[Mantazz]

Looks like the problem was that it was permissions for tables, not databases. In this case, the database was called "hackers" and the table was called "attempts".
AFAIK, there may be no mechanism to grant permissions for entire databases, only for tables within. So then I did

mysql> grant all on Attempts to syslog@localhost identified by 'varlog';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Followed by

mysql> show grants for 'syslog'@'localhost';
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for syslog@localhost                                                                                   |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'syslog'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '' |
| GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `hackers`.`Attempts` TO 'syslog'@'localhost'

And now the user 'syslog' can see the Attempts table. The columns within show up as well, so it looks like I can proceed.

thanks!