It’s been a hairy week - I haven’t lost yet but 2 of those 5s and one of the 6s were this week.

(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 4)

Long-time readers are well aware I love a good word game.

I am a daily New York Times crossword puzzler.

I look forward to the acrostic puzzle in the New York Times Magazine every other week.

And I LOVE the annual Super Mega Crossword (which I officially did not win any prizes from this year).

So you’d better believe that - even though I don’t share my daily results - I am ALL IN on the latest word puzzle craze sweeping social media and, from what I can tell, the nation.

Here’s my Wordle origin story:

I saw a couple of people on Twitter post their results.

I liked the minimalist design - just the green or yellow squares. It certainly caught my attention.

Then I read an article in the newspaper about how the game was created, and later that day I saw a couple of other people sharing results who I knew much more closely, so I texted one of them to find out what the game was all about.

That was 17 days ago, and I have built a streak from that day forward. (Well I guess 18 days ago since by the time you read this I’ll have also played Sunday’s game...but the picture only reflects results through Saturday.)

I love that the game counts streaks and keeps stats on your results.

I love that it started out as a gift from one person to another and turned into this huge phenomenon.

And I love that it’s only available once a day so I can’t lose hours playing it.

I started playing on my computer, so I have continued playing on my computer - I’m a little worried about losing my streak on a day I don’t use my computer. I regret not playing it on my phone. (I checked to see if my results would transfer to my phone…they do not.)

I don’t have a strategy like a lot of people have a strategy - I know a lot of people like to rely on the same starter word every day.

I switch it up based on what the previous day’s word was and which vowels were in it. (OK, I guess that’s my strategy.)

It’s probably not necessary to switch things up since it’s all random, but it makes it more enjoyable for me.

I also try to do it first thing in the morning, before I see everybody else’s share. I don’t love seeing the shares for a few reasons: 1) If someone does it in 2 moves I’ll start to overthink because maybe I should be able to do it in 2 moves, or conversely 2) if someone does it in 6 moves I’ll start thinking it’s very difficult, or 3) if I see a certain pattern in their answers I’ll start thinking I recognize words and it’s ruined for me for the day. (And if it happens to be someone who’s using the starter word strategy, and I know their starter word…well that’s no fun at all.)

It’s obviously my problem, not a problem with the sharers…but that’s why I try to do it before I look on social media, just so I’m out of my own head.

The funny thing is how quickly I’ll forget what the word was. Sometimes before the end of the day.

Even that one that took me only 2 tries that you see in my stats above - I don’t remember which word that was.

But I’m certain if I ever join the select few people who guess the word on their first try - I won’t ever forget that word.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

The other thing I like about doing this latest variation of the What I’ve Been Enjoying segment (yes, I’m pretty much continuing this conversation from last week and assuming you remember what I said) is that I can hear a band on the radio, realize I like all their stuff that I’ve heard, and then pick an album to listen to. And also learn about the band. And since I have huge gaps in my music knowledge, there’s lots to learn. Anyway, that’s pretty much how I landed on Depeche Mode this week. Here’s the rundown:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2
‘Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes’ - The Ronettes
‘III’ - The Lumineers
‘Speak & Spell’ - Depeche Mode
Encanto
‘Back In Black’ - AC/DC

(I’d been intending to listen to AC/DC sometime on a run. I finally did that Saturday.)

Notes

*Do I regret that last week I used a punny -le ending in the title of my post not realizing I would be writing about Wordle this week and using another punny -le ending in the title of my post? Yes, yes I do.

*I still have Super Bowl squares available! Remember, it’s the first fundraiser for the Wonderfund for my 2022 Boston Marathon run. You can click that link to get the details.

*Running Update: Layered up nice and good for a late morning cold run on Saturday - did 9.5 miles and the cold (about 20 degrees I guess - maybe a little less at times) wasn't really an issue. This is the end of my sixth week of training - a third of the way through. 12 more weeks until Marathon Monday.

*The new Instagram with all my running updates is @johnnyrunsalot. The old Facebook page that now lacks Wednesday posts and doesn't get a lot of traffic directed its way anymore but it would still be cool if you gave it a Like is here. And Twitter is kicking back into a good gear again - that’s here for you to follow if you’d like.

*Maybe I should have written a post about how today’s date is 1/23. That’s always fun for me. It’ll be even better in 23 more years I guess.