names to get their word lists =) But mine was orzo, I believe.... not sure if there were any more z words though...

5:02 am

burns1

ah, thanks. Didn't realise you could do that

6:32 am

discodave

At least the Dark side of the Force will like this puzzle.
81/4.88/1167

6:43 am

burns1

anything longer than 7 yet?

6:54 am

lawyer-1

one 8 so far

7:05 am

cbullock

two 8's

7:15 am

Now_a_Pumpkin

anyone break over 2,000 points yet?

7:49 am

cbullock

almost...
and 4 8's now

7:51 am

cbullock

no longer almost

7:58 am

Mrkwako

I got two eights, too! I'm also proud to be averaging over five letters with over 50 words:

56 5.05 943

7:58 am

Now_a_Pumpkin

oy vey ... i've only found three 8s ...

7:59 am

burns1

Finally, my first 8 of the day

8:15 am

cbullock

sorry, five 8's now

8:20 am

Now_a_Pumpkin

aaah, just when i found the fourth, you found a fifth? i bow to your greatness!

8:25 am

donkeyjacket45

i've found 3 of them so far...

8:27 am

donkeyjacket45

'resit' isn't a word?

8:31 am

cbullock

i believe 'reseat' is the correct form

8:31 am

cbullock

... and a sixth 8

8:32 am

donkeyjacket45

haha. well i hope i don't have to 'reseat' any of my exams... although i'd rather 'reseat' them, which would presumably mean putting them on different seats, than 'resit' them...

8:38 am

Treeshar

I was just amused that porn was one of yesterday's words.
Orzo, I would never have thought of that.

8:43 am

burns1

Don't you actually 're-sit' exams, rather than 'resit'?

8:45 am

cbullock

in that context, perhaps it's 're-sit'

8:54 am

DTOX

I'm impressed with how many riffs you can get off one particularly vulgar word in the puzzle.

8:57 am

donkeyjacket45

it's definitely 'resit' at my university ;)

9:11 am

donkeyjacket45

oh, and i have seven 8's now. :)

9:26 am

Dr_God

Stop cheating, mvuijlst. The omnipotent surgeon is watching you...

9:28 am

mvuijlst

dr_god, how exactly am I cheating? I resent that!

9:31 am

mvuijlst

as I said yesterday: I write down all the words I can find, then I sort them alphabetically, look for any derivations (plural, past tenses, ...), then I look for anything that vaguely sounds English (or plausibly english), and then I enter them all at once on the site -- makes it easier to "brainstorm" when I don't have to wait for the page to reload.

(not mention that it cuts down on the frustration factor when perfectly good words like aesir or crees are refused :)

9:34 am

mvuijlst

oh, unless you meant that I shouldn't use my OED to look for words :)

9:36 am

Dr_God

Interesting and entertaining explanation, mvuijlst, but I wasn't born yesterday. ;)

9:37 am

mvuijlst

er, would you care to explain exactly how you think I'm cheating then? sheesh!

9:45 am

Big Daddy

how many people are trying make 'serene' work? lol

9:56 am

Mrkwako

Dr.God, could you put a D in this puzzle? Discerning people would decree it much to your credit.

9:58 am

joyce

just checkin in.

10:22 am

Assa

The almost-words are mocking me!!!!

10:28 am

Now_a_Pumpkin

great ... i find the fifth and sixth 8-letter words and then you tell me there's a seventh? :-(

10:43 am

Mrkwako

Woo-hoo! Broke 2000! (Though still with only 5 eights.)

112 5.19 2002

11:04 am

mvuijlst

Six 8s, beh.

11:07 am

mvuijlst

There's an additional 8 letter work in OED: treeship :)

(and words like styme, teer(s), nert, pah(s), tirr, perce, tygs, reesty, reesy, tres, rits, seir, serr, shir, stie, stire, reist, retes, terek, nerk, terrs, ...)

11:13 am

aki2403

I had thought the rules would not permit the use of dictionaries :$

11:29 am

B.B.

Isn't "itty" a word? I could swear I've gotten it before. I'll bet it's in the Scrabble Players' Dictionary!

11:36 am

mvuijlst

I don't have a scrabble dictionary, but according to my dictionary: "itty, a. (colloq.) Used hypocoristically for ‘little’ (chiefly in reference to babies or small domestic nimals)."

11:54 am

cbullock

there's no harm in looking up words in a dictionary, but using one to generate a list of words is nothing more than data entry

11:57 am

tvoltagg

There's nothing wrong with it, but what's the point in looking words up in a dictionary? Just type it in. If Babble is going to accept it, you'll get credit. If not, you wont.

11:57 am

aki2403

ah, fair enough then, thanks for clearing that up

12:05 pm

discodave

Three eights. 3. Thank god I don't really care or anything, otherwise I'd be feeling pretty inadequate right now...

12:22 pm

lawyer-1

so, I'm just fooling around entering letters. I enter a 4-letter word that I never heard of, and, lo and behold, it is accepted. So, I click on the ? to get the definition, and it says there are no entries for that word. Weird! But I got my 8 points for the word.

12:31 pm

Big Daddy

lawyer-1: It's like you found the Babble version of welfare.

12:39 pm

grobot

I just got really excited because I thought I was about to find "Gymkata" in the babble, but it was not to be.

1:23 pm

Fletch

I really want hitset to be a word. Can people start using that? Hopefully by the end of the day that will become aprt of the venacular.

1:27 pm

Fletch

setee and crete aren't valid words?

1:28 pm

pufferfish

Hello - new here. When people are saying that they got "8"s, are they talking about letters or points? I'm starting to feel inadequate! Thanks for the info!

1:28 pm

faunafrailty

settee has two Ts

1:29 pm

faunafrailty

8 means letters, and yes, it does make one feel inadequate

1:30 pm

bebelua

petri is so totally a word.

1:37 pm

claws

145 words 5.03 2347
still looking fro the seventh '8'

I'll be back later

2:05 pm

sapphie

Just one 8 letter word would make my day....;)

2:36 pm

TcheQ

for reference, itty* is not allowable in enable or sowpods

2:55 pm

domissamerica

I managed to get over 1,000 without any of yer stinkin' eight-letter words. Not bitter in the slightest. I just don't seem to have the brain to find the longer ones.

3:02 pm

holmes

I really think the secret is finding all the words that are similar to the words that you already have; the plurals, the predicate nominatives [I don't reall know what that means]

3:09 pm

mvuijlst

my #1 tip would be to try absolutely everything that isn't patently impossible, like yesterday's tort, torte, torten--I'd never heard of the last two but they were accepted, so there you go.

And my #2 tip is not to do this in one sitting: come back to the site a couple of times during the day, you're guaranteed to find words you hadn't seen before.

3:12 pm

holmes

I"ll agree with coming back to it.
I'll be sitting there forever, Certain that there are no more words; then I'll take a break and see all these ones that I figure I MUST have already gotten.

3:40 pm

LPF

How do you people find eight letter words I can barely find six but I bet my bottom dollar that you people who find eight and nine letter words are the same people who enjoy and compleate quickly The New York Times crossword puzzle!

3:52 pm

GinaLittle

239 words, 3984 points - Now THAT'S how you cheat!

4:00 pm

faunafrailty

Ugh, are the 8-letter words normal, everyday words? I've only found one . . .

4:22 pm

cbullock

do the NYT crossword every day :)

4:27 pm

kitcat

i have no 8 letter words either lis :o(

4:34 pm

claws

yeah, the 8's are pretty regular as far as words go.

4:55 pm

lil

mmph; 1487, i feel like i'm at the bottom of an ocean! ah well...and no i don't do the nytimes crossword.

5:09 pm

lil

done for the day, just checked out a site that solves for you. 242 words, some of which i didn't know existed. almost think i should print it out, run to the dictionary, lol

5:10 pm

lil

yes there were 1519 before running that page. so obvious, some of them...now.

5:18 pm

Kaetchen

Way to add to my depression!

5:31 pm

Treeshar

Yay! I found a 7 letter! I will not be as pathetic as yesterday!

5:36 pm

nanc

hey I found the ranking thingy. I'm ranked 208, which coincidently is my lucky #. Its going to be a great weekend!

5:55 pm

Treeshar

and 8 letter words! yay!

6:01 pm

donkeyjacket45

oh mayn, cheating sucks. i'm just going to presume that anyone with a score considerably higher than mine at the end of this has been cheating, and claim a personal victory. or something.

6:13 pm

bacchae

Boo and hissing in the general direction of cheaters... I thought I was doing quite well today with my 3 "8-letter" words...and then someone goes and tells me that there's many more. I feel like I've been looking at this thing for 20 hours, and damned if I can make anything else out of it... I think I may well admit defeat for tonight...

6:36 pm

fultonic

Sh*t and pish in one puzzle. Hahaha!

6:51 pm

LPF

Booschwa people I just found my first seven letter(I know that's not that much but hey).

6:52 pm

jbullock

LPF hi do i know you

6:53 pm

7CW

243 words... I guess it pays to roll your own.

6:53 pm

LPF

Yep

6:56 pm

LPF

I don't know if you would remember me.

6:58 pm

jbullock

where would i know you

7:01 pm

LPF

Think Chicago Wedding

7:02 pm

jbullock

you one of beth's sisters

7:12 pm

putrid

apeshit!

7:12 pm

LPF

On the nosie, but which one am I?

7:24 pm

Treeshar

Has anybody noticed that tern has showed up in almost all of these puzzles? Dr. God, do you have a bird problem we should know about?

7:26 pm

lil

wow, i just logged back onto my comp. i hope you don't mean me by the cheating comment?

7:27 pm

lil

anyway, i like to learn from my mistakes. :)

7:27 pm

LPF

Hey jbullock you figure me out yet?

7:28 pm

cjustine

LPF: megan?

7:30 pm

jbullock

megan, katie or gwen

7:32 pm

cjustine

hey LPF, is this megan?

8:49 pm

mvuijlst

Oh man, dr_god, I totally see what you mean about the cheating. I've found that site that Lil talks about which finds all the words for you. Ugh.

I got 194 and thought there wasn't anything else in there, turns out there' s another FIFTY words.

Ugh!

8:51 pm

mvuijlst

Ah yes, turns out there's at least nine 8 letter words :(

9:18 pm

atlatl51

why is it so important to some of you to go to problem solvers and find out how many words there are in the puzzle? maybe Dr. God can make a board for people that want to cheat and have one for people who want to play honestly against each other. I'm really getting disgusted!

9:22 pm

atlatl51

the puzzle we're doing today is on line some place with all the answers? that's bizzare. how does that work?

9:31 pm

kimmi1366

I swear I have use the word creepish before. Must be my own adjective.

9:40 pm

babs

maybe Dr_God could post how many words are possible so that we can guage how well we are doing ....????
how about Dr_God????

9:42 pm

atlatl51

that's a good idea babs

9:42 pm

lil

i want to be very clear, because some people view what i looked at as cheating; i stopped at 1519 before giving up for the day. it is like looking at the answers for a crossword puzzle the next day. if i were to cheat - and i didn't, i wouldn't have been open, and i would have continued playing. it was a matter of being aware of patterns that i hadn't seen before, so that i could see where i hadn't looked further. the interesting thing about noting the number of possibilities - personally i'm more interested in the words i overlooked - just showed how many - well over half - i overlooked.
if that??? counts as cheating, go figger, hunh.

9:45 pm

lil

but, atlatl51, feel free to be disgusted. i would be too if someone cheated, but hopefully i'd correctly ascertain that they'd actually done so first.

9:46 pm

babs

why can't you check your cheat page after the puzzle expires. I often look at yesterdays puzzle and checkout the high scorer's list to learn more words for future puzzles

9:49 pm

atlatl51

I agree with that too

9:51 pm

lil

because when i stopped i was done for the day. i'm not sure how to make that any more clear.

9:52 pm

mvuijlst

...all of which makes me happy I've got words *that site* didn't find :)

9:53 pm

lil

also, this is my 3rd day; i wasn't aware that there was a list here that gave all possible answers - though it doesn't sound as if there is, simply one showing how many the highest scorer got. i was curious today. apparently that's a babble crime.

9:57 pm

babs

if you are finished for the day, why are you still studying the puzzle. You mean to say that you go and look at the cheat page and come back and do't add to your list?

9:57 pm

mvuijlst

Well, now I've gone looking for it: there's not only a site, there's a programme you can download. Bleh.

9:59 pm

lil

i checked it out just to study the puzzle one more time. and yes, funnily enough i still have the same score of 1519 that i did hours ago, oh how is that POSSIBLE???

10:01 pm

babs

checking other's list does not provide you with a solution but it does encourage me to look for more words next time by broadening my vocabulary

10:02 pm

lil

i like words and i liked reading dictionaries in different languages and writing poetry. and i'm honest. i'm not going to defend myself further, and have done so more than enough already.

10:04 pm

atlatl51

did you see ginalitle's score? almost 4000. i bet no program was used there huh?

10:05 pm

babs

I salute you for willpower to resit the temtation to continue working the puzzle but I find it hard to believe that people that go to cheat pages don't cheat.

10:05 pm

lil

ah, babs - precisely why in an earlier post i mentioned going to the dictionary.
all right.

10:16 pm

babs

why bother with a dictionary? just type in the letters and if it's not a word the game program tells you. If it is a word, you can click on the question mark and get the definition of the word. .

View Word List Friday, April 23, 2004

FINAL SCORES

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