Buzz

A few months ago (three or four... I can't remember), Google gave me a free subscription to the New York Times games site. As a regular contributor to reviews and adding photos for Google Maps, they decided to reward me, no doubt because they likely track me and know that I like to play Wordle and would periodically play the free version of another game, Spelling Bee.

Spelling Bee is a game where you have seven letters arranged like a honey comb: six hexagons surround a central hexagon, which is coloured yellow. You can rearrange all six letters around the central letter but not that central letter. And you must be able to make a four-letter word, or longer, by using any of the outer letters plus the central letter.

For example, one of the puzzles a couple of weeks ago had the letters A, O, U, K, W, and L on the outside, and T in the middle. The first word that popped out for me was OUTLAW. I also found LOOKOUT, OUTLOOK, TATTOO, TOTAL, and more.

The longer the word, the more points you gain and you reach various levels, such as Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing, and finally, Genius. And if you are able to find a word that uses all of the letters (a pangram), you get a lot of points. In this puzzle, I found WALKOUT.

It can be a challenge as you find more words yet don't seem to be climbing levels, and I could spend a long time getting to a high score. Often, I'd start the game after waking up, before getting out of bed. I'd continue the game on a break or during lunch, I'd play for a bit at the end of my work day, and finally take one last crack before going to bed. Of course, I usually stopped as soon as I reached Genius level.

My longest streak for reaching Genius level was eight days, from a Sunday to the next Sunday. Usually, I wouldn't stop until I at least hit Amazing but would sometimes have to settle for Great.

The free version would usually end around Solid, and would never let you continue to the end.

My free subscription ended last week and I was loathe to pay to continue the subscription. I didn't play any of the other NYT games, other than Wordle, which is always free, so I can't really justify the subscription.

And I only occasionally read an article or two from the New York Times.

What about you? Do you play Spelling Bee? Do you have a subscription or do you play the shortened, free version? Leave me a comment.

Happy Monday!