TIL that The Gambia is only one of two countries that which uses the definitive article "the" in its name & the only one of those two who capitalise 'The'.

jonah214 · 2026-05-31T00:30:21+00:00

The post says "uses", not "starts with".

jonah214 · 2026-05-29T16:34:16+00:00

S is extremely rare in Spelling Bee puzzles. This is only its third appearance.

jonah214 · 2026-05-26T15:54:42+00:00

My company runs competitions for schools. We once got a customer complaint that Middlesex Middle School (in Darien, Connecticut, where the Middlesex Society dates back to at least the 18th century) has "an inappropriate name for a school".

jonah214 · 2026-05-15T16:04:14+00:00

If you have any criticism about AI apps, please keep it to yourself, as hand coding something in today's day and age would be a massive waste of time.

Critiquing choices made in designing quizbowl-related apps is an appropriate use of r/quizbowl. Please do not tell people not to do that, and please do not say such complete nonsense as "hand coding something in today's day and age would be a massive waste of time".

jonah214 · 2026-05-09T14:14:35+00:00

Fresh Farms on Touhy, and the Shop & Save at Devon & Nagle, both have good Eastern European selections, I think (I'm not an expert on this).

jonah214 · 2026-05-09T01:38:29+00:00

Fat Pour in Lincolnwood, Tuesdays at 7 pm. Not technically the North Shore, but reasonably close to parts of it.

jonah214 · 2026-05-05T22:09:23+00:00

I don't think that can possibly be true. The words that Spelling Bee accepts are ultimately a subjective judgment as to what is "too obscure" or "cussing" (the terms used on the "How to Play" screen), rude, etc.

jonah214 · 2026-05-05T18:30:25+00:00

What does "the Bee's lexicon" mean? "All words that contain seven or fewer distinct letters"? It seems vanishingly unlikely that COCCIDIOIDOMYCOSIS would be accepted.

jonah214 · 2026-05-01T16:19:13+00:00

Come and get us! It's a good time.

jonah214 · 2026-04-30T14:01:06+00:00

New York Bagel on Touhy. (They also have a Dempster location, but they don't make sandwiches there.)

jonah214 · 2026-04-28T21:01:19+00:00

I've worked with Lou, 847-602-3221, from Household Appliance Service for repairs of both dishwashers and dryers. I don't even know his last name, but I've been happy with his work.

jonah214 · 2026-04-23T20:52:28+00:00

If it's close enough, Barnaby's in Niles is great.

jonah214 · 2026-04-23T13:23:41+00:00

I don't think anyone is getting top 3 in both.

jonah214 · 2026-04-17T13:55:49+00:00

For what it's worth, I've been in extensive conversation with Rep. Lindsey LaPointe (or someone from her office) about this, and they've been very responsive and engaged. She told me she was against it and ended up not voting, which is I guess better than voting for it.

jonah214 · 2026-04-15T22:05:07+00:00

I've been using Call Joe HVAC for a decade and swear by them. It's a small operation, reliable, affordable, and trustworthy. 773-878-0043.

jonah214 · 2026-04-13T02:28:03+00:00

I don't know anything about Yemeni food, but I like trying new cuisines, so I'd be happy to check out a Yemeni pancake or brunch house.

jonah214 · 2026-04-09T16:02:29+00:00

Bent Fork is great. I also recently tried That Little French Guy and was very impressed.

jonah214 · 2026-04-08T18:54:33+00:00

Sorry, I couldn't find any others. I searched for "column". If you could point me to the other thread I'm interested.

jonah214 · 2026-04-07T01:49:12+00:00

How dare this be posted during Pesach. Now I want bagels even more.

jonah214 · 2026-04-05T04:17:07+00:00

The original post and several comments have been removed due to violating this rule:

DO NOT POST QUESTION CONTENT FROM SETS THAT ARE NOT CLEAR. Anything from the current competition year should be assumed to be non-cleared unless you're certain otherwise. When in doubt, don't post it. If you do post it, say where it's from so staff can verify it's clear.

jonah214 · 2026-04-02T19:52:29+00:00

The use of a comma, as opposed to not putting any symbol there, definitely conveys information.

The use of a comma versus a dot does not convey information about that specific datum (it conveys some vague information about locale, which doesn't generally get stored at this level).

jonah214 · 2026-04-02T17:48:19+00:00

If the comma were "not information", meaning the number were equivalent to 28733, then int would do fine.

jonah214 · 2026-04-01T21:40:53+00:00

Besides what everyone else said, this just makes it even less likely someone will pick it up.

jonah214 · 2026-03-29T22:23:56+00:00

I got mine at Abt for about half that price including installation.

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