Althouse: "When you spend your workday failing to make words do what you want them to do, staring at G A C E H L N and suddenly seeing 'ganache' is a sweet victory."

August 13, 2020

"When you spend your workday failing to make words do what you want them to do, staring at G A C E H L N and suddenly seeing 'ganache' is a sweet victory."

"Discovering the pangram—'challenge,' in this case—feels like a colonic for my neural pathways.... It’s a rare morning that I don’t allow myself five to 10 minutes with Bee upon waking.... My goal is to hit 'Amazing' by 7 a.m., which allows me to circle back to the puzzle all day, pick, pick, picking until I hit 'Genius.' Only a lack of time ever causes me to surrender; I have kept the puzzle open in my tabs to keep working it for several days...."

From "The NYT Spelling Bee Gives Me L-I-F-E/In the real world, I am me. In Bee world I’m an Amazing! Genius!" (Slate). The article is from last February, but I've only started doing this puzzle in the last couple weeks. I'm a big fan! When I got "potable" out of OABELPT yesterday, I felt special.

47 comments:

rehajm said...: I have kept the puzzle open in my tabs to keep working it for several days...

It Boggle™s the mind...

The word puzzles on Countdown add the element of time. I'm loyal to my puzzle love Rachel Riley and when a zed appears a cheer goes up in the house!; 8/13/20, 11:21 AM
Gulistan said...: My whole family does it, and it's amazing to see the way that different people see different words. And no matter how thorough I am, I always miss at least one obvious four-letter word when I check the next day.; 8/13/20, 11:33 AM
the jackal said...: We do it as a family every week. it's fun to see how long it takes us to get to genius, and how many easy words off the list we miss (while adding some...interesting ones of our own).; 8/13/20, 11:36 AM
Yancey Ward said...: When Joe Biden got "CAT" out of KERMLYAA, he was judged fit to be president by his neurologist.; 8/13/20, 11:43 AM
Bilwick said...: "When you spend your workday failing to make words do what you want them to do . . ." I thought this was going to be about Joe Biden.; 8/13/20, 11:50 AM
Yancey Ward said...: So, you get to use a letter as much as you like? Because, otherwise, ganache lady is a moron.; 8/13/20, 11:51 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Do they still use "Potable Potions" as a category in Jeopardy!?; 8/13/20, 11:53 AM
alanc709 said...: There's no L in ganache, so that victory seems like a participation trophy to me.....; 8/13/20, 11:57 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: UAE-Israel treaty, negotiated by Trump administration. How will the Democrats lie about this one?; 8/13/20, 12:01 PM
Ralph L said...: I prefer the straightforward Jumble, but then I'm not very inventive.; 8/13/20, 12:12 PM
rehajm said...: Do they still use "Potable Potions" as a category in Jeopardy!?

Potent Potables; 8/13/20, 12:18 PM
Not Sure said...: no L in ganache

And two A's!

Is there some rule of this game that's not obvious?; 8/13/20, 12:19 PM
effinayright said...: I'm addicted to "Words With Friends". Same challenge, a lot like Scrabble but faster.; 8/13/20, 12:23 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Six words, starting with three letters, then two, five, ten:

YIATELUCERGTOSIEMNHRSANRRENURLTN; 8/13/20, 12:29 PM
tim maguire said...: Apparently my NYT subscription doesn't get me access to the games and the free version is pretty limited. So screw them.; 8/13/20, 12:44 PM
Yancey Ward said...: After my youngest sister's car accident 6 years ago, one of the things I did for her in her recovery was create Jumbles for her to work out. I gave her NISAGS, and to this day she insists that ASSING is a word, as in "Assing around".; 8/13/20, 12:59 PM
FWBuff said...: I love the Spelling Bee! It is the main reason I’ve kept my NYT subscription.

The level after “Genius” is “Queen Bee” if you’re able to figure out every single word combination from the letters. Very difficult to do.

One frustration is that (like all of the NYT) they have gone completely but inconsistently PC in their word list. For example, they no longer accept “mammy” but still accept “pappy”. They also stopped accepting “coon” because of the alternate pejorative meaning. This happened shortly after the “beaner” brouhaha with the NYT crossword last year when Will Shortz had to make a public apology for including that response to a clue about a type of pitch in baseball.; 8/13/20, 1:04 PM
Openidname said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/13/20, 1:10 PM
Howard said...: It's all Greek to me.; 8/13/20, 1:12 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I won't subscribe, so can't play any longer, but I got finial out of today's puzzle.; 8/13/20, 1:15 PM
PubliusFlavius said...: For the last few days I have searched google for:

cannon hinnant new york times

Am I suprised by the result...

nah.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&sxsrf=ALeKk01laFOtR79bKGU3qron0uhLMQpcqg%3A1597342938996&ei=2oQ1X4enPMHB7gKS8bH4BA&q=cannon+hinnant+new+york+times&oq=cannon+hinnant+new+yo&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAxgAMgUIABDEAjIFCAAQxAI6BAgAEAM6BggAEAoQAzoHCCEQChCgAVCzB1iFPGC2SmgAcAB4AIABkgmIAfIqkgENMi01LjEuMC4zLjAuMpgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrAAQE&sclient=psy-ab; 8/13/20, 1:24 PM
Rob said...: You should try Spelltower+. I’m addicted to zen mode.; 8/13/20, 1:26 PM
rhhardin said...: Try N P I E S. It's a great choice for the game of moo.; 8/13/20, 1:26 PM
Temujin said...: Srke Gufineina!; 8/13/20, 1:26 PM
TML said...: Isn't this the Jumble? That's been a feature of the comics ion newspapers since I was in high school and probably long before.; 8/13/20, 1:27 PM
Jaq said...: I never liked these kinds of games because that’s not how the words are stored in your brain. I would rather play cards with someone. This seems too much like the analysis of a programming problem to me, a career I enjoyed, but I am also happy it’s over.; 8/13/20, 1:53 PM
Rob said...: The damn thing has changed my sleep pattern. I stay up till 3 AM ET to do the new puzzle. I've appealed to Sam Ezersky to move the publication time to 10 PM, like the crossword puzzle, but he's unyielding. There is, btw, a Spelling Bee solver online you can use if you don't want to wait till the next day to see the full list (https://www.shunn.net/bee/), though if you check the solver before reaching Genius level on the puzzle, you will go to hell.; 8/13/20, 2:24 PM
paminwi said...: My son does this everyday too!
He also doesn’t give up until Genius level is acquired.
But, he works against his girlfriend to see who gets there first!; 8/13/20, 2:34 PM
Ralph L said...: Do they still use "Potable Potions" as a category in Jeopardy!?

It's "Potent Potables."; 8/13/20, 2:38 PM
Mr. Krishan said...: G A C E H L N

Where's the L in Ganache?; 8/13/20, 2:52 PM
FullMoon said...: Word Cookies app for phone gives you seven letter and you make fifteen or so words using between 3 and 7 letters. 99% of words are common. Simple but not easy.; 8/13/20, 3:16 PM
Mrs. X said...: Per the article, she’s 61. Also, per the article, she makes her daughter’s lunch everyday and does Bee before she has to wake her daughter up. Okay.; 8/13/20, 3:21 PM
J L Oliver said...: I saw the L straight off and thought I didn't understand the rules.; 8/13/20, 4:13 PM
tcrosse said...: Where's the L in Ganache?

Where's the second A in Ganache? Where's the turd in Saturday? Where's the bitch in obituary?; 8/13/20, 4:29 PM
Rob said...: The pangram for that combination of letters is CHALLENGE.; 8/13/20, 4:37 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: I came up with SPINE and PINES for NPIES. Should I get extra points for that, or am I being a dick?

I’m still working on KERMLYAA, GACEHLN is quite a challenge, or maybe not quite a challenge, and I wasn’t able to assign anything else for NSIAGS, so it must be ASSING.; 8/13/20, 5:05 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Who put the baab in the al-Shabaab? Who put the hood in the Muslim Brotherhood? Who put Allah in the Ayato-allah, who put the Ram in the Ramadan-a-jihad?; 8/13/20, 5:18 PM
Jaq said...: It’s like Lake Wobegon sort of, everybody’s a genius. That’s some brilliant marketing.; 8/13/20, 5:18 PM
Jaq said...: Should’t the label be “officially obsessed”?; 8/13/20, 5:19 PM
Jaq said...: "I love the Spelling Bee! It is the main reason I’ve kept my NYT subscription. “

Threaten to quit and they will offer you a heavy discount. You do it in the little “Account” menu on the top. But I think it’s immoral to give them money for what they are trying to do to destroy our free society by appointing themselves censors of the news. I would rather give the money to ZeroHedge.; 8/13/20, 5:22 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Oh, and SNIPE.; 8/13/20, 5:43 PM
Howard said...: Where's the rapist in therapist?; 8/13/20, 5:50 PM
tcrosse said...: Where's the L in Chicago?; 8/13/20, 6:13 PM
fizzymagic said...: I enjoyed it for the short time that they opened it up at the beginning of the COVID thing, but they shut it down and paywalled it in early June, I think, and there is no way I will ever do anything that puts money into the hands of the NYT.; 8/13/20, 7:50 PM
Gdaddy said...: Ann, your my Yankee doppelganger. You're on Reddit - I've been a fan for years. You love Joe Rogan - I've become a big fan in the last 6 months.

But today was our latest and greatest connection - Spelling Bee! I'm just sad there's only one each day - my wife and I have a running battle to get the panagram first.

Love your blog! Keep up the great work.; 8/13/20, 8:21 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Who put the funk in high-functioning autism?; 8/13/20, 9:52 PM
mikee said...: My elderly mom like the Jumbles word puzzles on the comics page, God bless her heart.; 8/14/20, 6:27 PM