Month: February 2022

A look at some Wordle variants

As mentioned recently, Wordle has taken the online world by storm, drawing people in with the once-a-day challenge. Like many popular games, it has spawned variants, some keeping the challenge related to language(s), and others branching out into other subjects.

There are, apparently, variants for specific fandoms, such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (includes dashes so you can guess droids), Taylor Swift, and Pokémon; I only recently learned of those, and would probably struggle with them. I had heard of Lewdle (the name says it all) and apparently there’s also a Sweardle (also fairly obvious). I’m not particularly good at trivia, even for fandoms I enjoy, and my usual vocabulary doesn’t seem to work well for those last two. In addition to the original game, I am enjoying these variants:

Globle, a geography game where you try to guess today’s country. The color of the guessed country indicates proximity to today’s answer. There is no limit to the number of guesses, I’ve ranged anywhere from three (on a lucky day) to twenty guesses so far.

Nerdle, a math game with a calculation to determine. There are only eight spaces, and one of them is always an equals sign, so they’re fairly simple calculations.

WordleGame, not for their English remake – I like this one for the selection of foreign languages. I occasionally remember to visit it and try the Spanish puzzle for the day.

The big one… and I mean that literally, is Quordle:

Quordle image showing 4 squares of completed word puzzles

Instead of one word, you’re trying to match four. The difficulty is that all of your guesses apply to all four quadrants, so a guess that helps you on the first word may give you no new letters on the fourth one. To balance out the increased difficulty, you have nine guesses instead of Wordle’s standard six.

Which, if any, is your favorite Wordle variant?

Thoughts on An Unintended Voyage

I’ve mentioned Marshall Ryan Maresca’s books before, specifically in this post about The Velocity of Revolution, so it’s safe to assume I was excited to receive another of his books, An Unintended Voyage, to review. This novel picks up from a plot hook left hanging in Maresca’s Streets of Maradaine series, and is a great starting point for new readers. This review was originally published in the November 1, 2021 issue of Booklist.

During Marshall Ryan Maresca’s Maradaine Saga, Sergeant Corrie Wellington was abducted along with assorted children and put on a slave ship bound for places unknown. An Unintended Voyage reveals Corrie’s plight, landing her at a debtors’ house in Mocassa working to pay off an unintended debt accrued after the slave ship. Raised believing that Maradaine was the center of the world, Corrie experiences all of the culture shock inherent in being dumped in another country and interacting with people from nations she hadn’t heard of before. Her protective streak quickly extends from her shipmate Eana and the women they share a house with to victims of random violence on the unpatrolled streets, which ultimately leads to meeting a language tutor and securing a steady job as a bodyguard. Eventually she finds herself protecting other foreigners against religious fanatics who predict – and encourage – impending doom, coinciding with a solar eclipse which will enhance magical abilities. An Unintended Voyage is another delightful read for all ages, expanding on Maresca’s worldbuilding with hints of future adventures spread across the world.

Wordle Microfiction

By now, you’ve probably heard of Wordle, a daily word game reminiscent of the classic board game Mastermind, where you use logic to determine what the hidden code is. Wordle locks you into six guesses to reach a five-letter word in English. Many variants are already available online, including some other languages, an equation option, and a rather educational geography one.

You may have heard of microfiction, which is a subcategory of flash fiction – microfiction stories cap out at one hundred words. Wordle Microfiction combines those by using your Wordle guesses as story prompts, which gives you anywhere from one (if you’re really lucky) to seven (if you fail the day’s Wordle) five-letter words to use in a story.

From this example, you could write something like this using the day’s Wordle as a prompt:

That loser was sadly mistaken if he thought I’d relinquish my seat just because he’s my elder. He should have watched where he was walking instead of bumping into me just as the train approached. He wasn’t even on the train long enough to justify a seat, on at one stop and off at the next. Lazy old fart. Wait… where’s my wallet?

For an extra challenge, you restrict yourself to only using the words in the order they were entered on Wordle.

Feel free to share your Wordle microfiction in the comments!

The Paramount Theatre Presents Groundhog Day: the Musical

It seems like just yesterday that Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, was released in theaters. Alas, yesterday was closer to thirty years ago in this case. The basic premise, as described on IMDB.com is “A self-centered Pittsburgh weatherman finds himself inexplicably trapped in a small town as he lives the same day over and over again.” Needless to say, hijinks ensue as he moves through shock and denial to some extreme actions, followed eventually by making the most of it.

Broadway took what’s already an entertaining concept and added music to it, and the Paramount Theatre in Aurora included it in their Broadway series this year. Weatherman Phil sets the mood in the prelude with a handful of snarky comments, movie references, and swearing that he will never take the Punxsutawney assignment again. He doubles down on this attitude in his first song, singing about how much he hates Small Town USA.

The musical proceeds as expected given that it’s based on a movie many of us already know and love. Where the Paramount excels, as always, is some great stage effects, like watching Phil drive drunk in a snow storm pursued by a police car. Why yes, of course they crash… you could almost feel it.

As with previous shows this season, proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test is required to attend (and they’ve partnered with a local place for the test), and you’re expected to wear a mask the entire time expect when taking a sip of your drink. Unless you’re the idiots behind our subscription seats, who thought they were exempt from the rule. (I’m sure there are others, those were just the ones we could see. Sat down, took off their masks. Put them on again when the usher reminded them of the rule, but they were off again at intermission, and during the second half when there was a brief pause to resolve technical issues on stage.)

All in all, another fantastic show at the Paramount. Go see it if you can.