Word games

The New York Times Spelling Bee, January 25, 2026

The New York Times Spelling Bee is my happy place. It’s where I go to escape the news and the videos. It’s where I rage about TIFFIN not being considered an acceptable word. Why is RAITA acceptable, then? I mutter to myself. Why YENTA, and even its Yiddish plural, YENTE, but not BITCH, a perfectly good Old English word that only acquired its pejorative connotations in the 14th century. It’s so much easier to rage about the Spelling Bee and its irregularities than about the world and its irregularities, its injustices, its horrors. Why is COCK a word but not COCKBLOCK, I text a friend, and she texts back, Sam Ezersky is the worst.

He’s not, though.

The Spelling Bee on January 25 seems to intuit that the world is off-kilter. The first word I come across is PATRIOTIC. It makes me wince. When I was six and living in Moscow, my father showed me a drawing he had made of an American flag. He was giddy, and he’s not normally a giddy person. He explained the 13 stripes and the 50 stars; he said everyone in America was equal and free to do or say whatever they wanted, even if what they wanted was to criticize the government. It sounded like a fairy tale. Then he tore the drawing up because we lived in the Soviet Union, where even a drawing of the American flag was dangerous.

My next word is PATRIOT. Then CRAP. Then TROOP. Then TORPOR.

I find other words—TAPIOCA, APRICOT, PART, PARROT, RAPT, RAPTOR—but those are not the words I focus on. I’m drawn to APART, AIRPORT, PARATROOP, TRAP, APPARAT. By “drawn,” I don’t mean I like them. I mean “drawn” the way the tongue is drawn to an abscess on the tender part of the cheek. It hurts, but you touch it anyway.

The Spelling Bee has nine rankings: Beginner, Good Start, Moving Up, Good, Solid, Nice, Great, Amazing, and Genius. The more words you find, the higher you go. There’s a secret tenth ranking—Queen Bee—which you get only when you guess all the possible words. I usually try for Queen Bee, because I’m an overachiever. Because my parents and I came to the United States when I was nine and worked hard and did all the right things and moved up the rankings. Don’t stop till you get to the top. That’s the American Dream, right?

On January 25, I don’t have it in me to try for Queen Bee. I barely get to Genius, and even then, I don’t feel very smart. I’ve found over 30 words and I’m not even remotely satisfied. I just feel hollow.