I’m Puzzled

Do you do the Spelling Bee every morning? Wordle? Mini Crossword? Quordle? I do. My brother, husband, and daughter do, and we share our scores everyday. And I am fascinated by how we all approach these puzzles so differently. The order in which we do them. Our opening gambits, our stable of starting words.

I am the only one who does Spelling Bee, and I start with it every morning. Somehow it warms me up! I try to get to Genius without any hints, then I look at the hints and attempt to guess at the missing words with the starting two letters. I look at the comments when I am absolutely stuck, and only go to google when none of the comments help. The comments alone are worth reading as there is a group of people who create the hints in a variety of ways–straight definitions, humorous plays on words and sounds (for the word “rococo” the hint was “what you’d shout to Ms. Chanel if she oared crew”) and those who create poems and narratives from the found words.

The editor is clearly not a sailor though. Words like “clew” and “luff” have not been counted in my experience. Actually, lots of words don’t make it and the comments get a little nutty then. Just accept that not every real word is going to be considered and move on.

I typically then move on to Wordle. I once solved in two! I know a lot of people who have a few words that they always start with. I never start with the same word. I type in whatever comes to mind.

I hate the days that look like this. Could be anything, really! I hate when I get x/6.

The Mini Crossword is typically pretty straight forward. There are days, though–like when the clue was three-point driving maneuver. Seems obvious, right? No. Kturn. KTURN! What the heck is a k-turn? Is that some left coast nonsense? Ruined my time and my mood!

Finally it’s Quordle for me. Just like Wordle only there are four words to find. I find my heart racing when I get down to the last few chances, so it’s like aerobic exercise in a way.

What about you? What games or puzzles do you play? How? You do not have to share the words you use everyday if you want to keep them to yourself, or if they are just not working for you! What was your thrill of victory?