Wordle 1972 Hint

Hint: Gold purity as a fraction (x/24).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: K

NFL Week 9 Results

Eleven right, four wrong. Pretty good week! Correct picks in green, incorrect in red:

• Jacksonville Jaguars beat Baltimore Ravens
• Cincinnati Bengals beat Atlanta Falcons
• Dallas Cowboys beat Indianapolis Colts
• Kansas City Chiefs beat New York Jets
• Detroit Lions beat Miami Dolphins
• Cleveland Browns beat New Orleans Saints
• New York Giants beat Philadelphia Eagles
• Washington Commanders beat Los Angeles Rams*
• Denver Broncos beat Carolina Panthers
• Los Angeles Chargers beat Houston Texans*
• San Francisco 49ers beat Las Vegas Raiders
• Green Bay Packers beat New England Patriots*
• Seattle Seahawks beat Arizona Cardinals
• Chicago Bears beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Minnesota Vikings beat Buffalo Bills*

So far I am 82 right, 53 wrong for the season. The percentile indicator at ESPN's NFL Pick'em game seems to be on the fritz at the moment, so I don't have that information.

Wordle 1971 Hint

Hint: Consecrate or invoke divine favor for.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Wordle 1970 Hint

Hint: Temporary ceasefire.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: T

Wordle 1969 Hint

Hint: Descriptor for mixed/balanced soil.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Wordle 1968 Hint

Hint: Before anything else.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #44

"The universe is transformation; our life is what our thoughts make it." (Stoicism, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4:3)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

Well, yeah. Everything is always changing, including our place in that everything.

And one's place? Well, as The Dude said, "that's just like, your opinion, man."

I've known people who are incredibly cheerful under circumstances I'd consider dire, and people who seem to have it all but live in a constant state of depression.

Are our situations all in our own minds? Of course not. But ultimately we define what those situations mean to us. The people in the cheap seats get to have opinions too, but each of us is both the director and the star -- and the most important critic -- of his or her own performance.

Wordle 1967 Hint

Hint: To tediously/pointlessly babble.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1966 Hint

Hint: Yiddish term for trash, junk, or cheap crap.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: D

It's Been One of "Those" Health Weeks

Nothing major.

I have a cold, which I'm guessing I caught while sitting in the waiting room last Thursday during Tamara's carpal tunnel surgery -- the symptoms started Saturday or Sunday and it seems to be at its height at the moment. At least I think it's a cold, and since those generally last 7-10 days, I should be getting toward the end of it. I suppose it could be Covid, which is pretty much the same thing as a cold these days. Mostly just an annoyance and something I don't want to pass around to other people, so I've only left the house a couple of times.

Another reason for not getting out much: A couple of days ago, I started having some shoulder pain and numbness in my left pinky. The quick self-diagnosis is "ulnar nerve entrapment," and the treatment seems to be "take NSAIDS and try to keep the arm extended rather than the elbow bent." I'm doing that and it seems to be subsiding. Riding a motorcycle with shoulder pain and hand numbness doesn't seem like a great idea, so I've only done it once (quick convenience store run, a couple of miles each way).

Neither of those has prevented me from getting work done, although typing is a little problematic with the nerve thing. At nearly 60, they're definitely not the worst problems I could have.

As for the "possible eye cancer" bit, after a few days of worrying, my brain finally turned that off until my January appointment to find out more. But I am going to start taking melatonin and zeaxanthin. Both of them are subjects of early studies as possibly helpful, and both of them are useful for other things (sleep and general eye health respectively). I don't expect to "cure my possible eye cancer" with them, but they're in the "seems like it can't hurt" category.

Watch This

Back in August, my cheap ($10-ish) watch broke.

No biggie. I'd bought it when my Fitbit Charge 6 started acting up -- it occasionally doesn't want to accept a charge, eventually completely dies, then at some point I'll get it to charge up, re-connect it to my phone, etc. So when the el cheapo watch fell apart, I just went back to the Fitbit.

[Note: I also looked into American-made watches -- not a reasonable value proposition for my use case.]

But I also bought an even MORE el cheapo watch, $2.50-ish, to have around just in case the Fitbit shit the bed again. Which it did last week. The el cheapo seems to have kept good time for the week, but its band isn't very comfortable and I'm not going to spend $10 on a better band for a $2.50 watch. So I finally went ahead and ordered the Casio FT500WC (not an affiliate link):

It arrived yesterday. Perfect for my needs. Comfortable band, button light, very legible, good-looking (no, it's not a Rolex, it's a field watch and looks like one).

Too early to tell how durable it is, but if it lasts, fuck a bunch of Fitbit nonsense. I'm not the only one in the family who's had the "my Fitbit just died" stuff happen.

And if it doesn't last, I've got that $2.50 timepiece to fall back to while I find a good replacement.

If I ever go back to a fitness tracker, it won't be a Fitbit. I used a cheaper brand, Amazfit, for a long time before research studies started handing out Fitbits in return for me sharing the data (all those studies are over now), and never had a problem with that device. It didn't do quite as much as Fitbit does, but it did what it did without breaking, and I never found a lot of use for the extra Fitbit stuff.

NFL Week 9 Picks

 Week 9 of the NFL season starts tonight with the Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the Baltimore Ravens. My picks:

• Jacksonville Jaguars beat Baltimore Ravens
• Cincinnati Bengals beat Atlanta Falcons
• Dallas Cowboys beat Indianapolis Colts
• Kansas City Chiefs beat New York Jets
• Detroit Lions beat Miami Dolphins
• Cleveland Browns beat New Orleans Saints
• New York Giants beat Philadelphia Eagles
• Washington Commanders beat Los Angeles Rams*
• Denver Broncos beat Carolina Panthers
• Los Angeles Chargers beat Houston Texans*
• San Francisco 49ers beat Las Vegas Raiders
• Green Bay Packers beat New England Patriots*
• Seattle Seahawks beat Arizona Cardinals
• Chicago Bears beat Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Minnesota Vikings beat Buffalo Bills*

Upset picks are marked with an asterisk. If I change any of my picks, the changes will be made before kickoff and specifically noted in an update to this post. The picks are also recorded at ESPN's Pick'em game.

Wordle 1965 Hint

Hint: When someone tells you "but it's a dry heat," what they mean is that your body is about to get toasted/cooked in this manner.

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1964 Hint

Hint: Like a pecan roll or a crazy person. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: N

NFL Week 8 Results

Ten right, four wrong -- not a  bad week. Correct picks in green, incorrect in red:

• Green Bay Packers beat Carolina Panthers
• Baltimore Ravens beat Buffalo Bills*
• Cincinnati Bengals beat Tennessee Titans
• Dallas Cowboys beat Arizona Cardinals
• Minnesota Vikings beat Detroit Lions*
• Las Vegas Raiders beat New York Jets
• Pittsburgh Steelers beat Cleveland Browns
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat Atlanta Falcons*
• Jacksonville Jaguars beat Indianapolis Colts
• Los Angeles Rams beat Los Angeles Chargers
• Kansas City Chiefs beat Denver Broncos
• New England Patriots beat Miami Dolphins
• Washington Commanders beat Philadelphia Eagles
• Chicago Bears beat Seattle Seahawks*

So far I'm at 71-49 for the season and in the 84.7th percentile among players of ESPN's NFL Picke'em game.

Wordle 1963 Hint

Hint: Marsupial nursery. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1962 Hint

Hint: A means of locomotion that might involve sliding while sitting or riding while standing. 

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1961 Hint

Hint: I got so close to solving today's Wordle before failing. If it was a snake, it would have bit me (and I guess it did).

Not Enough? Get the first letter of today's Wordle below.

New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: V

Thanks For Asking! -- 11/01/26

Wow, it's November! Ask me anything in the comment thread below this post and I'll answer in, or linked from, that comment thread (trolls' questions have to be interesting to get answered; if they're boring, they just get deleted).

Applicable(?) Aphorisms #43

   "Silence is the fence around wisdom." (Judaism, Pirkei Avot 3:13)

True, false, good, bad, useful, not so useful, etc.? Discuss.

My thoughts:

I guess the most clever way to handle this one would be to say nothing at all about it.

And an obvious knee-jerk retort comes directly from the Bible, specifically Proverbs 17:28: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise."

The rabbinical explanations for the aphorism go in a different direction -- keeping silence gives one time to think the matter through instead of just spouting off with something incorrect, and makes time for listening while doing that thinking.

And that's all I have to say about that.