Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Everybody saw this coming.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Republicans in disarray!

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Bark louder, little dog.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The words do not have to be perfect.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Gamer Dork / Readership Capture Open Thread: Weedle, Wardle, Wordle

Readership Capture Open Thread: Weedle, Wardle, Wordle

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… Or am I too late on the bandwagon already? Never played Wordle, because I’ve got enough attention sinks already… and I’m usually lousy at word games (I blame dyslexia.) But some of y’all seem to enjoy it…

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    It didn’t grab me. For me, there usually has to be some semantic component, some interplay between form and meaning, not pure form, for it to be interesting. (A big exception is the “Split Decision” type of puzzle on NYT, which I love, and which has no real semantic component.)

    ETA: Last tweet is hilarious. I noticed the NYT already shoehorned in a reference to Wordle in a clue in their regular mini-puzzle. Product placement!

  3. 3.

    Ken

    I had a frustrating wordle — sorry, apparently “bootleg wordle” — yesterday. My first word is “TARES”, and I got “_ARES” green. But then I ran through W, P, D, C, and B and lost (it was MARES). In retrospect that was bad play, I should have guessed CHUMP to test multiple letters at once.

  4. 4.

    ALurkSupreme

    It’s a fun exercise to start the day.

    It will remind some of you of an old game called Jotto.

  5. 5.

    Betsy

    It’s small and fun and can’t really become addictive in a bad way because there is only one puzzle a day.

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    I loved it for a few weeks but haven’t played since news of the NYT purchase broke. It made me sad to hear that something pure and fun and free has been coopted by the Borg for its inevitable monetization, though good for Wardle for making a buck. All that said, I intend to take it up again soon and play as long as it’s free. One thing I love about Wordle is that that there’s one puzzle per day, which keeps me from wasting too much time on it.

  7. 7.

    Eggbert

    If you use two words containing the most common vowels/consonants as your first two guesses, you will almost always solve the puzzle by the 4th or 5th guess.  I settled on TRAIN and SLOPE.  Maybe JUDGY as 3rd guess.

    It’s trivial.  The only way to make the game a challenge is to guess random words initially.

    Amazing that the NYT spent money on this, esp. since there are several other free versions out there.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Right click is your erstwhile buddy.

    So you could save copy of the website right now, * unplug your computer from the internet, * and play Wordle every day for years.

    @zhena gogolia

    <It didn’t grab me.

    Ditto.

    Although (and am too lazy to pursue it) a parody of “I Wonder What the King Is Doing Tonight” from Camelot could readily be spun.

  9. 9.

    Origuy

    Yet one more request for help for my friend Susan, whose cat Tabitha had five teeth pulled. Susan rescued an entire litter of kittens a few years ago and now they are cats with medical problems. She needs help with the bills and any help you can give would be appreciated by Susan, Tabitha, and her sisters Sandtoes, Dixie, Dusty, and Snickerdoodle, and their brother Braveheart. Susan is still paying off the expenses for their sister Stevie, who passed away last year. Here are some kitty pictures, and a shot of the bill.
    Contributions can be sent via PayPal or Zelle to me at jlanam AT comcast DOT net or to my Venmo account at @Jeffery-Lanam. Thanks to those who have already donated. Anything is appreciated. My earlier appeals have gotten $310 and $165, but the total vet bill was $2300. Sorry to keep posting this, but Susan is anxious and doesn’t do the social media stuff.

  10. 10.

    Miss Bianca

    @Origuy: Have you asked Anne Laurie or WaterGirl to front-page this as a pet bleg? You might get more response that way.

    (Gotta take care of a few bills and see what I have left before I toss into the kitty kitty.)

  11. 11.

    Sloane Ranger

    I only started playing Wordle last week and it gets sold to the NYT and might no longer be free. Seems to be just my luck!

    I enjoy it, it’s a nice relaxing way to start the day, although having to choose a word at random can be frustrating when you don’t get ANY letters from your first try.

    I also play a couple of other word games, but, as you can play them as long as you want so I find I’m playing for hours unless I’m really disciplined.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I love Wordle. As I already subscribe to the NYT, paying for the game isn’t an issue. But I am worried that somewhere along the way they’ll decide to “improve” it by tarting it up with all kinds of unnecessary tweaks and rules, which would effectively ruin it for me. The simplicity of the game is what makes it so satisfying.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @zhena gogolia:

    That “Trump” Wordle is DougJ-type snark. No proper nouns in Wordle.

    I like the game and have found several good clones with unlimited play.

  15. 15.

    Ohio Mom

    You aren’t missing anything, Anne Laurie. When I open up the game, or worse, the link Steeplejack mentioned that is an archive of all the Wordles to date (you can keep playing for hours, jumping around with the Random tab), I am reminded that this semi-quarantine lifestyle has left me with way too much unstructured, fallow time.

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    I haven’t played it, and I’m glad he had the sense to strike while the iron is hot.  Fads burn out quickly!

    CT_Bergstrom found a Worlde variation – absurdle – that apparently is devious (it keeps a list of words in the background (the remaining worlds satisfy the rules and your guesses)) until no more fit. So the guessing strategy is different.

    Absurdle 5/∞

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜?⬜⬜?
    ?????

    It seems want to give me a yellow E and a yellow R as soon as possible. I wonder if it’s beneficial to prevent that.

    — Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) February 2, 2022

    https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    Leslie

    I also love Wordle and enjoy its simplicity. I have one of the “play as often as you like” variants bookmarked, as well as the official Wordle archive, but I don’t find myself playing it endlessly. One and done is generally plenty.

    Edit: re strategy, I don’t have standard first guesses; that would get boring. I use a different word each time.

  21. 21.

    MazeDancer

    For me, the fun of Wordle is the sharing of results. Here is today’s. (Yes, you can copy/pasta your results anywhere. Hoping sharing that doesn’t get me banned on BJ.)

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜?⬜?⬜
    ??⬜⬜⬜
    ?⬜?⬜?
    ?????

    For those not familiar, yellow means you guessed correct letters in the wrong place. Gray is wrong guess. Green is letter in correct place.

    The game, itself, requires not much brain power. It is mostly a memory task. And its egalitarian aspects are also part of its appeal. That, plus, no one ever breaks the omerta of never spoil the word of the day, makes it a fun group experience.

    Thrilled Mr. Wardle made the big bucks. But I will miss the group fun when the NYT takes over.

  23. 23.

    James E Powell

    Six Nations. Ireland v Wales. If you know who won, don’t tell me. I am conflicted this year.

    Last year my sister & I did DNA tests on ancestry.com. Although our surname is completely Cymraeg – Ap Howell – my DNA says not one drop of Welsh, 20% Irish. Apparently, people moved around in the olden days.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Humpf. Hyphenation, if you please. E-mail.

    Email always reads as mentally whispering as being pronounced like Emil or Emile.

    /losing battle

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    WATCH: The New York Times’ acquisition of Wordle has drawn backlash online, with fans expressing fears that the viral word game created by software engineer Josh Wardle might no longer be free to play.

    As the game increased in popularity, it might have become more difficult and time consuming to support it.

    If this game has enduring appeal, I say good for the guy who developed it, and good for the NYT.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    @James E Powell: I wouldn’t necessarily trust the country of origin stuff yet.  When I first did 23AndMe years ago, it didn’t list that I’m 1/4 Greek (or south-eastern-European, or whatever they called it), but after a few years it got much closer when I checked the web page for updates.

    They’ve still got a long way to go, but they’re getting there (for good and/or ill).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Mike in NC

    What would we do without the New York Times? They were early supporters of Hitler and helped elect Trump.

  30. 30.

    Leslie

    @James E Powell: I did my DNA a few years ago. When I was a kid, my mother had a fairly precise description of my heritage: half Scottish, a little more than a quarter Irish, a little less than a quarter English, and a “smattering” of Dutch and Welsh.

    I was astonished, when the results came back, that she was right on all counts. No mystery DNA from intriguing ancestors, and the breakdown matched hers exactly. I’m still baffled as to how she knew that, decades before this type of analysis was available.

  31. 31.

    Yarrow

    What I want to know is how people are getting their Wordle results to show up as an image in a comment here. I thought non-frontpagers were prohibited from having images appear in their comments. Sometimes frontpagers change peon comments to show an image after a comment has posted. Are front pagers changing all the Wordle results comments to show the results images?

  32. 32.

    Jinchi

    @Betsy: It’s small and fun and can’t really become addictive in a bad way because there is only one puzzle a day.

    That’s what I said to my SO when she found it (she’s particularly susceptible to iphone games). It took her about 10 minutes to discover how to play the archives.

    Have fun, but take care if you’ve got an addictive personality.

  36. 36.

    lowtechcyclist

    The picture in the last tweet is wrong. Both R’s in ‘RURAL’ highlighted would mean two R’s in the solution.

    (Yeah, I know it’s just using the format of Wordle to make a point about the NYT, but still.)

  37. 37.

    Yarrow

    Speaking of the NYT, some of you might remember fake British newsman Jonathan Pie. He did a piece for the NYT on Boris Johnson. It’s predictably hilarious. My favorite bit is him calling Eton “Hogwarts for wankers.” So true!
    Video available in this tweet:

    “Seriously I can just come out and say it? Call him a liar?” asks @JonathanPieNews, a fictional broadcast reporter created and performed by comedian Tom Walker, in a satirical video about Britain’s Prime Minister.
    “God bless America.” https://t.co/Hu6Q6q8TBp pic.twitter.com/ojr8Pb1d0S
    — New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) February 4, 2022

    Or here is a link to it on YouTube.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    @James E Powell:

    Last year my sister & I did DNA tests on ancestry.com. Although our surname is completely Cymraeg – Ap Howell – my DNA says not one drop of Welsh, 20% Irish. Apparently, people moved around in the olden days.

    The association of ancestry by geographical region is loosey goosey genetic. Irish and Welsh people may be Celtic or related to ancestral Britons, as opposed to Germanic, Danish, French, etc.

    Also, too, people moved around. Still do.

    Also you could have Welsh ancestors but they are not reflected in your particular sets of ancestors (and this is also more complicated).

  42. 42.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:
    Now I have to check this out and see if I, too, can post the image.

    Wordle 231 6/6

    ⬜??⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ???⬜?
    ?????

    Today’s game was my worst score ever. I usually get it in two or three guesses. This was the first time I had to use all six.

  46. 46.

    RandomMonster

    I usually try to sort out vowels as quickly as possible. So something like “adieu” or “audio” if you need a good vowel movement, so to speak.

  48. 48.

    JoyceH

    Someone tweeted “Wordle is the sourdough starter of Omicron”, to which someone else replied, “Imagine your 2019 self trying to make sense of this tweet.”

  51. 51.

    TheOtherHank

    I did ancestry a few years ago as well. It’s fun and confirmed that my family  is boring. No sneaking outside the accepted ethnic groups for a little unacknowledged hanky panky. I was born in Minnesota and according to Ancestry I’m half Swedish and half Norwegian. I’m my own caricature.

    That being said, they’ve picked a particular moment in time and decided that’s the definition of a heritage. For example what does “English” mean. We’ve got Picts, Angles, Saxons, Celts, Danes, Norwegians, Normans, etc, all settling in what we now call England. At what point are ones ancestors English and not Danes?

  53. 53.

    debbie

    I love Wordle. I love WordMaster, which is limitless Wordle without the sharing (though it tracks winning streaks). I’ve gotten a couple words in two steps on WordMaster, but not on Wordle. To me, it’s as pleasant a pastime as a crossword puzzle.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    I wouldn’t necessarily trust the country of origin stuff yet. When I first did 23AndMe years ago, it didn’t list that I’m 1/4 Greek (or south-eastern-European, or whatever they called it), but after a few years it got much closer when I checked the web page for updates.

    All these ancestry services get better as more people join up and submit samples. A while back, results for people with Hispanic and indigenous ancestry was spotty.  But now, you can get an idea of the timeframe when ancestors came to the Americas and where they may have settled.

  55. 55.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My wife and I have played every day for the last 2 weeks.  It’s friendly competition.

  56. 56.

    Jay C

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜??⬜⬜
    ⬜????
    ?????

     

    Yay! Posted! I’ve become a Wordle addict (“Wordler”??) right from the start (26/26 so far, only one six-guesser): I like simple word games (like the Times‘ “Spelling Bee” already there), and Wordle is certainly that.

  59. 59.

    Emerald

    Right, gotta try pasting my pattern here. My starting words are arise and ought, but I’m gonna try a few of the combinations in this thread.

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ?⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ?⬜⬜⬜?
    ??⬜??
    ?????

    Wheee! It works!

  61. 61.

    germy

    I'm sad that NYT is buying Wordle, but I'm happy that Mr. Wardle is getting paid. Unfortunately, that never happened to Mr. Crassward, who died penniless on the streets in the early 20th century.

    — Neil Bhaerman (@NeilAnAlien) January 31, 2022

  62. 62.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay C:

    Spelling Bee is lots of fun. I just wish they’d say how many words are possible (on their list) in a given game. That information would enhance the challenge for me.

  66. 66.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I played a few times to figure out what all the fuss was about. Seems to not too hard to get it in 4 tries most days.

    My strategy for the first two guesses is to find two words with no letter overlap. That usually gives enough info, letters it has as well as those it doesn’t, to get it on one or two more.

    I found out it also exists in other languages so I tried French and Spanish. My guesses were mostly “I have no idea if this is a word or not” but the same strategy seems to work.

    Addictive? Not so much, more of an occasional curiosity,

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    My sister & I’s DNA maps were in accord with what we had heard from our grandparents. Their families came from four different European countries at four different times and all or parts of them end up in Cleveland.

    My Irish DNA was the only surprise, but after reading a bit, not really surprising. A fairly large number of people living in the western half of Great Britain descended from people who came from Ireland or, in many cases, moved back & forth for the usual reasons.

    Six Nations broadcast on CNBC just went haywire. The audio & video went out of sync. On the audio, Ireland scored a try. On the video, a loop of a penalty call & the discussions after.

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    @SiubhanDuinne: On the Spelling Bee page, in the upper right there is a tab titled “More.” The “Hints” page will tell you how many total words are possible, as well as other information which you might regard as spoilers.

    As far as Wordle’s popularity goes, I think a lot of it has to do with sharing your results via the cube graphic. I wonder if the NYT will keep that feature.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ohio Mom:

    Thank you! I think I tried to find such information once or twice, but never clicked on “Hints” because I try to avoid actual hints. But I’ll check that out, thanks.

  76. 76.

    MazeDancer

    @James E Powell:

    I haven’t seen any really unusual words

    The word of the day is always simple. Once I accepted that the answer was always going to be a plain, easy word, my score improved.

    Today’s word is the most exotic I have seen.

    But Mr. Wardle is British. Had to remember that when the daily word was “shire”.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    @James E Powell:

    My sister & I’s DNA maps were in accord with what we had heard from our grandparents. Their families came from four different European countries at four different times and all or parts of them end up in Cleveland.

    Very cool. How did they all end up in Cleveland? What was happening in the US that Ohio ended up being the desired destination?

    My Irish DNA was the only surprise, but after reading a bit, not really surprising. A fairly large number of people living in the western half of Great Britain descended from people who came from Ireland or, in many cases, moved back & forth for the usual reasons.

    There is not often not much written about the lives and movement of peoples in this region before the Romans and Danes and Anglo Saxons (and some modern debate on whether the Anglo Saxons were really all that Angly or Saxony).

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s a joke version of the “conspiracy yarn” meme that occurs in a lot of TV shows. Basically, some possibly unhinged character has a giant display where they are trying to figure out some deep conspiracy, using yarn to “connect the dots.”

    Example: “Pepe Silvia.”

  84. 84.

    randy khan

    @Eggbert:

    Your gameplay tips are right, but boring, and most people won’t go with boring.  Besides, if you play it the way you suggest, your chances of getting the thrill of a 2/6 or the slight frisson of a 3/6 go way down, and for a lot of people how fast you get the word seems to be part of the fun.  (I don’t play, and don’t have any plans to do it, although I may dip into the game at some point.)

  85. 85.

    randy khan

    @Ohio Mom:

    As far as Wordle’s popularity goes, I think a lot of it has to do with sharing your results via the cube graphic. I wonder if the NYT will keep that feature.

    I guarantee that they will – I’m sure one of the draws was the number of people posting that graphic on social media every day.

    By the way, while I understand why some people are unhappy that the big old New York Times bought the game, it’s really hard for me to see it as anything but a wonderful story.  How often does someone do something for love – literally in this case – and get rewarded for lavishly?

    And we ought to bear in mind that the Wordle guy didn’t have a sustainable model, as even with such simple graphics and basically no bells or whistles the huge response to the game meant he was spending a ton of money on bandwidth to support it.  Again, I get why people would want Wordle to stay independent, but in the not-so-long run he was going to have to start charging for it, start taking ads, or stop offering it at all.  So this is a good outcome for everyone.

  86. 86.

    RSA

    @randy khan:

    I guarantee that they will – I’m sure one of the draws was the number of people posting that graphic on social media every day.

    I suspect the Times is thinking hard right now about how to brand that graphic.

  90. 90.

    MazeDancer

    NYT will have their logo embedded in the Wordle results copy/pasta.

    Along with occasional link for a subscription discount.

    At the very least, they will increase the “Now with Wordle” price of their “puzzles only” subscription. A revenue stream, btw, that along with a Cooking subscription, is one of the lynchpins of their continued solvency

    The game is simplistic. There are a dozen places to play it online. But you can’t share the results communally.

    Sharing is what makes Wordle popular.

  91. 91.

    The Pale Scot

    @Betty Cracker:

    There’s a browser extension Bypass Paywalls Clean that gets access to most large websites. I have not figured out exactly how it works. So I use Safari and when I run into something I want to read but can’t I open Firefox and use it that way. Works for everything I want to see except the UK Times. God forbid UK politicians post articles in an accessible format.

    Since I don’t know how it works I wouldn’t use it in my primary browser (Don’t need the FBI knocking on my door about my Sinn Fein browsing :)

  94. 94.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    I’ve been playing Wordle for a few weeks now since it was mentioned here at B-J a while ago. It makes for a nice quick start to the day with my first cup of coffee.

    Testing while it’s still 100% NYT free!

    Wordle 231 4/6

    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
    ???⬜⬜
    ?????

  95. 95.

    The Pale Scot

    @Yarrow:

    That is one F-nn great, ALL his videos are vicious in the nicest way.

    Me thinks JP is Tony Jay testing his material

  96. 96.

    Mousebumples

    @Eggbert: ADIEU and STORY are my usual starts. If I get a bunch of hits on the first word, I’ll sometimes go with a different 2nd word based on what I know. (eg AD as correct spots, and E in the wrong spot – go with ADORE, maybe)

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    @Yarrow:

    Speaking of the NYT, some of you might remember fake British newsman Jonathan Pie. He did a piece for the NYT on Boris Johnson. It’s predictably hilarious. My favorite bit is him calling Eton “Hogwarts for wankers.” So true!

    Watched the video a short while ago.

    Hilarious. So delightful, and on the money!

  99. 99.

    J R in WV

    I’m a fast reader, get the details the first time through, yet…

    In 8th grade, in reading class, the teacher (who was great! but…) a major part of the running grade was spelling. She mixed the letters up, and we had to unscramble them, 20 each week.

    I could not do that, can not do that.

    This means I score 20 or 30 in scrabble, when everyone else is competing at 350-400. Crosswords are really hard tooooo. I had real trouble passing reading in 8th grade, even tho I could speed read faster than anyone else in the room. Sad!

    I thought about memorizing the list and just spitting them out, but decided I didn’t care enough to do that much work… wasn’t a motivated student back then.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mousebumples:

    @Eggbert: ADIEU and STORY are my usual starts. If I get a bunch of hits on the first word, I’ll sometimes go with a different 2nd word based on what I know.

    You too, huh?  ADIEU is great because four vowels. Early on (like three weeks ago) STORY was my usual followup, but I shifted to STONY, basically because if I needed to go to word #3, having an R still around gave me more choices.

    Either way, after ADIEU, STORY/STONY finishes up the vowel possibilities.

    If I’ve got almost nothing to go on from the first two words, CRAMP is word #3.  Three words, all the vowels, and consonants C,D,M,N,P,R,S,T.  If I don’t know shit after those three, at least the slim choices in the remaining letters helps narrow things down.

    I’ve been going through the archive, and one of the answers was BIOME, which rather surprised me.  Two years ago, I wouldn’t have known it was a word. But thanks to AL’s Covid threads…

  102. 102.

    Rob

    @lowtechcyclist: I use TEARY and PIOUS on the first two lines, as they have all the vowels like ADIEU and STOR/NY. I often figure out the answer on line 4 (or even 3). But not today, I didn’t figure it out at all.

    I’ve used ADIEU and STORY once or twice.

  103. 103.

    Rob

    @lowtechcyclist: I use TEARY and PIOUS on the first two lines, as they have all the vowels like ADIEU and STOR/NY. I often figure out the answer on line 4 (or even 3). But not today, I didn’t figure it out at all.

    I’ve used ADIEU and STORY once or twice, with comparable results.

  104. 104.

    Starfish

    NFT bros are very sad and calling this story doxxing. You make a gajillion dollars, and people want to know who you are. Figuring out who has the money is not doxxing.

  106. 106.

    Tehanu

    @Betty Cracker: One thing I love about Wordle is that that there’s one puzzle per day, which keeps me from wasting too much time on it.

    Yeah, me too.  I’m going to have to stop myself searching for bootleg sites because I foresee endless time-wasting if I find one.

  108. 108.

    James E Powell

    @Brachiator:

    Very cool. How did they all end up in Cleveland? What was happening in the US that Ohio ended up being the desired destination?

    My grandmothers (from Scotland & Bohemia) were part of whole extended family migrations in the early 20th century. We guess they came to Cleveland for the steel industry because that’s where they ended up working. We regret not asking more questions about these things when they were alive.

    Grandfathers’ families (Prussia, presumably Wales or England) we have almost nothing in the way of documents. A lot of early deaths in their lines, for various reasons, some unknown. On census record, our maternal great-grandfather identifies his occupation as farmer. This was the first we heard about any farm.

    Another find on ancestry.com was my paternal grandfather’s draft card from WWI. Says he’s got a wife & child. This was three years before he met my grandmother, so either he had a family none of us knew about or he was a draft dodger.

  109. 109.

    James E Powell

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Because most words are using common letters, I start off with TRADE, TREAD, or RATED, then follow with GLOWS. I almost always get there in four.

  110. 110.

    Ohio Mom

    @J R in WV: Maybe you read the way I do, I see the shape of the word, its gestalt, and know it that way.

    In first grade, phonics made no sense to me, I could not do those worksheets, yet I read above grade level. 

    To this day, I am not much of a speller, especially of longer words — I basically never look at the middle of words. But Wordle is only five letters long, those words I can spell, and if I transpose an E and an I, the game rejects the word.

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    ObOpenThread: Meanwhile, … Science.org:

    The trillions of bacteria in and on our bodies can bolster our health and contribute to disease, but just which microbes are the key actors has been elusive. Now, a study involving thousands of people in Finland has identified a potential microbial culprit in some cases of depression.

    The finding, which emerged from a study of how genetics and diet affect the microbiome, “is really solid proof that this association could have major clinical importance,” says Jack Gilbert, a microbial ecologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved with the work.

    Researchers are finding ever more links between brain conditions and gut microbes. People with autism and mood disorders, for example, have deficits of certain key bacteria in their guts. Whether those microbial deficits actually help cause the disorders is unclear, but the findings have spawned a rush to harness gut microbes and the substances they produce as possible treatments for a variety of brain disorders. Indeed, researchers recently reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry that fecal transplants improved symptoms in two depressed patients.

    Guillaume Méric didn’t set out to find microbes that cause depression. A microbial bioinformatician at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute, he and his colleagues were analyzing data from a large health and lifestyle study from Finland. Part of a 40-year effort to track down underlying causes of chronic disease in Finnish people, the 2002 study assessed the genetic makeup of 6000 participants, identified their gut microbes, and compiled extensive data about their diets, lifestyles, prescription drug use, and health. Researchers tracked the health of participants until 2018.

    […]

    Morganella has already been implicated in depression. As far back as 2008, researchers investigating a possible link between depression and inflammation found depressed people had stronger immune responses to chemicals produced by Morganella and other gram-negative bacteria in the gut. Thus, the newest study seems to be “further proof” that inflammation caused by gut microbes can influence mood, Gilbert says.

    But the field is still in its infancy, says Gerard Clarke, a microbiome researcher at University College Cork, as there are many forms of depression and many possible ways that microbes could affect this disease. The “holy grail” is to identify a missing microbe that could be given as supplement, he says. But it’s less clear how Morganella could be eliminated from the gut to relieve symptoms. “That’s a bit more challenging.”

    Fascinating stuff.

    There’s still so much we don’t know about how our bodies work. Every little bit of new knowledge moves us forward.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mousebumples: I’m working my way through the Wordle archive, and this afternoon I did one puzzle where four of the letters of the solution matched up with ADIEU, and I was able to get it in two.  Only time I’ve managed that.

  115. 115.

    m.j.

    @Eggbert:

    I’m with you.

    I scratch my brain for a new word to start with everyday to make it more challenging.

    I’m also playing it everyday.

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