How often do we talk about answers which are pleasingly Scrabbly in these reviews? Well, I've got the winner for the most Scrabbly answer yet: SCRABBLE.
I'll pause for the groans to die out.
But seriously, folks, today, Mr. Gordon has given us four answers which are impossible to play legally due to not having enough of given tiles. Thus our limits are set at words which have 3 Zs (one Z and two blanks), 3 Ks (one K and two blanks) or 6 Ss (4 Ss and two blanks). Now that I look at it, though, there are actually 2 Ks in the set, so why can't we make KNICKKNACK? That has 4 Ks, so the 2 blanks should make it possible (although unlikely). Am I missing something? Help me out, folks!
PIZZAZZY, STRESSLESSNESS, and RAZZMATAZZ are fun words, although I can't really imagine any situation where I'd use either of the first two in real life. All of those rare letters make for odd crossings, such as KEENER, SANZ (does anyone remember Horatio Sanz? On SNL from 1998 to 2006), and GAZERS.
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| RITZ |
I very much like TANZANIA, home of Dar-es-Salaam. Sporcle is a fun thing I do in my spare time, and the Geography quizzes keep me up to date on the 147 countries of the world. I always forget Sao Tome and Principe.
Otherwise, there's not much in the clues that stand out. 47D: Paper tiger? (HOBBES) is cute. The very chunky corners made my time longer than typical for a Tuesday puzzle, but the whole concept slants hard, so I'll give myself a pass.
- Colum
According to https://scrabble.hasbro.com/en-us/faq there is just one K tile.
ReplyDeleteAlthough for me the counterintuitive thing was "wait, there are only four S tiles?" But I suppose if there were more, forming plurals would be too easy.
I thought that this ran a little hard for a Tuesday, also (10:26), but enjoyed all of the multiple-lettered words. I must admit, however, that I didn't know they were impossible in SCRABBLE, as I don't play it often, or at all for that matter. CENTAVOS are worthless, no? Like our own cents, but more so. I mean, pesos are of little enough value. Anyway, nice to have SEAEAGLE in the grid instead of as a clue for erne.
ReplyDeleteI was a little surprised to not see a word with four Js in it, as there's only one J, too. :)
ReplyDeleteGlass-STEAGALL was tough on a Tuesday!