July 2, EGRET, 4/6
SOME DAYS, YOU don't solve the game so much as you accidentally run out of wrong answers. Tried a consonant-heavy opener again, with DROWN, and only got a yellow R. FIBER put a green E in place, but the R was still yellow. Only one vowel identified, and it looked like the R was going to land somewhere in the middle of the word, with vowels before and after it. More makeup vowel work, then: CARET. Nope, the -RET went all green, but the A was gray. So what was it? TURRET has two R's in the middle, not one. Without following any real intuition about what the answer would be, I'd exhausted the possibilities. What was left that could end in -RET? Nothing with a U or a Y suggested itself, so back to—EGRET. Elegant bird, worthy answer, no real credit to me.
July 3, LILAC, 4/6
UNDISTINGUISHED PLAY ON a fairly slippery word. GAUDY got me nothing but a yellow A; CHAOS kept the yellow A and added a yellow C. Where to move the A now? To the beginning, or toward the end? More concerned with moving the letters around than with guessing about the limits of Wordle Standards and Practices, I went ahead with FECAL. The A was properly placed, but the C was still yellow, now accompanied by a yellow L. What did that leave? _ C L A _ ? _ C _ A L ? If the C wasn't at the beginning, and it wasn't in the center, maybe it was at the end? LILAC.
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