Okay, so “goodness gracious,” I thought, “another NYT game? Let’s see what this is all about.” I’d heard some buzz about it, some friends were talking about it, and I’m always up for a little word puzzle challenge.
First thing I did was, obviously, open up the NYT Games page. I’m already a bit of a Spelling Bee addict, so I’m pretty familiar with the layout. Found ‘Goodness Gracious’ easily enough. It’s got this cute little grid, looked pretty simple at first glance.
Then, I started playing. The basic idea is you’ve got these letters, and you’re trying to make words. But, and here’s the kicker, the words have to fit within the specific shape of the grid. You get points for each letter, and the more letters in a word, the more points you score. Sounds simple, right?
Well, let me tell you, it gets tricky fast. I started off strong, banging out some simple three and four-letter words. I was feeling pretty smug, like “Yeah, I got this, no problem.”
- “CAT” – easy peasy.
- “DOG” – still cruising.
- “AND”- I am genius!
Getting Stuck and Getting Help
Then… I hit a wall. I stared at those letters, rearranging them, trying different combinations, and nothing. My brain just froze. The grid, which looked so innocent at the beginning, started to feel like a mocking little jail cell for my vocabulary. So I started clicking the shuffle. Hoping a solution with pop out.
Finally after what felt like 20 minutes I got a solid 7 letter word and felt like I won the lottery!
So that’s my “Goodness Gracious” journey. A little bit of fun, a little bit of frustration, and a whole lot of letter shuffling. I’m definitely going to give it another go tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even crack the top score. (A guy can dream, right?)
