Wordle Comment for December 22, 2023

Wordle 916 4/6

⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛ ELITE 87 29 187

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛ STAMP 67 10 36

🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛ TRUCK 87 79 1

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 TOUCH 99 🫂

I started the game without a word in mind. I looked for a word I like and hit upon ELITE. My youngest of three was a student at Elite Gymnastics as a young girl. If you've been involved with gymnastics, you know it requires total commitment of both child and parents to reach a competitive level. M was talented and could probably have developed to be on a college team but she wearied of it around age 13. We supported her decision. She became a high school cheer leader, the one at the top of the pyramid of girls. She's now married with two children and is still close to one of her friends from gymnastics. 

ELITE was unlucky and STAMP was even worse. (I won't get into my nerd hobbies here). I felt a bit lost but I decided a word beginning with TR (the other two letters in STARE) might be fruitful. Not only, but it was very LUCKY! TOUCH was the obvious solution.

Song of the Day: "Touch Me" The Doors (1969).

https://youtu.be/RrDsSPtZOu4?si=IKAHGsAk5RgNbqn9

WordleBot

Skill 85/99

Luck 39/99

Streak 148

Wordle Comment for December 21, 2023

Wordle 915 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ HONOR 81 12 862

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ SERVE 54 15 222

⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛ CLAIM 97 35 13

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛ BUILD 99 72 1

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 BUILT 99 🧱

WordleBot

Skill 88/99

Luck 34/99

Streak 147

After visiting the World War 2 Museum yesterday, I opened today with HONOR since SERVICE and SACRIFICE have too many letters. In 1940 the UK was the only free democracy in Europe and Asia still standing and US voters were evenly divided over whether we should stand with them. It was only after Pearl Harbor that we became united against the Axis and millions began to SERVE, my Dad being one. Dad had no CLAIM to fame- he was a newly married high school math teacher when his draft notice arrived. He became an Army Air Corp supply officer who was shipped to northern India with a unit tasked to BUILD an airfield for B-29 bombers. The war ended before it was BUILT and Dad's unit was shipped back home. He then used the GI Bill to go to grad school and go on to become a college professor. He remained in the Air Force Reserve and retired as a full Colonel. With my Mom as his partner, he BUILT a career and a family.

My game was pretty DICEY but I got there!

Song of the Day: "We BUILT this city" Starship (1985).

https://youtu.be/K1b8AhIsSYQ?si=QIraZ_-h7Nalm9wJ

Mary Lou's birthday

December 20 was also Mary Lou's 69th birthday. To celebrate, Jenny, Mary Lou and I went to New Orleans for the afternoon. We had lunch at Peche, an upscale seafood grill with delicious offerings and afterward visited the National World War Ii Museum. Although I know WW2 history pretty well, revisiting it at a first class Museum was moving as well as thought provoking. The parallels between the Nazis and the MAGAs was sobering.

Wordle Comment for December 20, 2023

Wordle 914 4/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛ EARTH 90 30 160

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ORBIT 48 18 59

🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ SPUNK 94 31 3 

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 SMALL 71 82     

I joined @CouchPumpkin and @Julia today in playing the two word opener EARTH ORBIT. This led me into a game where my Luck and SKILL scores fluctuated wildly. Playing in soft mode after 700+ hard mode games takes getting used to- the tendency is to follow hard mode rules rather than utilize the freedom and flexibility of soft mode. Hence, for guess 3 I had to force myself to consider words without an A. After rightfully dissing ORBIT (a word I'm fond of), he was quite pleased with SPUNK. SPUNK also got my highest luck score up to that point, a sizzling 31. Interestingly, with only 3 words left SMALL was rated very lucky and not so skillful. The other two were SCALY and SCALD. What would you have picked?

Song of the Day. No, I wouldn't subject you to "It's a small world." Just mentioning it may be enough to start it going in your head. And while focusing on the it, the word SMALL started to sound strange on my head. So, let's push all that away with "SMALL Town" by John Mellencamp (1985).

https://youtu.be/0CVLVaBECuc?si=3HDxFQYuNPslyycu

WordleBot

Skill 69/99

Luck 40/99

Streak 146

Wordie Comment December 18. 2023

Wordle 912 4/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨 BATON WL 167

🟨🟩⬛⬛⬛ NURSE 13

🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 FUNKY 1

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 FUNNY 🤣

Seeing many games where people guessed BATON before BACON inspired me to open with BATON and guess ROUGE 2nd, if possible. ROUGE didn't work out in hard mode, so I looked for a word with RSE and N. The BOT said leaving 13 was unlucky but I was born on the 13th of July and always considered 7 and 13 to be my lucky numbers. NURSE gave ne the opportunity to play FUNKY and I wasn't going to miss it. That left only FUNNY. 

FUNKY sent my mind off on an early morning musical and cultural tangent that overrode FUNNY. I associate FUNKY with the R&B music that flourished in the 1960s and generated the FUNK genre; but, the FUNNY thing about FUNK and FUNKY (terms with a history going way back) is they can convey judgments both very positive (coolly unconventional) and very negative (old, shabby and smelly). 

I'm a big fan of Dyke and the Blazers who had a string of minimalist funky R&B hits in the mid 1960s. Sadly, Dyke (born Arlester Christian) was killed by a gunshot in 1971. His best known song, "Funky Broadway" was more famously covered by Wilson Pickett but for the Song of the Day I chose "We got more soul (1968), a song that boldly expresses the pride and anger of a black man in the Sixties. 

https://youtu.be/10br313f228?si=wlrr9-orO5y4Y6uD

WordleBot

Skill 94/99

Luck 46/99

Streak 144

I really should write here regularly.

A Comment on Wordle:

I grew up in Athens, Georgia. I left in 1976 and have never lived there again, yet, I still consider it home. I visited my parents and friends there several times a year until my Dad died in 2006. After that I started visiting my Mom more often. Happily, circumstances allowed me to go every month for a long weekend. She passed away in 2015. I was estate executor so I still went regularly until that was completed. I don't go often now but I still have more close friends in Athens than here where we've lived since 1982. Athens is always in my heart.