I agree, but you phrased it better Bunny! I told DH that your mind somehow can automatically "fill in" vowels, but consonants are a different matter.

I use PATIO every day.

For the spelling bee, if you click on today’s hints, you can see how many words there are.

I am giggling over Oly being ”satisfied being a genius.” 😜

On the upper right you'll see ”More” and go to Today's Hints - it'll take you to a page that tells you how many words there are, how many pangrams there are, whether there is a Bingo, and the first two letters of every word.

I always start Wordle with train, and second word either mouse or louse. Those two words cover all the vowels and the most common consonants.

I once thought of always starting Wordle with the winning word of the day before, which would make it extremely challenging, but then I started getting long runs of it taking me 5-6 tries so I gave up on that idea.

I use two words, but I stick with one or the other for longish stretches particularly if it seems like it has been a bad starter because I hope then it will one day be a good starter which is not very logical.

I would never knowingly use a Wordle previously winning word. It's wasting a move. In fact I keep a list of previous winners, aka The List, beside my computer. I send it to my two Wordle buddies.

I may have mentioned this before. You know how if you go 6 and out, the winning word pops up, since you weren't able to guess it. One time I went 6X, the word emblazoned on my screen was LOSER. At first I thought they were just being mean, but it was the day's word.

OMG Bunny, too funny!

My attention span wouldn't let me spend an hour on a crossword puzzle. I get bored easily.

For wordle I change my first word every day. Choosing the same word every day would be, for me, a "why bother". The thrill of maybe, just maybe, guessing it in one, would be gone.

kswl, those are my first starting words, too. Anyone else use Wordlebot to compare your moves to the larger world of players? It always says Adieu is adecent opening word, but xxxxx would be more efficient.

Heres mine today.

Wordle 529 3/6

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨

🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

WordleBot

Skill 92/99

Luck 66/99

As for Spelling Bee, I am relentless about reaching Genius, but dont often make Queen Bee. I have to move on to the Mini Crossword, then Letterboxed. I save Quordle for the evening. There is aTwitter account dedicated to Spelling Bee words that werent included but should have been. called Not A Spelling Bee Word. Today, for me, it was dado.

I recently found out that my husband cheats at wordle! He claims he doesn't know enough words...lame excuse. Generally he is a number guy and I am a word girl. It works out.

wow, no dado? thats crazy

Ded, the wordlebot says the same about adieu as an opening gambit to me also, and it says that each time I play. The ”this word would have been better” is always— ALWAYS— a different word each time, so that has promoted me to keep using adieu. Why try to guess at a better opening word than the one that's always decent?

Bfenton, the Spelling Bee is not a crossword puzzle.

I do Letter Boxed every day, aiming for one word less than the allowed number, and I do the Crossword daily. Lately I have started playing with Vertex because some of the pictures that result are very clever.

In the nyt app you reach queen bee if you guess all the words on their word list.

For wordle awhile back there was an article analyzing how much info each word provides and they said the best starting word was STARE so I use that followed by CLOUD and PINKY esp helpful for quordle

@mtnrdredux_gw, have you tried Phrazle (https://solitaired.com/phrazle)? Same idea as Wordle, but you are guessing a phrase (like "Out on a limb") rather than a word. There's less luck involved than with Wordle, and a lot more thinking. I tend to get in fewer tries (most often 3) than Wordle, but each try takes a lot more time.

kswl - actually I knew that! Thanks for the reminder

Big thanks to Bunny for the loudest LOL of my month! Goodness. That was good! : )

The comments about the Spelling Bee editor were illuminating. A while back it wouldn't accept a decorating term. I don't remember what it was - it might have involved draperies but it wasn't very esoteric. Anyway, I was flabbergasted. I don't subscribe to Games but I get a kick out of seeing how long it is before the Bee gets tired of cheering on my guesses and kicks me out. I also play Letter Boxed (poorly) and Sudoku.

I usually start Wordle with Arise or Slate but I play with the requirement that your second word has to use any correct letters from your first word. I really hate the plays where I'm missing, say, two letters with two tries left and I can think of four words that would fit.

Re puzzles and brain power, there is scientific evidence that line dancing does prevent loss of gray matter with aging. It certainly strains the brain in more ways than crosswords. I could feel my brain getting sharper when I was dancing, but with my back and leg issues, I've had to quit and now I'm getting dumber again.

I can't remember now, but there was a common architectural term like "Plinth" that they didn't accept either, even though they accept all kinds of wacky food items I've never heard of.

My first wordle guess is always "smart", usually I get one or two letters but not enough to guess the word. My next guess is "phone" even if I get a letter or two from "smart" because it's usually more helpful than trying to guess a word with an "s" in it.

Re puzzles and brain power, there is scientific evidence that line dancing does prevent loss of gray matter with aging.

I'd be curious about that, since the studies I saw seemed to say that the only cognitive benefits of any activity are specific to that activity. I guess, if you think about what that means, it is sort of just "use it or lose it."

"One of the worst fights DH and I ever had was when I told him I was better at Wordle because I did it faster. "

Mtn, in the stocking stuffer topic, I think that's where you posted the Queen Bee shirt, I said I should buy it just to spite my husband. That's because he started noticing a few Queen things I had about being a Queen. Even on my kitchen apron.

One day we were having words about something and he brought up that I think I'm a queen because of all the queen stuff I had, which really isn't that much.

I got him good. I told him I am the Queen and the person who gave me all the queen things was our DIL, who is the princess, and our son is the prince, and DH is the king. He walked right into a booby trap. :)

Mtnrd: https://www.countrydancingtonight.com/is-line-dancing-good-for-the-brain/

More: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4824832/Line-dancing-better-walk-fight-Alzheimer-s.html

https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/dancing-brain

That makes sense, as dance combines social interaction, movement, memory, and music.

That's interesting, thank you for the links. Much more encouraging that the studies I read. DH still plays ice hockey, I bet that is similar but they probably have not studied it for senior citizens!

Cannot see myself line dancing. I have been famously uncoordinated my whole life. I still recall them stopping 5th grade gym class because I was unable to synchronize my jumping jacks with the rest of the class! Can you imagine? I have done Zumba though, which IIRC, can be a little more free form?

ETA - are the 2 articles just referencing the same 2003 study that Harvard is? Lost some confidence in the august publication "countrydancingtonight.com" when they misspelled "dementia."

ETA2 - I was googling and Stanford says reading and crosswords stave off dementia. I guess one can find any studiy you want ! https://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm

My first wordle guess is always "smart", usually I get one or two letters but not enough to guess the word. My next guess is "phone" even if I get a letter or two from "smart" because it's usually more helpful than trying to guess a word with an "s" in it.

That seems right, reusing the letters is playing in "hard mode" under the settings. To me, it seems easier. I'm all about correct letter placement because I'm better at word pattern recognition than word recall.

Yes, "hard" mode is the only way to go. It can be slower but it should mean less tries.

Isn't there a GW Wordle thread where people just post their final/successful number? Maybe you could start one with Spelling Bee numbers? You would love my contributions. The timing varies, but sometimes I've been kicked off after, like, 3 words and I believe the longest it's let me go has been "Solid". I would make you guys look so good! I wonder when it resorts to early kickoff if the Bee Bot is hoping I'll get frustrated and subscribe. HA! The (imagined) war of wills is more fun now than the puzzle.

LOL, I didn't even know there was a hard mode. Off to check it out!

Two things. WDYM by kicked off?

And, I finally found where i got the idea that the QB was dead, long live the QB.

On my Spelling Bee page, when I click on the scale for scoring, I get this box:

This is what made me think there was no longer a Queen Bee category.

Yes mtnrd, and it's most annoying that it says genius is the highest level and you'd never know about queen bee unless you found all the words. They lie. They should add it to the list with the total point count for that game.

When all these games proliferated, they really were overtaking the kitchen table, so I moved them to the Garden Party forum where you can find links to most of the games we play, including one of my favorites, the Smithsonian's Spot the Difference. But I believe on the Kitchen Table, they do still keep the wordle thread going.

Hard mode is actually Easy mode. Today I tried a word that didn't use a yellow letter. Hard mode stopped me from making a bonehead mistake.

Most people are happy to stop at Genius, and that is the official ”end” of the game. The Queen Bee is an Easter Egg which, as those into gaming know, is a bonus— an extra. One might even call it lagniappe 😉 It’s not a lie; you can win the game without it but you have only mastered the game if you reach QB.

Sorry, no, kswl...they should be upfront that QB exists...

I have a feeling that "think we missed a word" email address is going to autofilling in my "to" field pretty soon.

Here are some words I've requested: broadbill, mantilla, dado, nutria, corm, decile...

How can he "reject" intubate; on what basis? This Sam needs a good talking to.

Yeah, the other day I eventually got everything but minicab and minicam. Now I know.

Annie, did you get a reply?

Put those on your list, Mtn. And Sam et al do not ever reply to suggestions to let you know if they act on them or not. You used to at least get an acknowledgement of your email but that was in the early days, now that so many people play they may have stopped the auto reply.

Annie, apparently you do not play many video or online games… Easter eggs must be discovered by the player, that is the nature of the concept. But, you are not penalized for not finding them. When you reach genius you do, in fact, win the game.

I think it seems kinda condescending. Yes, dear little ones, you are all "geniuses," you have done your best now. Not to worry.

Whenever I've submitted a word to Sam et al that I think should be included in their little dictionary, I've gotten a canned reply. Thank you, we try to use words lots of people know, etc. etc. I nearly had to be intubated when intinction was denied.

While there are times that I would love to throttle Sam, he is not totally responsible for NYT Spelling Bee. Everdeen Mason is the Times’ Editorial Director for Games. I heard her interviewed once. It was my impression that the Spelling Bee is subjected to editorial review by a committee.

Everdeen Mason is a great name for a villain.

I did not get that impression at all in Sam’s interviews with the NYT, BBstx. He made it sound like he and he alone was responsible for determining common usage. I actually wrote a letter stating my opinion that a committee SHOULD make the word inclusion decisions and should comprise a cross section of reader demographics including but not limited to age, ethnicity, geographic location, and profession.

kswl, I am aware of easter eggs in computer programs, but we'll have to agree to disagree.

Today I am a Genius once again. Good enough for me. Tomorrow i will ne smacking my forehead when i see what obvious words i missed.

Does the editor smoke weed? My first thought on a today’s pangram…

Day 499….tomorrow is my big day 🥳