Tag: Wordle

Viridescent

You Can’t Do That

The WordDaily for September 12 was viridescent. The accent is on the third syllable. I was unfamiliar with the term, though I knew it likely was green-adjacent.

“‘Viridescent’ is an adjective you’ll likely see only in poetic or literary contexts. It comes directly from the Latin word of the same spelling, meaning ‘becoming green,’ from the Latin word for ‘green,’ ‘viridis.’ As we see from the Latin, ‘viridescent’ isn’t just a shade of green; it’s an adjective that describes something in the process of becoming green. It may be used for shoots of new growth, or shades shifting between hues of yellow or blue to green.”

Some animals turn green as camouflage.

Watching trees becoming green is one of the great joys of living in the Northeastern US in the spring. One April, I traveled to the southeast US; I don’t remember where, when, or why. What I do recall that it was appreciably greener there, which disrupted my expectations. Then back to Albany and the not-quite greenery.    

I lean into the the green. On the September 12 Wordle:

Wordle 1,181 3/6

🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

My second word was GRASS because most grass is green. (The word was actually BRASS, but close enough.)

Musical reference: Mountain Greenery from the Supremes Sing Rodgers and Hart. All of my Supremes albums were stolen from my grandmother’s house in the early 1970s  – which made me blue – except that one LP which appeared to have been dropped by the thief.  

Dad

Not Being Green, but Becoming Green. It’s an interesting concept. I think of my father, who was born Leslie Walker but legally became Leslie Green only a couple of weeks before his 18th birthday in 1944. However, he’s listed as Green (misspelled Greene) in the 1940 Census.  

In doing the genealogy, I’ve concentrated on the Walker (dad’s mom), Yates (mom’s mom), Williams (mom’s dad), and even the recently discovered Cone (dad’s bio dad). But I hadn’t spent much time on the Green line because they weren’t my biological ancestors. At some point, I should remedy that. 

Speaking of lineage, when I received over time revised ancestry breakdown, I went from being 23% Irish to being 28% Irish in the past five years. I’m becoming more (wearing of the) green. 

So I lean into the color. One of my favorite Beatles songs is You Can’t Do That because it has the bridge: 

Everybody’s green‘Cause I’m the one, who won your loveBut if they’d seenYou’re talking that way they’d laugh in my face

BTW, I’m also fond of the Harry Nilsson medley.

Turning green with envy. Jealousy is the green-eyed monster. What an unpleasant transformation, I don’t want to change to THAT kind of green. 

Coverville 1505 is the Emerald Anniversary Episode with green in all of the titles, save one. 

I’m continuing to figure out the ever-evolving R. Green. 

October rambling: tax billionaires

everythingistb.com

State Street in ALB between Lark and Willett, 20 Oct 2024

Of course, we can tax billionaires. They disguise their demands (“don’t tax billionaires”) as observations (“it is technically impossible to tax billionaires”).

Find Out Who Funds Political Action Committees

Six Lies Elon Musk Believed (in a 24-hour period)

‘Serious Risk’ of Vital Ocean Current Collapse by 2100, Warn Scientists

One in three tree species at risk of extinction: report

Mifepristone, round 2

Order Your 4 Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests: Every U.S. household is eligible to order 4 free at-home tests.

Traffic Stops: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Will Arthur’s ballot be counted?

Democracy Succumbs in Silence

The Trouble With Tradwives. TikTok’s old-school housewives paint a rosy picture of their lives. Ex-tradwives and Influencer moms tell a vastly different story.

The US Copyright Office Frees the McFlurry

City On Fire: The night during the Civil War that violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.

The game
Wordle 1,214 was the third-hardest ever and the hardest for two years, and people are angry—here’s why. (I got a 6.)
Why Not Shake Up the Olympics?

Field of Dreams: Sometimes Myth and Reality Coincide

Obituary: pitcher Luis Tiant (1940-2024)

Trailblazing pitcher Fernando Valenzuela passes away at 63

Teri Garr died at 79. I saw her in Tootsie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh God! and many TV appearances. Oh, and Young Frankenstein (1974) – Put the candle back!

Singer Jack Jones, RIP

Ron Ely, RIP

Tim Urban: Why I Brought My Toddler to Watch SpaceX’s Flying Skyscraper. I can’t shield my daughter from negativity. But I can continually redirect her attention to the rocket—showing her all the ways our species is incredible.

John Green’s new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, is coming out March 18, 2025

What Really Happens When We Unfriend Someone On Facebook?

The language we speak can change our perception of time.

Mark Evanier’s links to several full-length movies such as Naked Gun, American Graffiti, and Hannah and Her Sisters

Bob and Ray in “The Hobby Hut”

Kelly’s a little stealing on Sunday

Now I Know: The Identity Theft That Went Backward and Is It Illegal To Not Wish Someone Farewell? and Where Everybody Knows Your 6E 61 6D 65 and The Fish That Glow… As a Warning?

Security Updates for the Internet Archive

Starting earlier this month, the Internet Archive faced a DDoS attack. After temporarily taking the site offline to enhance security, they have resumed services to Archive.org, Open Library, Wayback Machine and Archive-It. For ongoing updates, please follow their blog and official social media channels on X/Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

FAST COMPANY: The Internet Archive is even more essential than I realized

WASHINGTON POST: The world’s largest internet archive is under siege — and fighting back

WORDPRESS FOUNDATION: WordPress Foundation Donates $100,000 to Internet Archive

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: The organization that safeguards the internet’s history is under attack

SF GATE: The random Bay Area warehouse that houses one of humanity’s greatest archives

MUSIC

Mitzi Gaynor sings I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair from South Pacific; she died at the age of 93

Vale Alan Mansfield of the band Dragon died

Dancing In The Street – Dick Carpenter Trio

Suite from Camelot, original music by Frederick Loewe, and arranged by Robert Russell Bennett

I’m Yours and  Puttin’ On The Ritz – Herb Alpert

The Kairn of Koridwen by Charles Tomlinson Griffes

Airport Codes (Big Band Version) – Aubrey Logan

The Pink Panther theme song and the James Bond theme song go well together

The welcome arrival of rain by Dame Judith Weir.

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The (English) Beat and The Replacements

Coverville 1506: Cover Stories for Natalie Maines and David Lee Roth and 1507: The Katy Perry Cover Story III

Triumphal March from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

Convection Oven – Peter Sprague

Wichita Lineman – Colin Hay

Inch Worm – Road Work Ahead

The theme from Exodus · Ernest Gold

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performed at the World Figure Skating Competition with a routine set to the Entr’acte of the original Broadway production of Mack and Mabel.

Spies – Randy Newman

Sesame Street Cast Crashes The Late Late Show with James Corden

I Just Called To Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder

K-Chuck Radio: Another 10 classic pop songs you barely remember (actually, one I recall quite well)

Being plugged in or not

Summer solstice

Being plugged in or not has popped up several times earlier this year.

Memorial Day week

My wife suggested the family stay at a timeshare in Hancock, MA, just across the border from New York. I don’t know how relaxing it was for my wife because she had to travel to Albany and back, 45 minutes each way, almost every day for work. One of my daughter’s friends came as well. The entity allowed four devices to be connected to the Internet.

My daughter, her friend, and my wife opted to connect to their phones. But I chose my laptop. I could write blog posts, check email, and post to Facebook. More importantly, I played Wordle on my laptop, and I had a 515-game streak.

Still, I was surprised that I had such poor cell reception outside the resort. Indeed, I couldn’t use my phone until I got about five miles into New York.

June 5/6

About a quarter before midnight, my wife asked to use my laptop. She generally leaves hers at work.

I unplugged mine and gave it to her. When she was done, I put mine back in place, played Wordle, and went to bed.

During the morning, I checked my email and wrote a blog post, et al., until I noticed that my battery was running low. I had failed to plug it in. OK, easy, right? Not easy. I must have stepped on the end of the charger that plugs into the device.

I could get a new one from Amazon in two days, but that wouldn’t do, because Blog, Wordle, et al. So, I hopped on a bus to Best Buy and purchased a Microsoft 65W Wall Surface charger. (I’m writing this so I’ll know what I need in the future.)

June 20

It was the third of three days of 90F+ temperatures.  Around 5:30 pm, as the Times Union noted: “A brutal storm blew through Albany early Thursday evening, taking down trees, damaging buildings… National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Rathbun said it’s not likely a tornado tore through the city. Instead, hot and humid air was likely suddenly pushed downward as a cold front rolled in and ended this week’s heat wave, causing short-lived and intense wind gusts in what was likely a pulse, or single-cell, thunderstorm.” Also, power was cut for thousands, including us.

It was fine for a time. The restaurants at the end of Madison Avenue, less than two blocks away, still had power and were doing brisk business. (Actually, the real danger is that drivers, impatient with the nearby intersection, which I have described, nearly caused a dozen accidents.

As nightfall came, my wife took my daughter’s two soaked friends home. My wife and my daughter then went to get more flashlights and to charge our phones in the car.

I tried to read by flashlight, but that got old in six pages. Instead, I sat on the front porch in a lawn chair. Here’s the thing that’s interesting to me: I enjoyed it. A lot. I couldn’t be on my laptop, and I didn’t have my cellphone, so I embraced the moment.

Because of light pollution, city skies aren’t pitch black, so I could peruse the outlines of the massive trees nearby. Watching people negotiate the dark with flashlights and cellphones gave me the feeling that we were all in it together.

Of course, trying to go to sleep sans air conditioner or fan was a drag, but the power thankfully returned at about 11:30 pm.

A Wordle mystery

Wordle 1,130 X/6

There was a Wordle mystery that I needed to try to solve. On July 23, 2024, someone posted on a Facebook Wordle site this result:

Wordle 1,130 X/6

🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
The correct answer was PRONG, which means the player had PRO as the first three letters on their first turn but never got the five-letter result, or even another letter, in six turns. For my own sake, I had to determine if this outcome was possible without using the same letter twice. This is in no way meant to mock or disparage the player. 
I went to Word Unscrambler and found these five-letter words starting with PRO:
Mystery solved!

Wow, it IS possible. In no particular order: PROOF or PROMO; PROBE, PRONE, or PROVE; PROXY; PROWL; PROPS or PROGS; PROUD. As it turns out, PROBE, PROVE, PROWL, PROXY, and PROUD were used, but the user likely did not know this. Several sites online, including WordFinder, reveal these words. 

I limited my choices to words I actually knew. One could trade out PROPS/PROGS in favor of PROAS, a word my spellcheck does not like; it doesn’t like PROSO, either. Other combos are likely possible.

One commenter recommended picking words ending in a list of letters, which might have helped. I rearranged them to a more memorable NERGY ST. I imagine the player likely did use words ending with E, S, and Y but not G.  

I might have added H. CH, GH, PH, SH, and TH, which are common word endings I tend to use. 

Wordle songs

Usual is not unusual

Wordle songsSometimes I consider a word because of a song when I do Wordle. So I call them Wordle songs.  Not all of them work. The ones below with the > means the first word is what I thought of, but the word to the right is the answer.

POLKA (3):- My Melody Of Love – Bobby Vinton. My hometown of Binghamton, NY, has a large eastern European population.

WORSE (2):  The Trouble With Normal  – Bruce Cockburn. “The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.”

SYRUP (3): Dang Me – Roger Miller. “Sugar’s sweet, and so is maple syruple.” (Rhymes with purple.)

ARROW > ARBOR (4) – Poison Arrow – ABC

STAGE (3): Are You Lonesome Tonight – Elvis Presley. “You know someone said that the world’s a stage, and each of us must play a part.” Someone?

SLOOP> SCOLD (5): Sloop Kohn B – Beach Boys

APPLE (3): Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree – the Andrews Sisters

NINTH (4): If Six Was Nine – Jimi Hendrix (this was on Feb 6, 2023)

STEAM> SWEAT: Steam– Peter Gabriel

SWEAT (4): Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) – C&C Music Factory

MAGIC (3): It’s Magic – Pilot. By the way, I’m sad that I hear the damn Ozempic ad song every time the tune runs in my head.

Hinting without hinting

USUAL (3): It’s Not Unusual -Tom Jones. My wife, who was doing the Wordle after I had, was having difficulty. So she asked, “Is it a usual word?” I replied, “It’s not unusual,” which was fun for me.

ENVOY > ENJOY: The Envoy –  Warren Zevon

DANCE (5): Do You Wanna Dance – Bobby Freeman

SWING > FISHY (5) – Swing To The Right – Utopia

WORRY (4): Three Little Birds – Bob Marley. “Don’t worry about a thing, ‘Cause every little thing gonna be all right.”

CONDO (5): Buy Me A Condo – Weird Al Yankovic

HAPPY (6): Happy – Rolling Stones

DRIVE (3): Drive – The Cars and Drive – REM

SPELL (3): I Put A Spell On You – Creedence Clearwater Revival, which I heard before the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version

DREAM (4) – Dream A Little Dream Of Me – Mass Cass, although it appeared on a Mamas and Papas album

CARRY (4): Carry On – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

GROVE (4) – China Grove  – Doobie Brothers

DANDY (6)  Dandy -Herman’s Hermits. I know it’s a Kinks song, but I heard this first.

BTW, I’ve now played 407 games. I’ve won 405 and lost 2, which shows up as 100%. I’ve got zero ones, 4 twos, 110 threes, 111 fours, 96 fives, and 84 sixes.

There is a dark tune called Wordle by Ahniwa Ferrari. Tom Rosenthal did  Drift Along Small World, a song with only five-letter words. Undoubtedly there are others.

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