"... to solve the Crossword. Ten years in, 'it’s been part of my daily routine for so long, I will never voluntarily give it up,' Ms. Rodman, 67, said. 'Someday when the lights go out, that’ll be how my streak ends.'"
From "What It Takes to Keep a Puzzle Streak for Years/Meet the players who persist through childbirth or intense athletic feats to ensure they solve Wordle and other puzzles every day" (NYT gift link).

48 ટિપ્પણીઓ:
Andy is is ONE reason why the starlink cell phone service will have lots of customers. You never know where you will be.
My dad did the crossword puzzle every day for decades and decades. One of the markers that made me feel sure that he was coming to the end of his road was when he stopped, not very long before he died. For a while, I kept the last puzzle on which he'd worked, in the hospital. Silly, right? But grief is strange, sometimes.
My Mother figured that doing the NYT crossword every day would prevent Dementia. It didn't work.
What's your longest streak Ann? Current?
Iron Horse!
Lou Gehrig streak: 2,130 games
Ann Althouse streak?
Y'all need to check my math
351 blogging days in 2004
+
365 days x 21 years = 7665
plus the frickin leap years, damn
I'm adding another 5 days for the leapers
That's 7670 days
adding them to year 1 = 8021
now frickin' 2026
31 in January
28 in February
31 in March
30 April
31 May
30 June
31 July
11 August
Her blogging streak is up to 8244 days. More or less. Amazing, AA, truly.
Gullistan: Althouse hasn't missed a day.
I've played Wordle every day for 4-1/2 years, except for one day several months ago when I got distracted and forgot to play and woke up the next day to a streak of 0. I had a streak over 200 at the time and was looking forward to trying to break my longest streak of 238, which I got when I first started playing the game, in Hard Mode. As of today, my streak is back up to 169.
For those who like games, I've been playing one called Anthropeum, which gives the player 10 objects from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and asks you to identify when and where they were made. After you play, you are shown what percentile you rank among the people who have played the game that day. Some items are easier than others; one a couple of days ago was a marble bust with the date and location engraved on it. Shockingly, not everyone got 10,000 points on that one. If you want to try, go to:
anthropeum.com
Was it a 3,694-day streak in doing crosswords or in standing on toilets?
And in terms of streaks, I've played Anthropeum 35 games in 35 days.
Also, you get three hints per game, which can be used to give you either a general location (Mesoamerica or West Africa, for instance) or a narrower time frame. I generally pick location rather than time, especially for items like a glass bowl that might come from anywhere in the world.
It's nice to be consistent and play every day for a long time, but it is not healthy to care that much about your streak. Nor is it a sign of mental balance that you would go to extremes to not break that streak. It has no value and you would be well served to deliberately break it.
An OCD hobby, but still 1,000 more wothwhile than the life output of 1,000,000 Critical Studies professors.
Every morning, Spelling Bee, Wordle, and Connections. I know I’ve been captured by their game-playing hooks, but I enjoy the challenges (and the streaks).
Dude +1, except no NYT Wordle player would dare use services provided by an Elon Musk company. They’ll have to wait for Blue Origin.
Many people love activities that are rules based, and challenge them to apply their mental activity in prescribed ways so that they can reach a predetermined outcome. Not me.
Compulsion. It's not really healthy, is it? But one supposes the compulsion to solve a crossword while vacationing in Yellowstone is less unhealthy than other compulsive activities frequently seen in the park, such trying to pet the bison.
I had a long streak years ago, but then I missed a day by just forgetting to do it. So that was entirely meaningless, and I have learned to accept the meaninglessness.
“For a while, I kept the last puzzle on which he'd worked, in the hospital. Silly, right?”
Not silly at all.
Today on "Althouse": Arithmetic!
**Ann Althouse said...I had a long streak years ago, but then I missed a day by just forgetting to do it. So that was entirely meaningless, and I have learned to accept the meaninglessness.**
Accepting the meaninglessness is freeing. Streaks are one of the ways the algorithm manipulates you.
When visiting my niece I try to lie low in the mornings. She, her husband and daughter play Connections and Wordle as a blood sport. This happens when all three people in the house think they're the smartest in the room.
My wife feels compelled to do Wordle and Connections daily, and hates it when she forgets and loses a streak. I often help her with both but can take or leave the activity.
For a long time she also did Sudoku, but I'd rather stare at the ceiling* than do Sudoku or Crossword.
*Contemplate the sublime, which I guess might be called meditation by some.
Perhaps Ms. Rodman will meet a nice bear.
I'm humbled by the skill it must take to have a NYT crossword streak that's lasted so long. I just recently started attempting it, and was thrilled the first time I successfully finished the easiest puzzle (Monday). I currently have a 3 Monday in a row streak. My goals are modest, I hope to soon be able to complete a Tuesday puzzle. As for connections, My wife and I do that as a team our longest streak is 21 days, But I think we may eventually surpass that. We also do Wordle, but add the twist of choosing totally random starting words which sometimes helps, and sometimes hurts. I do it because I believe there is value in ritual.
I have been doing NYT crosswords for decades, I don't recall ever missing one, however I only do Thursday through Saturday as the other days aren't challenging enough. I have played Wordle (checking ... ) 956 times, I know I have missed it once or twice but I have a competition going with my son and we both post our scores every day to family chat so there's always a reminder.
P..S. I have StarLink and love it.
It gets weird when a distracting little game becomes an obsession. My wife spends hours on end playing some idiot game on her phone. I won't even look at it. I have enough time-wasting obsissions of my own. Commenting online being one of them. Ugh.
peacelovewoodstock said...
P..S. I have StarLink and love it.
8/11/26, 10:53 AM
A friend who lives in an isolated part of California has Starlink and loves it. He takes it with him when he's working on wildfires in the middle of nowhere. Keeps him in contact with the wife and kids.
On Wordle, I have not missed a game since I started in early 2022. As of today, I'm at 1666 games played. I've won 1664 of them, and my current win streak stands at 1425 - about a month shy of four years.
I have learned to accept the meaninglessness.
Then you are at peace with the world, Grasshopper.
It's good to have a routine and habits. It's even better to periodical break them.
There's a fun doc about people who are addicted to crossword puzzles. It includes Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton. Wordplay.
Puzzle-solving actually sharpens your brain, I think. It's very healthy. Unless you fall off the toilet, I guess.
Traveling across several time zones is what throws my wife off.
"There's a fun doc about people who are addicted to crossword puzzles. It includes Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton. Wordplay."
Blogged it here.
"My main problem is that I'm interested in crosswords... but I don't care about rushing through it trying to get it done as quickly as possible. To me, it ruins the pleasure to become so concerned about time rather than words and the structure of the grid....
"The movie is padded with sequences showing celebrities doing the NYT puzzle. It's fun enough to see Bill Clinton and — not in the same room — Jon Stewart doing crosswords on camera and talking as they go. But how much do you want to see of the crossword puzzlings of former NYT public editor David Okrent? Enough with the Indigo Girls! And who gives a rat's ass about Ken Burns? Oh, you love his documentaries? Then you shouldn't take my reviews of documentaries too seriously, but really, even if you love Ken Burns's documentaries, surely, you're not fascinated by Ken Burns, the man. Are you? Because that would be very sad. Not sad enough to be the subject of a film as profound as "Grey Gardens" or "Crumb." Just routine sad. Get-a-life sad."
I remember some of the crappers at national parks are just glorified outhouses with a deep 10-15' pit. I'm scared to even pee in them and I think I'd shit my pants before sitting on one.
Just thinking of her standing on one gives me the heebie-jeebies.
John Henry
St. Croix - simplify the math and just use the Date to Date calculator at time and date.com. Starting with January 14, 2024 and going to (and including) today’s date of August 11, 2026 gives exactly 8246 days. Now, she just admitted to missing a day some years ago, so subtracting that missed date gives 8245 days of blogging to date. If there are more missed days other than the one admitted to, then, well - you can do the math…
“Iron Horse!
Lou Gehrig streak: 2,130 games
Her blogging streak is up to 8244 days. More or less. Amazing, AA, truly.”
Well, to be fair, Gehrig only lived to be 37.
Heh. From the last commenter’s comment on Althouse’s 2008 post:
“… two letter word is ai. South American three toed sloth.”
I’m pretty sure that there’s a joke in there, somewhere.
Leland said...
" Dude +1, except no NYT Wordle player would dare use services provided by an Elon Musk company. They’ll have to wait for Blue Origin."
OT but 18 months ago when I could not sign up for Starlink (the satellites were full or something, 6 month wait) I discovered that T-Mobile (And most others I think) offered cellular modems.
Not a hotspot, a genuine modem about the size of my cable modem. They gave me the modem but for non TM customers I think it is $45 to buy. Runs off of a USB cable. Costs $35/month, It is supposed to be 200mb but I've never had less than 400-800.
Unlike Starlink it works fine inside anywhere there is a TM signal. I don't but could carry it in my backpack when I travel.
The people who hate Elon now are REALLY going to hate him when he buys the WaPo off Bezos.
John Henry
“And who gives a rat's ass about Ken Burns? Oh, you love his documentaries?”
Not after seeing the first ep of “The American Revolution “.
“"Debbie Rodman, the keeper of a 3,694-day streak, once stood on top of a toilet at Yellowstone National Park in an attempt to receive enough Wi-Fi to solve the Crossword. /Meet the players who persist through childbirth or intense athletic feats to ensure they solve Wordle and other puzzles every day.”
I’m suspicious. It can’t be that hard to set up an AI bot to do them for you every day.
Whiskeybum, I'm not sure but I think her "miss a day" was in reference to her crossword habit, not her blogging mission.
I've been doing the NYT crossword for decades, and so must have quite a streak going, although it was no doubt interrupted by a trip my wife and I took to Japan a couple of decades ago. But I do it on paper, so no documentation of a streak. Also, I do it in the Chicago Sun-Times, which reprints the NYT puzzle with a delay of a couple of weeks, so I don't have to fund that vile rag. Many years ago when people watched live TV there was an episode of The West Wing where the pres was doing the puzzle and calling out the clues to his wife for help. I realized, hey, I did that one.
"Puzzle-solving actually sharpens your brain, I think. It's very healthy."
But you might end up with a pointy head.
St. Croix - oops, you’re probably right… not clear from context since so many comments before were about her blogging streak, but I was surprised to think she had missed a blogging day. So I stand corrected: add that day back in and she’s at 8246!
There was a time when I did Wordle every day, and was signed up so that I could keep track of my streak, which was quite long. Then one day the Wordle word was "manga." WTF? "Manga?" (Look it up). My streak was broken, and I was suitably pissed.
I still do wordle fairly regularly, because I have no principles, but I haven't signed up so I don't get streaks or awards or all that stuff that they want me to sign up for.
AI tells me that Wordle has been running since October 2021, and that the NYT took it over and has been running it since January 2022. That is less than 5 years. Approximately 1775 days.
3,694 days is just a tad over 10 years.
Hmmmn.
I had a big "AHA!" moment until I noticed that Ms. Rodman's streak is for the crossword.
Never mind.
Doesn't the New York Times make more money off its puzzles than its news coverage these days? This purely promotional article should have an "advertisement" notice next to it.
I was going to post a comment, but Ted beat to it.
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