Enjoyed every minute as a rookie judge at my first Stamford #ACPT. It was an outright lovefest. Puzzles were great/unnecessary. I retired from competition in 2014 after winning the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament’s highest honor: being issued jersey number 23. #ACPT2023

The Trump administration accidentally added me to its Wordle group text. A lot of DNF’s.

This is worth a look. (No relation to Rankin/Bass.)

For some mindless entertainment on my phone, I got Kathy Griffin’s book of A to Z celebrity anecdotes. The intellectual level was quickly set when the first two entries were, in alphabetical order, Woody Allen and J.J. Abrams.

I'm the latest guest on AJ Jacobs' podcast "The Puzzler," a peppy quiz show not unlike Will Shortz's Sunday NPR segment. It's a continuation of his hit book by the same name. My first ep dropped yesterday. Thanks so much AJ for lowering your standards and having me on. So fun!

Love Bill Oakley as a junk food guru on the socials, as a golden age Simpsons writer … and as a great guy. He generously let me, a Usenet friend but essentially a stranger, crash their Fox lot HQ in Jan. 1996 when I was in LA for Northwestern’s rare appearance in the Rose Bowl.

We're playing Only Connect tonight, the BBC quiz show that's sweeping the... well, we like it. (If you like NYT Connections, you'll like it too.) Play along, hang out in the chatbox or just watch; afterward it's VOD. Plus trivia for charity! 8pm ET. twitch.tv/benbassandbeyo…

Enjoy NYT Connections? We're playing it tonight along with the rest of the BBC quiz show that inspired it. Then bonus pop culture trivia. 8pm ET. Play along or hang out in the chatbox, but no (free) Twitch ID is required just to watch. Then it's VOD. twitch.tv/benbassandbeyo…

I've got the NPR Sunday puzzle this weekend. Check it out at npr.org/puzzle or listen to Will Shortz's Weekend Edition segment on a "radio."

I'm just the American BBC; Michael Sobin is our Victoria Coren Mitchell. In this week's Only Connect livestream, TikTok celeb Katie Grogg @coffeeandcrosswords and other puzzle & Jeopardy stars tackled Michael's tricky Q's, then pop culture bptrivia. Enjoy the VOD: twitch.tv/videos/2507383…

If you watch only one New York Times puzzle writer solving a Simpsons “steamed hams”-themed cryptic crossword featuring a Green Day mashup today, let it be this one. twitch.tv/videos/2521662… BILL OAKLEY Josh Weinstein #steamedhams

For a very tough Wordle variant, google “harderdl.” It’s Wordle except you’re only told how many green or tan squares there are, not where they are. You get 14 guesses and need them. My cousin is the fiend behind this.

a bunch of the nation's best puzzle solvers (and for some reason also me) are knocking out some cryptic crosswords — join us! twitch.tv/bewilderingly

National crossword champion Max Kurzman and I will be solving puzzles today “Down clues only” starting around 5pm ET. Please join us! twitch.tv/benbassandbeyo…

So many poseurs. Some of us use the 🦃 emoji every day of the year.

or maybe they just THINK we're seeing this today