Wordle Postgame Report, weekend CATCH up, November 11-13
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.
November 11, MEDAL, 4/6
LATELY, MORE AND more of the satisfaction of Wordle comes from picking a new opener from the fog of unused words out there—even when, as with WRIST today, that pick comes up blank. So many five-letter words to choose from in this English language, and poor Wordle is stuck with only one of them. I tried PEACH and got green E and yellow A. Plant the A in the fourth spot instead of the third, then: DELAY. The answer might have to wait another round, but the D and the L were both yellow. PEDAL was out; MEDAL took the prize.
November 12, VALET, 4/6
OSTENSIBLY, THE OPENING was better than yesterday's, since RETCH coughed up two yellow letters right away, the E and the T. But chasing two common letters around the board didn't feel much more productive than blind guessing. SWEAT turned the T green and added a yellow A, but the E was still not where it belonged. So the E and the A would have to part company. I found the scratch pad and tried to map out where they'd go. It looked like one of two ways: E_ A_T or _A_ET. EXACT was out, but EXALT could fit—could, but didn't. The E and A were still yellow, and the L went yellow to join them. With the help of the pencil, the answer took shape, _ALET. VALET. An unheroic performance.
November 13, INANE, 3/6
A SAFE-FEELING opener yielded a boring return, as SHORE brought up a green E. What next, something with an A in it? No, TWINE. Yellow I, green N, and the green E again. Couldn't see what would possibly bridge the gap if the I moved to the second position, so it moved one position more, to the beginning. And what else could it be but INANE? No mental effort required.
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