Normal morning, here. Cup of coffee, Wordle, and then the NY Times Spelling Bee, in which we look for all the words we can find with a set of seven letters. I start out by looking up whatever word I missed the day before. Today: ANTICIPANT. I did not know that was a word.

Most days I don’t need to look up missing words. I usually get them all. I’m pretty good at this game. I grew up playing word games. Scrabble, Anagrams, and the thing in the paper where you try to find all the words you can in PLACEMAT. We were a Word Family, and we were competitive about it. No, I can’t throw a ball.

The Spelling Bee does not include all the possible words. One fellow goes through the list his computer churns out and knocks out all the words he thinks are too obscure. This is only sensible. He wouldn’t have any fans of the game at all if he were going to include things like VIVIANITE, a perfectly good mineral, according to the highly affronted Vivian. Lines must be drawn. They can seem arbitrary.

But when you’re new at this, you’re going to find perfectly good words, especially in your specialized field, that aren’t accepted. There are whole forums on the web devoted to people whining about these slights. The consensus is it “drives people crazy,” although that’s a pretty short trip. One such complainant was scandalized at the non-inclusion of RACHITIC, which means “characteristic of rickets.” Another was similarly affronted by the exclusion of CHIRAL, which refers to a compound that is asymmetrical in such a way that the structure and its mirror image are not superimposable. I get it. Why go to all the trouble of knowing that particular wedge of information if you can’t fling it at the Spelling Bee and make it stick?

If you’re mature, you get over these things. I have learned that the Bee Master is not familiar with a whole raft of animals, birds, and bird terms. There will be no PIPPING: you can just stay in that damn egg, Junior. No ANOLE. No CAVY. No ALULA. No HOOPOE. No GANNET. No ANHINGA? Really?

They’ll take HANGUL. Important, because the writing system of the Korean language is much more compelling than a gigantic bird in plain sight in Florida.

You learn things. You need to know, apparently, that TORI and TORII are both words, unrelated except for their obscurity. In general, if you are a traditional Yamato street food or part of a rabbi’s wardrobe, you’re in. If you can navigate a deli menu from a deli anywhere in the world you’re halfway there.

If you are the sort of person who likes to be perpetually offended, this is your game. That includes you, internet dude who complained about not getting RACOON. The nurve!

So I had to look up ANTICIPANT. I guess it means expectating. Officially.

But I have to have my fun. I think it’s another word for boxer shorts. A little pair of pants to let you know that bigger pants are on the way.