{"id":3060,"date":"2021-10-19T11:07:45","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T18:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=3060"},"modified":"2021-10-25T09:20:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T16:20:18","slug":"an-obsession-with-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelawlers.com\/Blognosticator\/?p=3060","title":{"rendered":"An obsession with words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though it has nothing in common with my usual posts, I want to say a few words about my obsession with the New York Times\u2019 Spelling Bee<\/em> puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is the format of the Spelling Bee<\/em> puzzle in the New York Times.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s fun! It\u2019s cause for insanity. It\u2019s enough to make you either a genius or a maniac, or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I play it every day, and for the past year I have been able to get to Genius<\/em> level every day. Sometimes that takes me ten minutes, other times it takes me, on and off, all day and late into the night to reach that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, three times in the last year I have made it to Queen Bee<\/em> status, where I have gotten all of the possible words in that day\u2019s puzzle. This morning I made Queen Bee<\/em> status with the word \u201cinbox.\u201d I was thrilled (and I am being quite modest about it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the approximately half year that I trained to be a genius every day, I occasionally cheated by using a web site called WordHelp.com<\/a>. There, you can put in the seven letters (I put them in twice each) and it will tell you all the words possible with those letters. Some of its words are not allowed by the New York Times<\/em> for various reasons, but it will often get you out of a jam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year ago I got good enough at the puzzle that I stopped cheating, and pledged never to use WordHelp<\/em> again. I have been true to that pledge, and have not been back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I rely entirely on my wit, my memory, and luck to get to Genius<\/em> every day. I also use the built-in dictionary on my iPad<\/em> to check words as I enter them (this isn\u2019t cheating because it is only verifying that a word is spelled correctly, and it is available inside the Spelling Bee puzzle itself). If I touch and hold, the word will be highlighted and an option to \u201clook up\u201d arrives on-screen. I will occasionally look up words in the solution list because I have never seen them before and I want to know what they mean. I used it for fettuccini<\/em> recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months ago, a man in New York made a web site for people like me who are obsessed with the Spelling Bee puzzle. It\u2019s called NYTBee.com<\/a>. I like it, and I look occasionally to see how many words it will take to get to Queen Bee<\/em> status. I also check to see words that are in Webster\u2019s, but not usable in the puzzle that day. There are a lot of these words. Yesterday I wasn\u2019t able to use \u201cnonunion\u201d even though it is a perfectly valid word in the dictionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In NYTBee.com<\/em> you can also cheat and see the words for that day\u2019s puzzle. I never do this. I would rather wait until the next day to see the words I missed. My puzzle day begins at exactly 9:00 a.m. European Central Time when the Times<\/em> posts the new day\u2019s puzzle. I am often waiting at that minute <\/em>to check my words against the official list, and to start work on the next day\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have developed the skill of Genius-making on the Spelling Bee, and I thought I would share my techniques with those of you who are obsessed with Spelling Bee, or might become obsessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every day there is at least one pangram, defined as a word that uses all the available letters. Sometimes there is more than one pangram; those are great days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I treat the pangram as my first stab at getting a good score. I stare at the letters and play anagram games in my head, trying to make words, or prefixes and suffixes. Sometimes the pangram will jump into my head, while other times it takes much longer. I usually stick with it until I get it, and only then move on to the easy words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rules are simple: you must use the center letter in every word; you may use any letter
one or more times; each word you spell must be in the official list of words for that day.
There is at least one \u201cpangram\u201d in each day\u2019s puzzle, that being a word that uses all seven letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get a pangram, you get lots of points for the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four-letter words get 1 point each; more letters earn 1 point more per letter; pangrams get 7 extra<\/em> points in addition to their word score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proper nouns are not allowed, nor are obscene words. This is a carefully curated puzzle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bang-out the obvious words first, getting as many points on the list as possible. Then I try adding prefixes like \u201cun\u201d or \u201cin\u201d or \u201cen\u201d or \u201cre\u201d and I read down my list of words trying to add the prefix if I can. \u201cNoble\u201d might become \u201cennoble\u201d or \u201cdone\u201d could be turned into \u201cundone.\u201d When you have exhausted the prefixes, look for suffixes, adding \u201ced\u201d or \u201cing\u201d to every word you have made so far. In the process you will find words that you weren\u2019t looking for. Some days you can nearly double your score by adding \u201cing\u201d to most of the words on your list. Those days I call gerundific<\/em> days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you have reached Amazing<\/em> level, and it seems that you cannot find any more words, look for opportunities to use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n