Genius. That’s not my word, that’s The New York Times talking. That’s what they called me on May 1st 2024.
I’ve been playing Wordle since it began, and I have a 99% track record of success. I’ve also been playing two other New York Times puzzles called Spelling Bee, and Letter Boxed. I have a 100% track record on both of those. I’ve never failed on them. But…
On May 1st 2024 I feared for my life as I thought I was going to fail Spelling Bee. It’s a strange game, as some days it is simple, and other days quite taxing. Essentially it is 7 letters, with which one has to make up as many words as one can. The two rules are that they are a minimum of 4 letters, and must use the centre letter. It’s good to get a Pangram, which is where you use all the letters.
It looks like this;
On a good day it will finish when I’ve come up with 4, 5, 6, 7 words. On a challenging day it will make me get mid teens before it deems that I have finished.
On May 1st 2024, it went on forever! Once I’d got over 20, which I have never had to do before, I thought it would soon end. Oh no.
I then topped 30 words and was really struggling.
Then 40! I thought it would never end! This puzzle usually takes me anywhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes. By now I had to keep coming back to it when I thought of more words.
Then it went over 50! Jeeeez! I went to bed a failure.
Then as you can see, at 1.37am I did it! I’d woken up in the middle of the night and BAM! I did it! (other screen shots taken after my celebrations!)
So, The New York Times decreed that I was a genius! I have to say, after that ordeal, I felt like one. I now have this quote on my email signature, and wear it with pride!
Again, that’s not my word, that’s The New York Times talking.
If you can come up with more than 53 words, without stealing any of mine, or using a dictionary, or Googling, I will contact my close friends at The New York Times, and have them declare you a genius too! Simply coming up with one that I haven’t doesn’t make you a genius!