Sweet Stink of Success!

Oh, how we love taking credit for things we didn’t do!

Today’s Spelling Bee letters are B, D, E, G, O, T, and center I (all words must contain I). There are plenty of interesting rejected words to write about today, but we’d rather celebrate another unlikely success story of ours. And we say “unlikely” because we probably deserve no credit.

On January 13 of 2022 we picked the dord* gigged to write about. And after spending our obligatory 15 minutes online doing research, we carefully crafted a 1,100-word piece in an effort to convince the The New York Times Spelling Bee game that gigged should be accepted as a valid answer the next time the letters D, E, G, and I appeared in a puzzle.

Well, here’s the list of rejected words, or dords*, for today’s game:

Notice gigged among the words? No? That’s because it’s no longer there. Where did it go? Hint, hint… the answer list! (I’m not going to reveal it, but trust me, gigged is included.)

Yay for us, right? I mean, we were the ones who convinced the editors of the Spelling Bee that gigged was a real word.

Well, if you believe that, you probably still think the New York Jets can win the Superbowl next February, despite quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury a few minutes into the first game.

Trust me, it ain’t happening. (And I say this as a fan of the team and former season-ticket holder.) Here’s something else that ain’t happening: getting credit from The New York Times for their change of mind about the word gigged.

We still think the article is a decent read, so go ahead and learn about the many, many meanings of gigged by clicking below. That piece, just like today’s follow-up, is dedicated to the memory of Tim Price, my saxophone teacher and friend.

*Curious about dords? Well, click below and find out more about them.