Thanks, Alan.  Good suggestion.

I had largely given up on figuring out how some words are common and others not, now I know why.   It still bugs me that I get down to "2 common words left" that I never get, then find the solution after its closed, and it just seems inevitable that one of them is something I blanked out on, but the other is a word I never heard of before, while in the meantime the puzzle is rejecting words that, while maybe rare, are clearly words in use.  A good example would be "asse" from yesterday's challenge puzzle.

I guess I just have to learn to live with disappointment.

Depends on what you call a hobby.  I spend a lot of time on word games, crossword puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles, but my real passion is duplicate bridge.  I suppose you would also consider pyrotechnics since I am no longer being paid for it.  I am a certified pyrotechnician.  That's certification by the PGI (Pyrotechnic Guild International) as opposed to "certifiable" but I stopped shooting shows last Summer - its a real physical strain.  It takes a lot of muscle and man hours to set a show up (and break it down) whether you ematch or shoot by hand.  So now I just go to club meetings and conventions.  Can't afford to make my own (and don't have a safe place to do it anyway) although I did win a Class C competition at our club last year.  Any other fireworks people out there?

I also play a lot of golf in the summer and have recently started fencing classes (hence the photo).  Probably do a lot more of all this when I retire in two years.

Tacho is a common word?  I don't think so!  At best its colloquial - Tach is often used as a short version of tachometer, but tacho?  Maybe in Oz, but not in the States.  Also only a few dictionaries even recognize it.  I'll accept it as an uncommon word, but protest over calling it common.

There are a number of dictionaries which recognize acnode, all with the same basic definition"  "An acnode is an isolated point not on a curve, but whose coordinates satisfy the equation of the curve."

So two points:  First, I think it should be an accepted word.  Its obviously a term used in advanced mathematics as opposed to casual, everyday conversation, but there are a number of other uncommon words that are accepted which the average person has never seen or heard.

The other is I believe the "official" game dictionary (i.e., the accepted words for the game) should be available in some form so you can check words for acceptability before plugging them in.  My error rate is only as high as it is because I find words accepted in some dictionaries that seem to satisfy the word rules, such as acnode, only to have them rejected by the game.  It has become clear to me (as a relative newbie) that I don't grasp some essential part of what makes a rare word common enough to be acceptable.  I suppose its no big deal but it annoys me nevertheless.

Now this one surprised me even more.  Petri.  A petri dish (two words, not a compound word or hyphenated) is widely used and is in the dictionary.  So without the qualifier, petri is not a word?

Absolutely.  When a driver gets lapped by another racer, it may be critical to "unlap himself" before the next caution flag comes out.

Not in the dictionary, but another colloquial expression used is "nudies" to refer to pornographic movies.

Now, as to stars, I am curious, being a newbie:  A number of people when they post have stars next to their names.  I presume those are awarded by some kind of system.  What would that be?

Thanks.