Wordle Postgame Report, Holiday Weekend CATCH-Up, December 23–26
GAMES OF SKILL AND CHANCE DEP'T.
The Wordle Postgame Report is a brief analysis of a game of Wordle, the five-letter-word guessing game now owned by the New York Times. If you do not play Wordle, Indignity encourages you to please skip this item. The existence of the Wordle Postgame Report does not constitute an endorsement of playing Wordle, not playing Wordle, or of the New York Times.
December 23, AORTA, 5/6
A NICE, RESPECTABLY built opening word I'd never played was CHEAT. It got a yellow A and T. I thought about playing ALLOT, realized the T would still be in the wrong place, and, having done all the thinking I could muster, made the quick, unforced error of playing THANK instead. The H was gray, just like the H in the very same spot had been gray in the first round. The T and the A were still yellow. Playing PATSY offered no advancement: yellow T, yellow A, three other squares in gray. Even allowing for my own careless contribution, the accumulation of gray was starting to get on my nerves, as was the yellow diagonal of the A moving slowly, unsuccessfully from position to position. The bottom of the board was creeping up on me. Time to try something drastic, with QUOTA. The QU wasn't right, but the TA turned green at last, and the O came up yellow. A different kind of perverse word structure, then—two A's, both of them in the last place I could have found then. AORTA. My blood pressure subsided.
December 24, POISE, 3/6
OUTSIDE WAS 7 degrees; a crow perched on the roofline across the street was puffed up to the size of a raven; I played BRICK to start. The I was green. Rather than filling in consonant blends on both sides of it, with the R and the C gone, I tried just one, plus an extra vowel, with FOIST. Green O, green I, green S. P and E were still unplayed for POISE. Five green squares appeared under the three green squares under the one green square, a perfectly centered little drawing of a fir tree. Played with skill and grace.
December 25, EXTRA, 5/6
I'D ALREADY PLAYED ADORE before, and EXALT would be reckless, so the next thematic starter I could think of was STRAW, like in a stable. The T, R, and A were yellow, and I promptly misplayed the R in PARTY, with the other two staying yellow as well. TRADE kept the three letters yellow, and added a yellow E. The A had to be either at the beginning or the end; AFTER established that it wasn't at the beginning. But four rounds in, the T became the game's first green letter. T in the middle, A at the end, R most likely in between: EXTRA. If I'd played EXALT, I would have solved it in two. As was, it took a lot of additional effort.
December 26, JUDGE, 5/6
IT HAD NEVER occurred to me before to use YEARN as an opener. I wanted it to be a good move but all it got was a yellow E. My mood going sour, I guessed the E would go in the least helpful place, with SMOKE, and was right: green E, gray everywhere else. GUIDE finally got results, with a green U and E and a yellow G and D. Something-UDGE. All I could think of was the dumbish word BUDGE. Gray in front, green the rest of the way. What else? N for NUDGE was out. J was still available. All green. Verdict: no fun.
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