Words plain

These days, I try to solve the Wordle in 4 or 5 tries. At six I get edgy. I used to solve it as fast as I could, but I got tired of starting out with “Miaou Yenta”, as entertaining as that was. So now, I choose a different set of words each time.

I’m on a class mailing list – what used to be called a Unix Newsgroup – with my college class. There are some serious puzzle-ists on the list. One day the discussion turned to Wordle.

This gang is driven to solve the puzzle in as few guesses as possible. The NY Times supports this viewpoint, with a special ‘analytics’ page for the game which offers to tell you whether you made the best guess possible. (I have never read this page).

Everyone traded the tactics they used .. the first words like “adieu” and “miaou” (both words work in the French puzzle “Le Mot”) with as many vowels as possible. One advanced tactician also noted that the most-common letters in five-letter words, A,E,S,O,R,I,L,T,N,U, and D, are a different subset than the most-common (in order) ETAOINSHDRLU of ALL words (one writer noted that this sequence once appeared as the user key buttons on a LinoType machine … a machine used to set type which was used at the college newspaper back in the day). I’m not crediting who it was, just in case he’s wrong.

Another Wordle-ician noted that the three-guess sequence “Earth Lions Muddy” got all the vowels, and after that guessing was easy.

Technically this meets the “Band name/stagewear” ‘enhancement rule’, although I do like ‘fuzzy’ better than ‘muddy’ for the lions

After seeing a bunch of really funny word groups, I made up my own “enhancement rule”. Let the first two guesses be the name of the rock band, the third guess is what they wear onstage, and any guesses after that are album titles.

I got this idea after my guesses “Poule Aciel” in Le Mot, the French Wordle game, and thought of the rock group Steely Dan. Chicken of Steel! Um, great name for a metal group. What would they wear, tines? Knife? Fetching!

Bands, album

Code

library(slickR)

    band_name_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/BandNames/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE)

slickR(band_name_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') +
  settings(dots = TRUE,
  infinite= TRUE,
  speed = 0,
  fade = TRUE,
  cssEase = 'linear')

When I wake up in the dark hours of the morning, instead of reaching for my phone, I think of a band name and what they wear. “Druid Monks, Linen”, and so forth.

I try not to duplicate too many letters in the three guesses – keeping in mind, though, that the sooner you guess the word, the less productive the band has been – and also to arrive at a good band name, appropriate to the garb.

Then, I pick up the phone, put all three words in and, usually, put the phone back down and go to sleep. What’s the rush? I’ll guess the word when I wake up in the morning.

Some bands, like “Dogue Odeur”, don’t wear anything onstage. Also, no songs. So it goes. Probably just as well.

Inter Conti ental!

A Spanish-speaking friend brought “La Palabra del Dia” to my attention. I never studied Spanish but the first time I tried La Palabra I guessed the word ‘avena’, meaning oats, which reminded me of the shampoo Aveeno. Naturally I went shopping. La Vida imita al arte. Not only am I learning a few new Spanish words by guessing them, but my hair is more soft and manageable than ever!

Geographic note:

I found the following quote on the Aveeno bottle, but never did find the location of the quiet mill (please let me know if you find this mythic beast, this oaty Valhalla):

“We source our oats from a quiet mill located along the rolling hills of the Mississippi River Valley, in a small town where pride and quality go hand-in-hand.”

It appears on so many different kinds of Aveeno product that I am convinced it is, in fact, from a simpler time.

Getting back to La Palabra del Dia, when I look at my estadísticas, I have only about 90 percent victorias in 230 jugadas.

Part of the reason is the letter patterns of Spanish can offer so many options that I run out of guesses. But the other part is that as a native speaker of English, I can jump in with an interim word that narrows the remaining possibilities, and it’s very hard for me to do that with Spanish and French, where my success rate is not even as good as with Spanish, only 89 percent. Maybe the makers of Le Mot (the name of the French puzzle) are working harder to try to stump their players?

Still, some of the French words … see how easy they are to guess?

Code

library(slickR)

    too_easy_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/Spanish_French/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE)

slickR(too_easy_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') +
  settings(dots = TRUE,
  infinite= TRUE,
  speed = 0,
  fade = TRUE,
  cssEase = 'linear')

Anyway …

you can only play once a day
it’s never boring unless you let it become boring

I find that I laugh when a guess is unexpectedly successful or absurd, like ‘Cocoa’ in the Spanish – but hey, it’s what they call cocoa! Or Zorro. Hard to guess with the letter duplications, but … a legit 5-letter word in the language.

Movie Shows

Before rock bands, I enjoyed seeing movie titles (‘Clear Blade Alien’) sometimes with their sequels (‘Pearl Heist’, ‘Demon Gecko’), along with clear political/cultural exhortations (‘Block Prune Gonad Month’)

Code

library(slickR)

    semanticfunny_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/MovieTitle_Semantic/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE)

slickR(semanticfunny_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') +
  settings(dots = TRUE,
  infinite= TRUE,
  speed = 0,
  fade = TRUE,
  cssEase = 'linear')

Why would you want to guess the word as quickly as possible? Doesn’t that reduce your enjoyment?

--- title: "Words plain" author: "George Girton" date: "2022-11-21" categories: [Wordle, Animation] image: "IMG_RoachSwing.png" draft: false --- # Words plain These days, I try to solve the Wordle in 4 or 5 tries. At six I get edgy. I used to solve it as fast as I could, but I got tired of starting out with "Miaou Yenta", as entertaining as that was. So now, I choose a different set of words each time. I'm on a class mailing list -- what used to be called a Unix Newsgroup -- with my college class. There are some serious puzzle-ists on the list. One day the discussion turned to Wordle. This gang is driven to solve the puzzle in as few guesses as possible. The NY Times supports this viewpoint, with a special 'analytics' page for the game which offers to tell you whether you made the best guess possible. (I have never read this page). Everyone traded the tactics they used .. the first words like "adieu" and "miaou" (both words work in the French puzzle "Le Mot") with as many vowels as possible. One advanced tactician also noted that the most-common letters in five-letter words, A,E,S,O,R,I,L,T,N,U, and D, are a different subset than the most-common (in order) ETAOINSHDRLU of ALL words (one writer noted that this sequence once appeared as the user key buttons on a LinoType machine ... a machine used to set type which was used at the college newspaper back in the day). I'm not crediting who it was, just in case he's wrong. Another Wordle-ician noted that the three-guess sequence "Earth Lions Muddy" got all the vowels, and after that guessing was easy.[Technically this meets the "Band name/stagewear" 'enhancement rule', although I do like 'fuzzy' better than 'muddy' for the lions]{.aside} After seeing a bunch of really funny word groups, I made up my own "enhancement rule". Let the first two guesses be the name of the rock band, the third guess is what they wear onstage, and any guesses after that are album titles. I got this idea after my guesses "Poule Aciel" in Le Mot, the French Wordle game, and thought of the rock group Steely Dan. Chicken of Steel! Um, great name for a metal group. What would they wear, tines? Knife? Fetching! ## Bands, album ```{r} library(slickR) band_name_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/BandNames/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE) slickR(band_name_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') + settings(dots = TRUE, infinite= TRUE, speed = 0, fade = TRUE, cssEase = 'linear') ``` When I wake up in the dark hours of the morning, instead of reaching for my phone, I think of a band name and what they wear. "Druid Monks, Linen", and so forth. I try not to duplicate too many letters in the three guesses -- keeping in mind, though, that the sooner you guess the word, the less productive the band has been -- and also to arrive at a good band name, appropriate to the garb. Then, I pick up the phone, put all three words in and, usually, put the phone back down and go to sleep. What's the rush? I'll guess the word when I wake up in the morning. Some bands, like "Dogue Odeur", don't wear anything onstage. Also, no songs. So it goes. Probably just as well. ## Inter Conti ental! A Spanish-speaking friend brought "La Palabra del Dia" to my attention. I never studied Spanish but the first time I tried La Palabra I guessed the word 'avena', meaning oats, which reminded me of the shampoo Aveeno. Naturally I went shopping. _La Vida imita al arte_. Not only am I learning a few new Spanish words by guessing them, but my hair is more soft and manageable than ever! Geographic note: I found the following quote on the Aveeno bottle, but never did find the location of the quiet mill (please let me know if you find this mythic beast, this oaty Valhalla): "We source our oats from a quiet mill located along the rolling hills of the Mississippi River Valley, in a small town where pride and quality go hand-in-hand." It appears on so many different kinds of Aveeno product that I am convinced it is, in fact, from a simpler time. Getting back to La Palabra del Dia, when I look at my _estadísticas_, I have only about 90 percent _victorias_ in 230 _jugadas_. Part of the reason is the letter patterns of Spanish can offer so many options that I run out of guesses. But the other part is that as a native speaker of English, I can jump in with an interim word that narrows the remaining possibilities, and it's very hard for me to do that with Spanish and French, where my success rate is not even as good as with Spanish, only 89 percent. Maybe the makers of _Le Mot_ (the name of the French puzzle) are working harder to try to stump their players? Still, some of the French words ... see how easy they are to guess? ```{r} library(slickR) too_easy_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/Spanish_French/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE) slickR(too_easy_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') + settings(dots = TRUE, infinite= TRUE, speed = 0, fade = TRUE, cssEase = 'linear') ``` ## Anyway ... - you can only play once a day - it's never boring unless you let it become boring I find that I laugh when a guess is unexpectedly successful or absurd, like 'Cocoa' in the Spanish -- but hey, it's what they call cocoa! Or Zorro. Hard to guess with the letter duplications, but ... a legit 5-letter word in the language. ## Movie Shows Before rock bands, I enjoyed seeing movie titles ('Clear Blade Alien') sometimes with their sequels ('Pearl Heist', 'Demon Gecko'), along with clear political/cultural exhortations ('Block Prune Gonad Month') ```{r} library(slickR) semanticfunny_filenames <- list.files("WordClips/MovieTitle_Semantic/", pattern=".png", full.names = TRUE) slickR(semanticfunny_filenames, height = 250, width='80%') + settings(dots = TRUE, infinite= TRUE, speed = 0, fade = TRUE, cssEase = 'linear') ``` Why would you want to guess the word as quickly as possible? Doesn't that reduce your enjoyment?