Looking Out: Word nerd traits run in the family
Words. I’ve always loved words, ever since learning my first one at age 1 month: “Goo.” Normally, I preferred “googoo” but I’m trying to be succinct.
Growing up in a home where my parents read, the shelves were filled with books and tables were splashed with magazines rather than coffee, my fondness for words is unsurprising.
This passion naturally led to a love of reading and writing, but also to other stuff. Just this morning, while reading a newspaper, I discovered an error, which always thrills me so long as it is not MY error.
In this particular case, the columnist used “laying” instead of “lying” which made the human subjects of her story appear to be hens on nests rather than sunbathers on blankets. Ha! I’m just glad it was her error and not mine.
Crossword puzzles have been a favorite, although the older I get and the more clues dealing with hip hop music (did I really just use “music” and “hip hop” in the same sentence?) and recent movies, the more difficult they have become.
Accordingly, I have leaned away from the crosswords that appear in newspapers, and will continue to boycott them until they bring back older movies such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and older, grammatically perfect music such as “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?”
So far, no newspaper has taken my boycott seriously, but AARP does publish crossword puzzles online. I’m still getting my proper dosage.
As I march along through life cherishing words but having occasional cross words for crosswords, what comes along just in time? Wordle.
It seems as though everyone is playing the simple game and its many variants.
It reminds me of those days when I’d look around a doctor’s waiting room and seemingly everyone was playing sudoku, myself included. Doctors’ waiting rooms are perfect places for playing sudoku to take one’s mind off the real reason for being there as well as the ceaseless babbling coming from TV sets always tuned to the wrong station.
“Remember to take a sudoku puzzle,” my beloved wife would say as I left to see a doctor.
“Please arrive 15 minutes early,” would be the instruction coming from the doctor’s office.
“I’ll take two puzzles,” I say.
“It’s a doctor’s waiting room,” says Marsha. “Take more.”
“Fine. I’ll take two for the waiting room, one for the exam room and one for good measure.”
Where was I? Oh, yes. Wordle.
Guessing the five-letter-word-of-the-day is like playing a game show without the annoyance of a spinning wheel, bankruptcy, and co-hosts that should try getting real jobs before they turn 80.
My friend Dr. Routemeister and I share Wordle results daily, and then discuss words and strategies on our bicycle rides together.
My sister Susie has organized a family klatch. Every day, via email, six of us report our Wordle results, along with our results from a similar game called Quordle. We praise success. We deride dunces, but ever so gently. We compare strategies. We curse difficult words. Susie and her husband, Mike, play the games as hydras. Two heads are definitely better than one.
Every now and then, Marsha helps me out a bit, which keeps me from cheating. Every now and then.
It isn’t about the competition. It is about the words.
I’m thinking about starting a local chapter of Word Nerds R Us.
If you are interested in joining, send me cash, a certified check or a bitcoin worth $10,000. You, too, can be a charter member.
Jim Whitehouse lives in Albion.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Jim Whitehouse: Word nerd traits run in the family
