The Path to Genius

It takes dedication, but with some fortitude and maybe some help from like-minded friends, you too can be a Genius. Even if it’s just for the day.—Deb Amlen/The New York Times

For a long time, I have believed that people who read the New York Times can acquire a lot of valuable knowledge. Just by reading the Times regularly, they can make themselves smarter in many areas—from current events, to science, to the arts. But, amazingly, in recent weeks the Times has made me into a “Genius.” And I’m not just bragging.

This morning, for the sixth time in seven days, I was declared a genius by the Times. Of course, I let my family know about my accomplishment, and they just nodded, not really impressed. “Genius, again,” my wife said with a yawn when I greeted her with the news as she came awake a little after 8 am this morning. I had hoped for a warmer reception.

My move up to genius hasn’t required a lot of extra time hitting the books. Instead, it has required my testing how many words I know and how well I can spell those words. But not just any words and any letters.

At 3 am each morning, the Times publishes a word puzzle called “Spelling Bee.” The timing of the puzzle’s appearance each day is important to many readers, even me. According to reporter Deb Amlen, whose quote I included above, some people set their alarm for 3 am to get a jump on the new puzzle and complete it before the rest of the world is awake. I usually start a little later than that, but the puzzle is often my first task after putting the dog out for her morning relief.

Then I begin my battle for genius status. In “Spelling Bee,” a group of seven letters is placed in a hexagonal bee hive—six different letters in the outside boxes, and a seventh in a center box. It looks like this:

The Spelling Bee Hive
Try "varmint" for top score

The task is to make words using the letters. The good news is that you can use the same letter multiple times in forming your words. (For example, you could spell variant from the hive above if you doubled the a or trait if you doubled the t.) The relatively bad news is that you have to use the center letter in each word. The even more challenging aspect of the puzzle is that at least one of your words must contain all seven of the letters. That’s called a “pangram,” a Greek term that I think means, “this is annoying in all ways.” You have to uncover at least one pangram to be called a Genius.

You get points for each word you spell out with the letters. The more letters in each word, the more points you score. As your word list increases and your point total goes up, you progress through a series of levels— Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, and Amazing. 

Then, stick with it a little longer (and maybe find a sneaky way to ask the Internet for a little extra help if you’re totally stuck) and, voila, you too can be a Genius. Luckily, I am learning more words each day I play and cheating a lot less. That’s why, in my mind at least, I have progressed from merely Amazing to Genius. It’s a really affirming way to begin each day. 

I even turned my daughter Amanda on to the puzzle, and I should feel very good about that, except that she beat me to the Pangram word yesterday. Which made me wonder if I have created a monster. Am I willing to move over and accept a second Genius in our family? I’m not really sure.

The genius of the Spelling Bee scoring—if you’ll pardon the pun—is that each level rank is positive. You can feel pretty good if you’re called solid or great or amazing.

I am reminded of a teacher evaluation form I gave out to my students during one of my first years in the classroom. It included rankings such as: Mr. Goodman is an excellent teacher, Mr. Goodman is an amazing teacher, Mr. Goodman is a superlative teacher, and Mr. Goodman is all of the above and more. One student raised her hand to complain, “There’s no place to write anything bad.” The other students howled in mock amusement, and I made an expression of mock outrage.

Checking All the Boxes

I wonder how that student would feel now to learn that in six of the last seven days, I have been declared a Genius by the New York Times, America’s paper of record. She’d probably wonder if perhaps I cheated just a little bit on one of those days.