How a Word-Savvy Contestant Hacked Wheel of Fortune

This is late, but great: Was the Wheel of Fortune One-Letter Solve Really a Miracle?, from Esquire's Chris Jones. Terrific read that explains how to deduce a 27 letter puzzle with nothing but a well-placed apostrophe and a deep love of the game.

There have been other great solves on Wheel of Fortune — a contestant recently managed CHARLESTON SOUTH CAROLINA after being spotted only the Ts, and long-time show staffers seem to remember someone solving GREEN EGGS AND HAM BY DR. SEUSS with only one or two letters and that telltale period.

But something about Burke's moment — the mean-girl giggles in the audience when she asked to solve the puzzle; Sajak's speechlessness after she did — better captured the imagination. People watching her clip as it crackled across the Internet responded the same way the stunned contestant standing next to her did. Like that poor guy named Rick, they looked at her, and back at the puzzle, back at her, and back at the puzzle, trying to figure it out: How did she do that?