I love word games, dating back to childhood and playing Scrabble with my grandmother or working crossword puzzles with my dad. I enjoy Seven Little Words everyday thanks to my New York friend, Carole, and Wordle because of Eliza. Today, I completed my 300th game but apparently missed the first 271 days since the New York Times owned game originated. They allow you to play just once a day, but there’s also Quordle and Octordle that are good for practice. I have a 98% solve rate and a maximum streak of 76. On two odd occasions, I somehow forgot to play at all and lost the streak I had painstakingly earned. 

You start with a grid of five across and six down, 30 total squares. I typically enter the same three 5-letter words to begin the game…CANOE, WRIST, and PLUMB. This eliminates 15 of the 26 letters of the alphabet, including all the vowels but Y. If a letter is in the correct position, it turns green. Gray means that it’s not part of the solution and yellow indicates that the letter is simply in the wrong position. In the 2% of games that I’ve lost, I’ve usually gotten four of the five letters but the last one has multiple options, so I simply run out of chances. 

I’ve never solved the puzzle on the first guess, but people brag about it on Facebook like they are some great level of genius. It’s really a very simple game of following clues that has little to do with being smart. Three times out of 300 tries, I’ve gotten the answer on the second line, but on 145 occasions, it has come down to the fourth line. Twenty-eight times I’ve pulled out the answer on the sixth and final attempt. Whew!