An analysis of the easiest & hardest puzzles from the NY Times’ Spelling Bee. (The highest-possible Spelling Bee score is 2061 with 26 pangrams! WAT?!)
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Somewhat surprisingly, the author doesn't seem to be aware of another hive construction "rule": "E" and "R" never appear together. This combination is evidently avoided for the same reason the letter "S" is, namely, that it would yield too many easy words.
This is true, but for some reason a LOT of the puzzles include "E" and "D" in the same puzzle, and "I", "N", and "G" in the same puzzle, sometimes both letter combinations. Those puzzles, unsurprisingly, tend to have a lot of words. I wouldn't mind seeing the letter "S" sometimes. I feel you could construct a puzzle that would still have a reasonable amount of words if the other letters were chosen judiciously.
I think Sunday Spelling Bees should contain an "S", as a treat.
I also have a hunch that you never see F, U, C, and K in the same puzzle. (Too lazy to check if this is true rn…)
They have, one time!
I’m sorry, FUCKBALL is a valid SB word? Would love to know the goofy ass dictionary they’re using.
No, that one is grayed out, meaning it's disallowed. Try this link instead to see just the valid words. The Bee never allows profanity and rarely allows naughty words. They do permit DILDO, though, which always throws me.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
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