I listen to several daily news podcasts in an effort to keep up with everything going on. One of those is the NPR Politics podcast. The hosts sign off with something they can’t let go of, which is usually a pop culture or human interest story from that week.
So, what can’t I let go of? Well, my Wordle streak.
I started playing in early January and quickly got hooked. After a couple of days I switched from playing on my work laptop to my phone. Like many others, I played religiously. Sometimes I’d share my score on Twitter or instagram. Almost daily I’d share it with Sean in a friendly competition.
I also started playing more games inspired by the original Wordle. So that a daily habit of a few minutes got much longer. This is my current list:
- Nerdle – you have to figure out the math equation
- Worldle – guess a country by its shape
- Quordle – guess 4 words in 9 tries
- Octordle – guess 8 words in 13 tries
- Antiwordle – avoid guessing the word
- Absurdle – adversarial version
- Wordle en español (I’m new to this one)
As I played longer, I started getting really invested in keeping my win streak going. Then the NYT bought the game and people on social media swore it got harder. I mean, suddenly words like ultra and ulcer came up back to back.
But I had a problem. My almost 5 year old iPhone was starting to have problems and the battery was dying quickly. Sean kept telling me I should go to the Verizon store for my upgrade.
But I didn’t want to give up my Wordle streak by playing on a new device. I even thought I’d upgrade but not trade in the old phone so I could keep playing Wordle on the old phone. When I went to the store I mentioned this to the salesperson helping me and he doubled the trade-in value.
It turns out I can let go of the official streak for the right amount. At least I have my screenshot.
Do you play Wordle? Are you into the spin-off games?
Lotería Chicana 
I started off my Wordle experience with a loss because I didn’t bother to read the instructions. Which both amuses and mortifies me. I hover around 80% for wins so that helps me to not be too attached to the stats. I do enjoy the game but haven’t really ventured out to the others. From the list you provided, there are definitely some I do want to take a look at. And maybe this time I may actually read the instructions first to start off on the right foot.