Looking Out | Friend's ways with words are puzzling
This is puzzling.
I’ve enjoyed working crossword puzzles for decades, and still do. The problem with crosswords is that it is hard to find any that aren’t filled with pop-culture clues, such as the names of current actors, movie titles and hip-hop singers whose names have no vowels.
That’s the kind of stuff I don’t keep up with.
About 15 years ago, someone introduced me to sudoku puzzles. I’ve spent many an hour puzzling over those puzzles as I sit in airports, on airplanes or in my own kitchen. They don’t feature pop culture.
More recently, my friend Drew showed me how to play Wordle. I now start each day, lying in bed, working the day’s Wordle puzzle on my phone. When done, I share the results with my friend Dr. Routemeister and my son-in-law, John.
In case you are one of the 12 people in the universe who does not play Wordle, it is a simple game. You are given 6 chances to guess a five-letter word. Each time you key a word into the 5 squares, the squares light up. A gray square means that this particular letter is not in the word of the day.
A yellow square means that you have chosen a correct letter but it is NOT in the right place.
A green square means that you have chosen a correct letter and it IS in the right place.
Thus, every word you key in gives you a bunch of information.
Once you guess the right word, all the boxes are green. It might take you two guesses or three, four, five or even six. Sometimes, you never get the word. Bummer!
At the end, when you share it with someone by text or email, they do not see the letters you have added or the final word — all they see is six rows of squares — gray, yellow or green, so they can determine how many tries it took you to guess the right word.
It is a lot like playing "Wheel of Fortune" minus the wheel and without Vanna.
Speaking of Vanna, how will her great-grandchildren explain the family fortune to their children? “Now, tell me again, what did she do for a living?”
I’m a word guy. It’s why I write and read. I thought I was pretty good at Wordle until I started comparing notes with Dr. Routemeister and John.
They always find the word of the day in fewer guesses than I require. I’d like to pretend that John is smart because he is married to my daughter, Jill, half of whose genes are mine, but I don’t think it works that way. Even if smarts do rub off, clearly Jill favors her mother.
Dr. Routemeister is a number guy, with a Ph.D. in mathematics. It turns out he’s also a word guy. That seems unfair. People should be limited to either being a word person or a number person. If I were the Emperor of the Universe, there would be an edict to that effect. (Now that my confidence is so shaken, I am asking myself it I should have written “…to that affect.”)
Alas.
You are full of advice for me, aren’t you? Such as, “Quit playing the game if it bothers you.” Or, “Quit sharing results with people who are smarter than you.” Or, “Who cares — quit whining.”
Thanks for those words of encouragement, but I’m going to ignore them.
Instead, I’m going to invent a puzzle game that rewards dull wits and wrong answers. Then we’ll see who wins. Ha! I’ll be the master. Take that, John. Take that, Dr. Routemeister.
Jim Whitehouse lives in Albion.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Jim Whitehouse: Friend's ways with words are puzzling
