I got today’s pangram immediately. Most of the puzzle was fairly easy, although the last couple of words for Genius gave me trouble.
I was expecting that, too. After all, Chuck Berry and the Beatles approved it!
You can’t lose it and I tried it too
I did the buddy thing for a while but I prefer to be pure. No hints, no grids. It’s been months since I haven’t gotten Genius and all of my QBs are pure. I ordinarily quit after Genius unless I’m on a roll and then really try for the Queen if I am close.
Chances are if you go to M-W’s webpage, they’ll have it as a two-word phrase and not a single word. There’s others like that: TOPHAT is the only one that comes to mind, but there’ve been more.
I spoilered MACULATE because it’s very close to MACULA, which according to the Buddy was found by only 37% of puzzlers. Just one word was found by fewer, 36%,CECUM.
And regarding yesterday’s, I was disappointed by BACKBEAT not making it. Another one I hoped for was TEKTITE.
That’s way too technical a term for this game.
GROUP, GROUPING, UNGROUP,, but not UNGROUPING.
Right? One of the weirdest omissions ever.
I’m pretty sure that ‘grunion’ is well-known.
The second one is a noun and the fourth one isn’t a word. Obviously I tried it but I get the logic.
Tell that to the users of various graphic layout programs that let you group and ungroup objects. Are those people not grouping (participle) and ungrouping things?
e.g. PowerPoint uses it as a term.
This is the second time (rejected thrice) that UNGROUP has been allowed and it’s the first time UNGROUPING has been a possible word. So I guess we’ll see when and if it ever comes around again.
Yeah but it’s English and any word can be inged 
That’s where the line was drawn today.
They’re both also verbs per many dictionaries.
I’m 70 years old, and have been a professional writer and editor for decades, and I’ve never come across OPPUGN. I call it obscure.
Oh, and sorry for not blurring my previous post. Thanks to @puzzlegal for fixing it for me.
I’d like to know why today’s puzzle contains both MAGA and Mar-a-Lago.
I really wish you hadn’t pointed that out…
It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya!