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Wordle Postgame Report, September 22

GAMES OF SKILL AND CHANCE DEP'T.

Tom Scocca

Sep 23, 2022 — 1 min read

PONTOISE, FRANCE - An artwork by British artist and sculptor Laura Ellen Bacon is displayed at the ‘Abbaye De Maubuisson’ on April 28, 2022 in SAINT-Ouen-l'Aumone, France. The exhibition "Chaque fibre de son être" (Every Fibre Of My Being) will take place from May 2 to August 28, 2022. Photo: Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images.

September 22, SAINT, 3/6

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.

MAYBE I WAS remembering what was lined up for dinner, but something moved me to play STEAK. It got a green S, yellow T, and yellow A—and, according to the New York Times Wordlebot's retrospective analysis, it cut an "extraordinarily lucky" swath through the available anwers. Without the robot's perspective, it just felt easy to work with: don't fool around with other vowels, just move the T to the end, slide the A over, and try SHAFT. Green S, green T, yellow A—which meant that the A's location was set, too. ("Nice," the New York Times Wordlebot said afterward, as it gave the use of SHAFT a rating of 69 for skill.) I tried to think of two-syllable answers, but I was sure the machinery of Wordle would choke on SABOT. One syllable then. SAINT. The robot said lucky, I said blessed.

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