Catching Up / A "Leg Man"

Had a busy weekend with my Dad visting from Dayton, Ohio.  Between that and a bittersweet result in the NFC Championship game in San Fransciso, I failed to post comments on my Wordle play over the weekend.

Here's my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for Monday, Jan. 29.

Wordle 954 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 SHONE   496 WL

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 TRAIL         12 WL

🟨🟨⬜🟩🟩 ELEGY          1 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 LEGGY

WordleBot

Skill 95/99

Luck 46/99

Streak 705

I’d be feeling worse about having back-to-back pars, if NYT averages the past couple days hadn’t been above 4.  Or, as my my bride put it this morning, “Wordle was rather difficult.”

Guess #1 yielded only E (out of position) for the second day in a row.  Guess #2 provided only the L (also out of position - yesterday, it was only R).  Overzealous record keeping provided guidance from Game #742 (BLEEP on 7/1/2023) that only 12 solutions remained (actually, only 5 — adjusting for previous & unlikely solutions).  I liked ELEGY best and thought it would likely ensure a par, at worst.  Guess #3 showed me I still didn’t have E & L in the right place — but that the word ended with—GY.  So, I guess it was a good day to be a “Leg Man”.  I lost to The Bot (4 vs 3) but bested the (current) NYT avg (4 vs. 4.4).  This continued the mixed emotions following last night’s NFC Championship game, where the Detroit Lions fell to the 49ers, ending their unexpectedly strong playoff run. 

And, for the sake of completeness, I will also include my Wordle results for the previous days:

Wordle 952 3/6

🟩⬜⬜🟨🟩   SHONE   7 WL

🟩🟨⬜🟨⬜   SKIED     1 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩   SNAKE

WordleBot

Skill 88/99

Luck 86/99

NYT avg = 3.7 

Wordle 953 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨   SHONE   496 WL

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜    TRAIL      36 WL

⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜    CUBED      1 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩    EMBER

WordleBot

Skill 99/99

Luck 32/99

NYT avg = 4.7

So now you're *WAY* more well-informed than you ever wanted to be about my Wordle play.  Although, if you *not* interested in that, I'm surprised you've stuck around long enough to read this sentence.

Take care and stay safe.

Making A Few TWEAKs

Here's my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for yesterday.

Wordle 947 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 SHONE   496 WL
🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜ TRAIL          4 WL
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 TWEAK

WordleBot
Skill 99/99
Luck 54/99
Streak 698

My “Go To” starting combination of SHONE & TRAIL paid dividends this morning, keeping me “Under Par” for a FIFTH (not a previous solution) consecutive day.  Guess #1 was “unlucky” according to The Bot, matched only the E as the last letter, and left a LOT of possible solutions.  But Guess #2 gave me the T (in position as the first letter) and A (out of position).  Although I didn’t know it at the time, The Bot thought there were only 4 solutions remaining.  But *my* post-game analysis was:  Three of those words ended -ED and were *extremely* unlikely to be the answer.  I was looking for just *one word* — but needed to find out where the vowels were placed.  I decided to look for words starting TA— or TE— but when I didn’t find anything suitable, I decided to TWEAK my approach (after verifying it hadn’t been a solution previously).  I tied The Bot, bested the (current) NYT avg (3 vs. 3.7), and reduced The Magic Number to 2 for reaching 700 consecutive wins.  

An added bonus:  The Detroit Lions played their best game of the season against Tampa Bay last night, earning the right to play for the NFC Championship (and the opportunity for their first ever Super Bowl appearance) next weekend in San Francisco.  

GO LIONS! 

Take care and stay safe.

2 For 1

My bride asked me this morning why I hadn't posted a Wordle update to my blog.  So apparently, I have at least one reader.

To make up for this lapse, today is a BOGO opportunity here at "speaking in CAPS."

First, my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for Saturday, Jan. 20.

Wordle 945 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 SHONE   193 WL

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨 TRAIL          1 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 LARGE

WordleBot

Skill 99/99

Luck 60/99

Streak 696

My “Go To” starting combination of SHONE & TRAIL paid dividends this morning, with a quick & stress-free 3.  Guess #1 was “unlucky” according to The Bot, matched only the E as the last letter, and left a LOT of possible solutions.  But Guess #2 matched R, A & L (all out of position) — and left only one solution remaining.  I decided to go LARGE — and go home.  I tied The Bot, bested the (current) NYT avg (3 vs. 3.5), and gave me my third straight 3.  The Magic Number is 4 to reach 700 consecutive wins.  Good way to start the weekend.

And, without further ado, my post on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments for yesterday (Sunday, Jan. 21).

Wordle 946 2/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜ SHONE   7 WL

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 NORTH

WordleBot

Skill 99/99

Luck 92/99

Streak 697

I love being “extraordinarily lucky” — and that’s how The Bot described my Guess #1 today, which matched H, O & N (all out of position).  Although I didn’t know it at the time, there were only 7 solutions remaining.  What I *suspected* was — that H was last letter of the solution (with a TH or CH) combination and O was Letter 2.  The first word that came to mind was NORTH.  Since R & T are very common letters and NORTH had not been a previous solution, I went with it — and was rewarded with a deuce.  I crushed The Bot (by 2 guesses!), bested the (current) NYT avg (2 vs. 3.7), and earned a fourth consecutive day “Under Par.”  The Magic Number is 3 to reach 700 consecutive wins.  GO DETROIT LIONS!

Since you're reading this the day after the Detroit / Tampa Bay game (or, possibly MUCH later than that), you may already know that the Lions played their best football game of the year yesterday and earned the right to play San Francisco next weekend in the NFC Championship Game.  

GO DETROIT LIONS!!

Hope your Monday is going swimmingly.

Take care and stay safe.

Even More Football

U of M won Monday night.  Now we need a Lions victory over the Rams this weekend.

In Wordle news, I posted this on the New York Time's Wordle Review comments yesterday --  

Wordle 934 3/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 SHONE   105 WL
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨 RIVAL          1 WL
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 LINER

WordleBot
Skill 99/99
Luck 68/99
Streak 685

I find that knowing all the letters that are included in the Wordle solution can be a significant advantage in winning the game.  Not that it *happens* that often — it's just kind of cool when it does.  That's what happened to me after Guess #2 today.  I had discovered N, E, R & L (all out of position) — with I in postion.  I double-checked to verify it hadn't previously been a solution, then played LINER.  Though I wasn't surprised, I was still very pleased when all the letters turned green (it never fails).  I tied The Bot (3 vs 4) and bested the (current) NYT avg by a full guess (3 vs. 4.0). 

The Michigan Wolverines are the College Football Champions this year after a convincing win against Washington (although the game was much closer than the score might indicate).  I now turn my attention to the Detroit Lions who will play the Rams (and former Lions quarterback, Matthew Stafford) this weekend.  

Hope your Wednesday is going great. 

Take care and stay safe.