It's a word game, but not a crossword. Crosswords drive me crazy for a number of reasons, but mostly because I am compelled to finish them, and will spend hours looking stuff up and so on. And then there are the particular crossword gimmicks, which I loathe. The Times daily crossword is impossible for me, the daily Mini crossword is sort of silly, but Margaret and I together like to do the monthly thematic crossword, which is somewhere between these two. She has crossword skills I don't.
The Spelling Bee on the other hand is in my particular wheelhouse of the actual words, their shapes and sounds, which are related to--if not entirely described by--their spelling.
The words are matched against a list, so you're instantly told if you got one. In addition, there is at least one word in each puzzle that uses all seven letters, called a Pangram. The accepted words have a point value, and your points take you through ascending levels, from Beginner to Genius.
I was introduced to the puzzle when Margaret got an Ipad, with a Times subscription for it. After a few training sessions, I went on a still unbroken series of reaching Genius level and getting the Pangram, every day for at least 100 days in a row now.
Like most of my obsessions, doing the Spelling Bee acquired its own rituals--a certain time and place, a plate of almonds and a glass or cup of something, certain music on low volume, Mozart trios or a double CD called American String Quartets, etc. or the radio on the station that plays swing music.
I soon learned that this puzzle, like all others I've encountered, has its own quirks and techniques. The puzzle-makers say they try to select fairly common words, with a more technical word or two in each puzzle. It doesn't take long to see that certain words repeat, pretty often, and not necessarily words that are used everyday. There are also "trick" words that nobody uses. I make it a point of honor to get to Genius level without stooping to those. (Except accidentally, when I'm desperately combining letters almost randomly.) They also allow a lot of questionable slang and spelling, but though I mutter, I go along with that.
I am also annoyed when interesting words aren't on their list, like "neoteny" and "trinitarian." Some absent words are especially puzzling, like "lenten," a word that comes up around now. Besides some (but not all) technical terms, I've noticed that there are certain categories of words that don't make the cut. Most words with any sort of ethnic meaning or connotation, for instance. Most cursewords are out, as expected. Proper names of people and places are not allowed, with a few apparent exceptions, like "Manhattan" (perhaps because it's also a drink, or just because, well, it's the New York Times) and-- "Iliad," which I can't figure out. On the plus side, I've noticed that there is usually at least one word that has something to do with music, like aria, and it always pays to look for variations on mother and father, aunt and uncle etc.
Sometimes getting to Genius means making 20 words or fewer, and other times it takes 60 or more, depending of course on the letters. Sometimes the words are compounds of two other words. That's part of the problem of the Pangram--is it a single word, or a combination of some word you've found with another word lurking in those letters that doesn't include the required center letter?
There's no predicting the Pangrams--on one puzzle this past week I got the Pangram with my first word (and getting it early usually makes for a more relaxing game.) Sometimes there's more than one--I recall three, and once there might have been four.
But also this week, getting it was very, very frustrating two days in a row, and in both cases, the Pangram words sucked. One was "contently" which is a word I can't recall ever seeing used ("contentedly" is common) and isn't in the dictionary. Today's is "chargrill," which doesn't even seem like a word to me. Apparently it's an expensive sort of outdoor grill (anywhere from $150 to more than $2,000), which I suppose illuminates the difference between me and the usual Times subscriber.
But I've also noticed that I'm starting to lose interest in completing the puzzles. I like the game of making interesting words, not trick words or the same words. I love pulling words out of my subconscious, even (or especially) when I don't recall what they mean. Sometimes a word pops up that I don't recall using since grade school.
So if I continue I might take a different approach, and just quit when I feel like it. However, I'm vain enough to want to write this while I'm still undefeated.
I've also started to become aware of this as a social media interactive sort of thing, which is not something I participate in. But it makes sense--after all, the "bee" in Spelling Bee has to do with people getting together for an activity, like a quilting bee. (The origin of the term is American but otherwise uncertain. The explanation that makes the most sense is that "bee" is a shortened form of a certain use of the word "been" or "bean" from England, where it referred to neighbors getting together to voluntarily help someone with a particular task.) So my very private playing is probably out of keeping with the whole idea.
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