I enjoy Spelling Bee, but these days it takes up a bit more time than I have patience for, and often I’ll be satisfied with just getting the pangram. But back when I was trying for the Queen Bee—i.e. finding every word in the list—I did have moments of frustration. I don’t have a great vocabulary, but it’s pretty good, and there were many times the last word or two seemed too esoteric to be fair to most of us. (Nene I know; it’s a bit of crosswordese rarely used anymore, but familiar to longtime crossword enthusiasts, if obscure to just about everyone else.) But I do sympathize with Sam Ezersky’s efforts.
Another source of frustration: if I’m on any other NY Times page on my phone—including the other games—I can press down on a word, and a menu will appear that includes the option to “Look Up” the definition of the word. But for some reason, this feature doesn’t work on Spelling Bee. And given the number of times I’ve seen a word in the next day’s answers that is completely new to me, and whose definition I’m therefore curious about, it would be handy to use that feature. (I grant it’s a minor quibble, that typing the word out on my dictionary app is easy enough, but some of my friends have complained about it too, and are puzzled by its absence.)
For those looking for another tricky word game offered by the NY Times, there’s “Letter Boxed.” It’s not hard to solve it within the number of words in the challenge each day—usually between four and six--but what some people may not realize is that each puzzle can be solved with two words, and that is exceedingly difficult. I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to do it.
Thanks for allowing him to explain. It is good for him to have feedback through this site. I can note that coir was not allowed for a long time, but once or twice more recently, he has allowed it. I can't state the number of times I have sent an email to buzzbee to complain about the absence of that word. He does have a prejudice favoring cooking and food terms (etouffee, today), but I think he still disallows teff. Oh well.
I enjoy Spelling Bee, but these days it takes up a bit more time than I have patience for, and often I’ll be satisfied with just getting the pangram. But back when I was trying for the Queen Bee—i.e. finding every word in the list—I did have moments of frustration. I don’t have a great vocabulary, but it’s pretty good, and there were many times the last word or two seemed too esoteric to be fair to most of us. (Nene I know; it’s a bit of crosswordese rarely used anymore, but familiar to longtime crossword enthusiasts, if obscure to just about everyone else.) But I do sympathize with Sam Ezersky’s efforts.
Another source of frustration: if I’m on any other NY Times page on my phone—including the other games—I can press down on a word, and a menu will appear that includes the option to “Look Up” the definition of the word. But for some reason, this feature doesn’t work on Spelling Bee. And given the number of times I’ve seen a word in the next day’s answers that is completely new to me, and whose definition I’m therefore curious about, it would be handy to use that feature. (I grant it’s a minor quibble, that typing the word out on my dictionary app is easy enough, but some of my friends have complained about it too, and are puzzled by its absence.)
For those looking for another tricky word game offered by the NY Times, there’s “Letter Boxed.” It’s not hard to solve it within the number of words in the challenge each day—usually between four and six--but what some people may not realize is that each puzzle can be solved with two words, and that is exceedingly difficult. I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to do it.
All of this "bird talk" (not talking birds!) seems kind of "loony" to me!!!
Thanks for allowing him to explain. It is good for him to have feedback through this site. I can note that coir was not allowed for a long time, but once or twice more recently, he has allowed it. I can't state the number of times I have sent an email to buzzbee to complain about the absence of that word. He does have a prejudice favoring cooking and food terms (etouffee, today), but I think he still disallows teff. Oh well.