Wordle 711: Hey, Let's Go Get Slurpees

Wow, it's Wordle 711! Let's go get some Slurpees! Honestly, I think it's probably been at least five years since I've had a Slurpee, and probably a bit longer than that. But maybe today is the day to change that.

While I consider whether or not to get a Slurpee, I open with PLANT as my first guess. I told you I wouldn't start with TRASH today. The other (cynical) half of my prediction was incorrect since the T is gray. But the L and the A are yellow. I was wondering if maybe I was using A too much in my opening guesses lately, but today it worked out.

Usually when I get two letter on my first guess my impulse is put them at the start of my next guess. Today, however, I fought against that urge and put the AL at the end. I wanted to be bold and guess USUAL, but I chickened out and went with a guess that could give me some actual information: I submitted MORAL as my second guess. But I didn't get a lot out of this guess. The A and L were both yellow and the rest was gray.

What a bummer, but that feeling gave me my next guess: SADLY. Sadly, it was not the answer, but I got the position of the L and a pretty good idea of where the A is supposed to go at this point. The A was either at the beginning or the end of answer. I honestly did not really consider much with the A at the end because that just seemed too odd. So I put A at the front and started to work the answer out. I had a feeling the the word ended with an E, but I did a quick check to see if an LK could work at the end. Based on prior guesses, the LT and LL endings were out, and since I couldn't find an LK, I was fairly confident with LE as the end. From there, it was just a matter of time util I saw AGILE as the answer.

AGILE in four is a pretty good result. Words with three vowels are just going to be ones that I will probably only be able to get in four based on my one vowel opener strategy. But this was a good result and fairly quick solve, so I found it enjoyable.

Hi, It's Been a While

Lots to catch up on in this post. I blame the Memorial Day long weekend. My last post was Thursday's puzzle, so let's do a quick recap of the last few days. Friday, the answer was SWINE.  I don't recall my path to getting that answer, but I think I got there in four guesses. Loved SWINE as an answer, just a really solid word that is unexpected yet also pretty common, I guess. Also, we got a W in the answer, so that's pretty cool.

Saturday, I did take a screen shot of my solve, and I got RAMEN in three. This was a maybe a bit of luck on my solve. I went with SPLAT as my first guess then AMEND as guess number two. I did make a decision to put A at the front, which got me yellow tiles for the first four letters. At that point, it was just a matter of shifting everything over a space and plugging in the R.

Sunday, I did not screen shot, but I did get SKIMP as the answer. I honestly have no recollection of how many guesses it took.

Yesterday was a tough one for me even though I solved it in four. I opened with TRASH and got a green S. Building off that, I went with CLOSE, giving me the last two letters and a yellow O. Guess number three was OBESE because at this point I figured there would be three vowels in the answer. Since the O wasn't green, I now knew the location of the O. So my fourth guess was down to either HOUSE, MOUSE, or LOUSE. And since the L and H were eliminated. I got MOUSE in four. I consider this a tough one since it pretty much flies in the face of my strategy of looking for consonants. But I got there.

Today (Tuesday) I again opened with TRASH. This was completely accidental. I like to mix my opening words up and didn't realize I used it Monday. I got all gray tiles on the guess, which was a bit of a bummer, but I deserve that for repeating my opening guess. My second guess was LUNGE, which gave me yellow tiles for L, N, and E. This was good because it gave me letters to play with, but terrible because I didn't know what to do with them. I was on the theory that there were two vowels in the answer, so I came up with MELON for my next guess. I still didn't get a green tile, and this is where my game came off the rails.

My initial instinct was to guess INCEL, but I had doubts as to whether that was in the word bank or not. I deleted it and stupidly guessed ELFIN, which was a complete wasted guess because I knew the N couldn't be at the end of the word. It's just completely devastating to me to waste a guess like that. I've mentioned viewing four as a par for Wordle, and wasting a guess is like when you have a good lie in the fairway and then you chunk your next stroke. It's just a complete waste of a good opportunity. Devastating.

So now I have to regroup. After looking at what I have on the board, I still think there are two vowels, but that means I have to have a repeating E. But I'm not seeing it. I play around and get the feeling that N should be the second letter. This leads me to the KN opening and I see that it can be KNELL or KNEEL. So I've got a 50/50 guess with two guesses left. At this point, I know I've got this solved, I just don't know the score. I go with KNELL and do not see five green tiles. KNEEL it is for a solve in six.

When I look at Wordlebot, I see that I had the puzzle down to four possible words by guess three when I wasted my fourth guess. One of the four remaining possible words was INCEL. From INCEL, I would have gotten to KNEEL on the next guess, so I did give away a stroke so to speak on that. Just a real bummer. Current streak is up to 48. Tomorrow I will not open with TRASH, which means tomorrow's solution will be TRASH.

World 705: From Downtown!

I open with PLANT today. No real reason, but it gets me two yellow tiles: the L and the A. Now I have to decide what to do with this info. I briefly consider USUAL, but that's a wasted guess unless the answer is USUAL. I'm not really one of those swing for the fences players, so I'm not going to do it. LAUGH feels like a better guess, although I do wonder if I should see if there is an E in this answer or not. Since the A is not the third letter, I'm guessing there are two vowels in the solution. Eh, I decide to go with LAUGH for guess 2.

Okay, I get location of the A. I also learn that G is also in the answer. I wonder about GALLY, but I feel the same about it as I did with the USUAL idea. It just doesn't feel right. I play with G at the front some more, but that doesn't really get me anywhere. I move it to the third spot MAGLY? No, that feels made up. I play around for a bit and end up on BAGEL, which I feel good about. I hit enter.

And... (Marv Albert voice)... YES! I get a solve in three. This is very exciting, dear reader. I feel like I'm in a groove this week. I would've had a solve in three yesterday, but chose wrongly. I had a solve in three on Tuesday. What will Friday bring?

Wordle 704: Coin Flip Goes Bad

I'm playing on the website today instead of on my phone because my iPhone has died. RIP to my iPhone ProMax11. It served me well during the last 4 years. So I guess I have to go by the Verizon store later today to see what my options are. I'm going to open with LOUSY because that is how I feel. I know, I don't really do the Wordle/horoscope thing, but this has been a lousy morning. I get a yellow U for my troubles.

I go with UNDER as my second guess because I can get a lot of common letters out of the way. I get the correct locations for U, E, and R, so that strategy paid off. I'm feeling good about my progress, and I just need to take my time to get a good guess to get consecutive solves in three. I wanted ULCER, but that is wrong because of the L. UTTER and UPPER stand out as possibilities. UMBER... is that a word? Screw it, it's baseball season let's go with UPPER as in upper deck either describing a home run or the trading card company that is still in business, maybe? UPPER was not the word. Ugh, the UTTER horror. I guess it's UTTER in four. I'm a little bit sad that I didn't get the solve in three, but I can take some solace in the fact that I had it down to a 50/50 shot. Win some, lose some. Streak is currently sitting at 41.

Wordle 703: I've seen the first one, but not the second or the third

Ok, I open today's puzzle with BRING, hoping it will bring me a good result. I apologize for typing that. That felt wrong as soon as I typed it. I do get a yellow for the R, so I maybe it worked? Seeing the R gives me chills because I worry that it might be a word that ends in ER. I decide to test this theory with my second guess: PALER. For some reason, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was on my mind, even though I haven't heard that song in a while. Also, that song is not based on The Miller's Tale from Canterbury Tales.

Anyways, I get yellow tiles for L, E, and R. I'm glad that this puzzle won't devolve into a guessing game, but I'm a little bit confused about what to do with these letters. I want to guess REPLY, but I know that won't work because the P is out. I mess around with E at the front, but that doesn't really get me anywhere. Same with L at the front. I figure my best bet is trying to figure out where to place the R. I try to build around the R in the fourth spot. I stumble onto CLERK and that feels like a good word guess number three. Everything turns up green, and I've got myself a solve in three. Pretty good puzzle today. 

Wordle 702: A Tricky, but Fun Word

I start today with STUMP because the puzzles over the weekend tripped me up a little bit. It'll be hilarious if/when the Wordle is STUMP, but that today is not today. (Sorry for stealing your bit, Aragorn). Everything turns up gray off that guess, so I pick a different one-vowel word. I land on BLAND. This slightly more helpful in that I get a yellow tile for the L. I get the feeling that there is more than one vowel in today's answer. Just a gut feeling that I'm going to have to come off my strategy.

My next guess is LIVER. This gets me my second yellow for the I. But it also stumps me. I still think there is more than just the I as a vowel in this word, so I'm going to have to use O in my next guess. I wonder if the L goes at the end, but that means a lot of random guessing to get to a word. I fiddle around and wonder if COILY is a word (it isn't). I like the the idea of CO to start the word. I'm not coming up with anything to follow those letters though. Eventually, I type COLIC, which I'm unsure of because I thought there was an H in there, but COLIC is accepted. And the L is green in the middle. I also get yellows for the O and I, which I was pretty sure of anyways.

Now I've got the I either at the very end or the very beginning. I can't think of any real word that ends in I, so I put it up front I-L-- with an O in there somewhere. Eventually, after some trial and error, I get IGLOO. Everything turns green for a solve in five. Wow. IGLOO feels like a word designed to be the exact opposite of my strategy due to the three vowels and the repeating O's. So even though it was a solve in five, I don't feel bad about it. Although, I had started with something like BLOCK, this might've been a quicker solve. Who's to say? In any case, I had fun with this odd word and enjoyed today's puzzle.  

Weekend Catchup May 20 & 21

Ok, I went 2 for 2 this weekend, but neither win was all that impressive.

Saturday was a solve in four. I went FLING then FLAKE for my first two guesses. On my third, I had FLA in the right spot and I knew the word ended in K. So my options were either FLACK or FLASK to try to get it in three. I went with FLACK, which was incorrect, but got my to FLASK in four. So, yay.

Sunday's puzzle was harder for me. I went with GRAIL for my opener because I just finished watching Mrs. Davis on Peacock, which involves a quest for the Holy Grail. It's a bonkers show that I recommend, but you need to accept a certain level of stupidity to enjoy it. GRAIL got me R and A in the correct spots. From there, I struggled. I continued to break my look for the consonants strategy first by guessing TRADE, which gave me no new results. I feel that was a good guess because based on the position of the A, there could've been an E at the end. My next guess was PRANK, and, again, I got no new letters. This stumped me. I guessed CRAZY next because that's how I felt. No new letters. I was totally lost. I finally typed in BRASH and got a solve in five. Hoping to do better on Monday's puzzle when I solve it in a few hours after doing some work work.

Wordle 699: Almost a Milestone

I'm not sure what word to choose to open with today. COVER? MOIST? LIWPD? Last one is obviously not a word, but just the first five keys that I typed at random. I decide to go with RELIC, breaking my recent trend of choosing one-vowel words. I'm rewarded for breaking my rules by getting yellows for the R,E, and I. No, this is not an ad for REI. They wouldn't pay me for a blog that averages... checks notes... zero views a day.

Anyways, PRIDE is a good second guess. I get the location of the R and I. E will now either go first or fourth. I don't think E will go at the start ERI-- doesn't really give a lot of options. Wow, the day the answer is EERIE is going to be hilarious. Thinking about the E in the fourth spot gives me TRIES. Cries and pries are out. Fries is a plural, so TRIES it is. TRIES is not the answer, but I do get confirmation that the E is fourth.

What is this word? Is it something obscure? I look around the remaining letters trying to think what the answer could be. I'm not seeing anything. Then I put a G in the front which leads me to GRIEF and the correct answer. A good word, even if it's a difficult emotion. 

I'm not one of those Wordle players that views it as a horoscope, but the thing that I did right before playing this puzzle was read this Washington Post story about a Florida family that was forced to carry their child to term even though their child had rare disorder called Potter syndrome. It's a tough read and it deals with grief.

Wordle 698: Baa, Ram, Ewe, Sheep Be True (I don't remember how the rest of this goes)

Still a little bit salty about yesterday's answer being PLANK. I could've had a solve in one if I stuck with the K, dammit! Oh well, let's turn the page. Actually, SALTY is a good opener; lets give that a try. Okay, the S is green, and everything else is gray. But I've got something to work with. Part of me wants to go with SPORK, but I think that's just being a bit too stupid. Instead, I go somewhat safer with SPORE and get green tiles for the O and R.

So I've now got S-OR-. First instinct is SPORT, but we know that can't be the answer. SHORE is out, but maybe SHORN? Or SCORN. A second vowel doesn't make much sense with the letters I have already. SCORN feels like a good guess. I type it and get greens for everything but the C. Damn, looks like I should've gone with SHORN. I type it in and get the solve in four. Welp, I had the puzzle down to an either/or guess on the third go and just picked the wrong one. It's kind of a bummer when you miss a three like that, but getting it in four is better than a solve in five or six, so I'll take it. My streak is now up to 36.

Wordle 697: We Both Lived in Another Man's Shadow

Like I wrote yesterday, I feel like I've been using K too often in my opening guesses lately, and I'm trying to avoid that, so I'm looking for new words to use. Today, I thought of a really good one that I'm surprised I hadn't used previously: PLANT. I type it in and get a green P followed by a green L. Then a green A. Wait, is this happening? A green N! Holy crap, this could be it; this could be the day it happens! The final tile turns over and it is is gr--- gray. Dammit. So close.

But that's alright, I'll get the solve in two by going with PLANE, a perfectly cromulent word. A solve in two is pretty good and makes up for the fact that I was only one letter off. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the day. Wait, what? PLANE wasn't right. Nuts. So now I'm a bit nervous since I could go from a really good solve to an average solve if I don't take my time. I type in PLANS. I know there are plurals in Wordle, but it could be a verb: He plans to win the Wordle quickly and easily, but best laid plans can go awry. I'm thinking about the first use of plans in the previous sentence. 

I'm about to enter it, but something feels off. I can't put my finger on it, but it keeps me from hitting enter. I look around to see if there are any alternatives. Then I seen PLANK and silently curse the universe. PLANK is a better guess than PLANS. I hit enter and see the final tile turn green. PLANK! K was in the answer! The K I was trying to avoid! F*#K! Oh well, a solve in three is pretty good, but I still feel like Homer in that episode of the Simpsons where he accidently invents a new chair and an electric hammer for Thomas Edison. 

  

Wordle 696: Tuesday Pick Me Up

I feel like a lot of the opening words I've used lately have had K in them, and I kind of want to get away from that trend. Watch today be the day the answer is KINKY or something. I go with PRISM as my opener and everything turns up gray, so that's a bummer. Maybe I should go for a totally random word like WALTZ. I'm doing it. WALTZ in two, baby! I don't get it right, but the A and T are green and the L is yellow, so progress.

The L has to be at the front because what English word ends with TL? But even going with that idea, I'm struggling to come up with a word to put in here. LASTLY is something that gets stuck in my head, but it's too long. I finally consider using a double T and come up with LATTE. It has to be LATTE, right? A solve in three today gives me a rush of energy that is probably on par with a jolt of caffeine.

Two non-Wordle things of interest: I hit Genius on the Spelling Bee Monday! Tiles has been added to the NYT Games App! I enjoyed playing it when it debuted sometime last month, but since I play on the app, I haven't played since I saw it on Twitter (ugh, yes, I'm still on that terrible site) the first days it was available. I'm looking forward to digging into it. 

EDIT/UPDATE/WHAT?!?: Tiles is not what I thought it was. I was thinking about Digits. C'mon, bring Digits to the app, NYTGames! I don't know what Tiles is, but I'm still looking forward to playing it.

Wordle 695: Up a Creek With a Paddle

Clock is the word that is in my head, but I don't want to use it as my opening guess because of the double c. So I try to think of something else, and come up with DRINK. I get a yellow N. I decide to put it at the front of the word and quickly come up with NASTY. Not sure why that word is bouncing around in my brain, but it yields some positive results as I get a green tile for A. The N is still yellow, but we're making progress. I want to go with FANCY, but I know that's wrong because the Y was grey in my previous guess. But I do like the N in the third slot there, I fiddle around and get LANCE. This makes sense because I figure there will be another vowel in the word somewhere, so trying the E now is good to get it out of the way.

Okay. The L is grey, but everything else is either green or yellow. The C is yellow, so I know that it has to go at the front of the word. CAN-E. What is this word? I get the feeling that is going to be a situation where I'm positive this is a word I've never heard of, but then turns out to be a pretty common one. I start working through my available letters, not sure of what I'm doing exactly. And, yep, there it is. CANOE. Maybe not the most common word, but certainly a word that is common enough. 

Weekend Catchup May 13-14

Saturday's puzzle is one that I don't completely recall my solving process because I forgot to take a screen shot of the puzzle. Trust me, I got it in four. ACRID is really interesting word for the solution. I like it when there are off words as the solution. 

For Sunday, I opened with STOCK and got a green for the S and a yellow for the C. It took me a bit of thinking about where to put the C for my second guess, but I ultimately decided it should be the second letter and chose SCARE for my second guess. I got greens for the first four letters and briefly thought I had my second solve in two in the past week. Alas, it was not meant to be as the last block was gray. I was extremely confident that I had this in three and quickly typed in SCARY for my next guess. You can imagine my shock when that was also incorrect. I took a little bit longer to analyze my options before typing in SCARF and getting the solve in four. This was frustrating personally, but sometimes you get puzzles where you have four out of five and don't see the word. At least, in my case, this was early enough in the guesses that I didn't have a 50/50 coin flip for the sixth guess. My streak is now up to 32.

Wordle 692: The Struggle Bus Leads to a Good Destination

I open with BRINK today and get a yellow N and a green K. Getting the last letter helps, but it's also very weird to be trying to think about the answer backwards. The N is also complicating matters for me since the first place I'm going mentally are words the end in LK, like stalk, chalk, and caulk. But those won't work because I have to fit an N in there somewhere. 

I am really struggling on this one. I can't think of anything. I start thinking about words that ends with CK and get nowhere because I don't know what to do with that N. Crack, stack, track are all useless to me. I start wondering if there is a double N in the word somewhere. I am totally lost. I type in a few nonsense words just to try to get something clarified for me here. Looking around for anything to help. Then I stop thinking about the puzzle for a moment or two. I come back and think about SLINK as a possibility, I know it'll be wrong, but it'll get the ball moving again. I wait for a moment start moving the N around in the word. NISCK? SNICK? Hmm, maybe if I change the vowel. Oh yes, it's SNACK. I get a solve in two to finish the week and am feeling pretty good as my streak extends to 30.

P.S. I'm also feeling good because I hit Genuis on Spelling Bee yesterday. It was good because I had hit a bit of a rough patch with Spelling Bee, getting a few games in the last two weeks were I got stuck at Amazing-level. So it was good to get genius for a change. I was also four words away from hitting a Queen Bee, but oh well.

Wordle 691: Ho-Hum Answer

I open with PRANK today. I get the R correct, but nothin else. I'm now starting to have some doubts about going consonant hunting early in the game. It just feels like maybe it is not giving the great results that it did when I switched to it. Or maybe it just feels that way. My doubts increase when my second guess TRIED does not give additional information. But my third guess GROWS get us back on track with a green for O. The R as the second letter does limit what I can guess I try the F and C, but nothing works. I use the B that is available to me and figure that the O must be repeated because nothing worked with U for me as I typing in possibilities. From there, I did briefly spend some time deciding if I should guess BROOM or BLOOM. I went with BROOM and it was today's answer. Maybe I was just having doubts when I saw a lot of gray boxes early in the game. And I think eliminating so many letters helped me see the double O quicker than I would have by looking for vowels. So maybe there is something to getting consonants out of the way early. Nothing particularly great or bad about today's puzzle.

Wordles 689 & 690: Double Post!

It's your lucky day because we have a two for one post today since I didn't write yesterday's Wordle solve. Yay!

I started Tuesday's puzzle with BRING, following my one vowel guessing strategy. I'm not sure what to make of the strategy because I get nothing from this guess. For some reason, I was to put F at the start and enter FAULT for my second guess. I had briefly considered FLACK because that was one of the words from Spelling Bee either on Monday or over the weekend, but I went with FAULT, which got me a yellow A. I decide to use the letter E in my third guess since it is the most common letter. Quick aside: I don't know if that is true or not, but I've heard it repeated enough times to just accept it. PEACH is my third guess, which gets me a yellow C. Maybe I should've gone with FLACK.

My fourth guess is COMAS. I totally disregard the no-plural rule with this guess because I need to find the location of some of these letters, and I don't have anything else to guess. This gets me greens for CO and by deduction I now know that A is at the end of the word. CO--A. Hmmm, not a lot that I can do with that, is there? I think for a moment and land on COCOA, which is the correct answer. I like this puzzle because it shows the different paths you could take to a solve on my second guess. If I had used FLACK, I might've been able to get the solve in four or under, instead I have to settle for a bogey five. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.

Today got off to a slightly better start. My opening guess of BLOCK got me a yellow C. So now I'm a little bit on the fence about the four consonants/one vowel opener. I don't know, it's helpful, but is it the best strategy? Should I just go with random words, with no regards to vowel/consonant constraints? I don't know.

My second guess is CRATE. Maybe my problem with my current strategy is with the second guess. I would have to look back at these posts, but I bet I tend to throw the correct letters (if I get any) at the front in my second guess. There is probably some kind of confirmation bias at play there. Anyways, CRATE gets me yellows for C,T, and E. Now I'm really stumped, especially because I want to type METRIC for my next guess and I get stuck looking at that six-letter word. After some unsuccessful playing with the letters, I type METIC, and that is accepted for some reason? I've now got four of the correct letters and IC at the end of the word, which continues to stump me.

I play around and type THEIC, which is another word that I don't know that is accepted. Okay. It's wrong, but I now have all the letters. I quickly see that the answer is ETHIC. A little disappointed in myself for not seeing it earlier, but I was really in the weeds with the letters I had. The streak is up to 28.

For the record, according to Google, metic is a foreigner living in an ancient Greek city who had some of the privileges of citizenship. And theic is a person who drinks excessive amounts of tea. Yep, those words sure are going to come in handy some day.

Wordle 688 and Weekend Catch-Up

I solved both puzzles over the weekend. Saturday's puzzle (ANGER) was a solve in 4 guesses and Sunday's puzzle (GHOUL) was a solve in three. I felt these were both good puzzles for my new idea of guessing a single vowel word for the opener. A three and four are good results. Still not sure if these are just lucky or not, though.

Today, I opened with BLACK and got yellows for the LA. Getting this information made it pretty hard to try to continue to guess another four consonant word, so I went with MURAL. I did not gain any letters from that guess, so I moved the L and A to the front and LAPSE. I was still hadn't found the location of either letter which was either pretty impressive or just terrible luck. I threw the A into the first slot because opening with A made more sense than trying to hit the first letter randomly with A at the end. 

AIOLI fit the criteria that I currently had. I was also trying to find the other vowel in the word. I got a yellow for the O and was able to deduce the L's position because I had tried every other space for that letter. I briefly played with AOL--, but quickly realized that was going nowhere. I moved the O behind L and quickly typed in ALLOW. I stopped myself because the L was already wrong for the second letter. I played around and typed in AFLOW, which had the F wrong. I briefly considered that may be I was crazy and ALLOW was correct, but then I saw AGLOW, which I had dismissed earlier because for some reason I was thinking a hard AG like in agriculture. But then I looked at it again and realized that AGLOW was the answer.

Today's puzzle is a good one. I think I had some bad luck with my early guesses. I could've gone with ALTER for my second guess and had a much different solving experience. But I also made a few errors, especially when it came to dismissing AGLOW because I was pronouncing it wrong in my head as I typed it out. Oh well, sometimes you have days where it doesn't work out best for you. My streak is up to 26 and tomorrow is another chance to build on it. 

Wordle 685: A Change Would Do You Good

I am starting to wonder if I am approaching this game wrong. Maybe instead of hunting vowels early, you should hunt for consonants. I mean, there are 5 vowels, but 21 consonants, so shouldn't we be trying to knock as many consonants out of the way first? You're going to end up using vowels in your guesses anyway, so they kind of take care of themselves, don't they? To start testing this, I opened today's puzzle with STORY. Only the O was yellow. But to follow my logic, I've narrowed the possibilities for my next guess down to 17 as opposed to having 16 or 18 consonants if I had guessed a word that had two vowels. I'm not sure if makes a big difference, but something to keep in mind.

My second guess is MELON. I get greens for the ELO in the middle of the word. Now I've just got to find the first and last letters, which I can confidently surmise are consonants. In theory, I've go four guesses to roll through the remaining 14 consonants (15 if L repeats somewhere in the answer). I look at it for a bit and come to BELOW as my answer, which is correct. A solve in three is pretty good for the first day trying this different approach. We will have to keep at it to see if it actually works better as a solving technique. Streak is up to 23.

Wordle 684: A Strange Path to a Strange Word

Hey, it's May 4, so let's open with FORCE. Wow, looks like they are not Star Wars fans over at NYT Games because everything is gray. Taking a major faceplant like that leads me to guess SPLAT. At least this time I get a yellow box for the P.

Okay, I need to start taking today's puzzle a little bit more seriously. The only vowels left to me are U and I, and maybe Y. I don't know, I've got to try to get something here, so I go with PINKY. Yellow for the P and a green for the Y. AT this point, my instinct tells me GUPPY. That feels like a good guess. I could go with BUMPY instead, but GUPPY feels good because I can get the potential double P taken care of. GUPPY was correct, and my streak is up to 22. 

Not a lot to say about today's puzzle other than I have to give Tracy Bennett credit for using a word that only has U for the vowel. I would estimate U is the least used vowel, so kudos on that.

Wordle 683: Phew

Not feeling well today (slight fever), so I'm going to try to keep this post short. I want to open with FEVER, but that's ridiculous. So I go with TRAIN instead. I get a yellow for the R. Ok, maybe I should guess fever? I go with RESOD and get yellows for everything by the S. 

Okay, I need to play with these letters and try to get it in three. CODER looks like a good guess, but it is incorrect. I get a green for O but the rest are still yellow. Hmm. I've got either DOR-E, EORD-, -ORDE, or DOER-. I don't know. I type in randomly until BORDE is accepted. Everything is green except that first letter. Yeah, no crap. This is obviously some word I've never heard of, like when we had BORAX a few weeks ago. I go through, seemingly trying every letter available to me in the first slot. And get a lot of "Not in word list"s. I don't know I stupidly type in ERODE by mistake and that's wrong. So know I'm down to my last guess. I must've skipped something by accident. Looking below:

QORDE,WORDE, EORDE, RORDE, YORDE, UORDE, OORDE, PORDE, LORDE, KORDE, JORDE, HORDE, GORDE, FORDE, DORDE, MORDE, VORDE, XORDE, ZORDE.

I don't know. Just try them again until something hits, right or wrong.

HORDE. Like a HORDE of animals/zombies. I stupidly thought it was an alternative spelling of HOARD and never considered HORDE. But I got it. 

Wow. Tough word. I like it more as look back on it, but it was frustrating. I still have no idea what BORDE is and tried to find a definition everywhere.

Wordle 682: Coin Toss

I'm starting with SUPER today. No real reason, just feel like doing something SUPER. The guess pays off as I get green for S and U. Hmmm, now I have to narrow down to five letter words that start with SU. Sudden is the first word to pop in mind, but obviously, it's too long. There is some pressure because getting multiple green letters on the first guess makes me feel like I need to get this in either two or three guesses. I had something like this the other day when I got three greens on my first guess.

I want go SUGAR, but that's not going to work due to the R. Ok, I need to figure out where to go with my next guess. I have SUDSY and SUMAC in mind as possible guesses. I'm not sure that either word is spelled correctly. On a whim, I go with SUDSY. SUDSY is not correct, but the Y is green, so I'm narrowing everything down. 

I really want to get this in three. So I'm going to take my time go through the possibilities before submitting. SUNNY and SULKY are the two possibilities that jump out at first. I'm going to go with SUNNY, which is incorrect. Damn. Okay, SULKY it is. I'm a little bit disappointed that this was a solve in four, but I take some solace in the fact that I got it to a 50/50 for my third. My streak is up to 20 after today.

Wordle 681: Easy Peasy

POINT is my opener for today, and I don't get a lot out of it, with just the N turning up yellow. Not really sure where to go with this at first. But I end up with UNDER as my second guess. I get yellows for the N, E, and R. So I 've got a bit more of the word solved. But nothing to anchor my guesses around. Not having a green is a bummer. I consider the RE-words. I want to try RERUN, but I know that the U can't work. Maybe RERAN? That word pops up a decent amount in the crossword. Maybe there's some crossover?

I don't get the answer, but it was a fruitful guess. R goes at the start of the word. I've figured out that N is the third letter, E is the last letter, and A is second letter. Now I just have to fiddle around and get the solve. I type in RANGE and get my solve in four today. 

This was a pretty easy one, I would think, with every letter being a commonly used one. Nothing wild like a Z. I know the Monday crossword is the easiest of the week, so I wonder if Wordle is similar, with a word with common letters and no repeats to start the week so everyone can get out of the weekend and back to thinking Monday morning.