How I broke my Wordle streak

aglet and odeon

This was a couple days late. I backed out a 3 and a 4 from the calculations.

This is how I broke my Wordle streak on Tuesday, February 17, after 1148 games.

The issue started the day before, when my wife and I were visiting our daughter at college in western Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the speaker for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library on Tuesday fell ill on Monday. His doctor recommended that he rest for 48 hours.

So for a couple of hours, I tried to get online to contact other possible speakers, but to no avail. It didn’t help that the hotel’s Internet was wonky, which made the process more stressful and difficult. Finally, another FFAPL convener and I and I suurendered. So my wife and I wouldn’t need to rush back to Albany on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, this guy from the local NBC-TV affiliate, whom I did not know, texted me to see if I was still having difficulty with my mail.  I said yes, but he didn’t follow up. Fine.

Tuesday morning, the hotel Internet was still spotty. After breakfast, my wife, daughter, and I went to the Mead Art Center. The daughter had to leave for a school meeting, but we eventually met at the Yiddish Book Center.

News

While my wife and I were leaving town, I received another text from the Channel 13 guy. Did I want to be on the news that night? Well, okay, but I’m a couple of hours away. Also, and I didn’t tell him this, my wife REALLY wanted to stop somewhere to eat.

So, while my wife was driving, I was composing in my head what to say to the reporter. About 15 minutes after we got home, the reporter and cameraman arrived and recorded me for about 6 minutes, 30 seconds of which made it into the piece.

We had to unpack, then watch the news.  I was about to go to bed when I realized that I still hadn’t done Wordle yet. But I couldn’t get on before the midnight hour.

Once I realized that the streak was done, I was a little sad. I mean, if I had gone down because I hadn’t found the word, THAT would have been okay.

But it really bugged me when I got those notices to keep up my single-digit streak. Getting over 50 somehow was oddly gratifying.

In retrospect, I should have expected that I’d eventually forget to play. My pattern each day was to ask my wife whether she had played yey. But she quit playing on February 2, Groundhog, when Wordle repeated a word, which I believe was CIGAR, the first word. She decided to quit right then. I had no one to remind, which would have aided me in reminded myself. 

So it goes. 

The last 100 games

Still, zero ones. 11 twos,  51 threes, 26 fours, 11 fives, 1 six, for a 3.4 average. My current average overall for 1500 games is 3.75.

A few interesting games; the numbers indicate how many words are left.

Wordle 1,758 4/6

🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨AROSE 19

🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜ABLED 1

🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜AGLET 1(!)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩ALLEY

Aglet is too obscure to have been the word, the WordeBot insisted. Do you know the word aglet?

Wordle 1,751 5/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨AROSE 111

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜BOWEL 13

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨MENTO 2

⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨ODEON 2!

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩ENVOY

Another too difficult word.

After the third turn: It looks as if you’ve narrowed it down to only two remaining words: swamp or scamp.

Wordle 1,748 2/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨AROSE 4

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩SOBER.

As the old song says, “What’s the use of getting sober when you’re gonna get drunk again?”

I’m going to keep assuming S is the 1st letter

 

Earth Day 2026 is depressing

exemption from Clean Air Act

I can’t be the only one who believes Earth Day 2026 is depressing. This year alone, the regime has repealed the 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, eliminating the foundation of much of U.S. climate policy.
The LA Times noted: “The decision reverses decades of environmental progress despite overwhelming scientific evidence and opposition from health experts, environmental groups, 50 cities and 17 states. Experts warn the repeal will increase pollution, respiratory disease, and planet-warming emissions over the coming decades…

“The repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — a conclusion based on decades of science that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare — represents one of the biggest environmental rollbacks in U.S. history, and the latest in a series of actions by [FOTUS] to scrap policies and regulations designed to curb the use of fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

“The administration… also dismantled all federal emissions regulations governing vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond.”

Profit over people

Daily Kos: FOTUS is forcing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon its legal obligation to protect human health and the environment – by granting more than one-third of the nearly 550 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year exemption from Clean Air Act rules, allowing dangerous air pollution to go unchecked.

“The Clean Air Act exists to protect people from harmful pollutants—such as ethylene oxide, mercury, and lead—known to cause cancer and other serious health harms. But instead of enforcing the law, Trump is siding with corporate polluters and putting our communities at risk.

“So far, 188 exemptions have already been granted to coal power plants, chemical manufacturers, commercial sterilizers, and other polluters. Another 366 are eligible for the same two-year exemption.

We don’t need no stinkin’ research

MoveOn: As we mark Earth Month this April, the [regime] is quietly making yet another catastrophic attack on our environment.

“The U.S. Forest Service, housed under the Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced plans to shutter a staggering 57 of its 77 research facilities across 31 states—that’s almost 75%.1 These are the labs and scientists tracking how wildfires spread, how droughts are deepening, and how the climate crisis is reshaping 193 million acres of American forests and grasslands.

“This is all part of a deliberate, sweeping attack on climate science through defunding research, silencing scientists, and prioritizing corporate interests over the health of our public lands.”

Thus, last month was the hottest March on record for the continental U.S.,  federal data shows.” 

Here are the Executive Orders on energy and the environment, 2025-2026. They include “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” and a bunch of other groanworthy titles .

At a point where the US should do more to try a Project Hail Mary to slow the impending ecological chaos, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and others are actively working to make things worse.

Happy Earth Day. 

 

National Library Week 2026: Find Your Joy

APL survey

Since it’s National Library Week 2026, I am required by my vows as a Master of Library Science to celebrate. Find your joy!

ITEM: Albany city residents go to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to vote on the library’s 2026-2027 operating budget tax levy. Voters will also elect three new library trustees. Note that the poll locations may vary from the primary and general election locations. 

ITEM: Albany Public Library is currently developing a Strategic Plan with the help of Library Strategies to guide its priorities over the next three years. In order to craft this long-range roadmap, the Library must determine what residents need, want, and expect from their libraries – now and into the future. For that reason, this survey was developed to collect your valuable input.

On average, it takes just 8-10 minutes to complete the survey. The information you provide will help the Library and its consultants scope and prioritize areas of focus that maximize the Library’s return on investment. You will remain anonymous unless you actively choose to self-identify.

ALA

ITEM: From the American Library Association-

This month, ALA prevailed in our lawsuit against the government to protect the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The settlement, alongside our co-plaintiff AFSCME and represented by Democracy Forward, ensures that the only federal agency dedicated to library services will continue to carry out its critical work.

ALA has been showing up for libraries on fronts beyond the IMLS lawsuit and Fund Libraries campaign:

NYSWI

ITEM: Join New York State Writers Institute on Wednesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. at Page Hall, UAlbany for a conversation with Heidi Boghosian, lawyer, podcast host, writer, and surveillance and privacy expert, and the author of Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy (2025), which argues that our best chance of thriving in the digital era lies in taking care of our “smart” selves as diligently as we maintain our “smart” devices.

​She will also discuss the looming challenges to democracy posed by AI and other emerging technologies.

Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations, and the former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.

FFAPL

ITEM: The Friends of Albany Public Library and, later, the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library, have sponsored free Tuesday Book Talks almost every week of the year at the Washington Avenue branch at 2 pm. 

April 21 | Book Review | The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, & Mark Olshaker.  Reviewer:  Bryon Backenson, Director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, NYS Dept. of Health.

​April 28 | Author Talk | David Ricci, from the Berkshires, discusses & reads from his book of photographs, Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture, with text by Cheryl Finley.

​May 5 | Author Talk | Jessica Treadway, Albany native & child patron of the Pine Hills Branch, discusses & reads from her short story collection, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands.

May 12 | Book Review | The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Book Lover’s Adventures by Josh Hanagarne.  Reviewer:  John Edvalson, APL librarian.

May 19| Book Review | The Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.  Reviewer:  Charles Hailer, Empire State Fellow with the NYS Urban Development Corporation.

May 26 | Book Review | The Fear and the Fury: Bernie Goetz, the Reagan ‘80s, and the Rebirth of White Rage by Heather Ann Thompson.  Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U at Albany, SUNY.

Photos

ITEM: Locally, the show of FFAPL treasurer David Brickman, Neighborhood Abstracts, has been extended through mid-May at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress in Albany (link here for hours and address). 

And David and McGreevy are producing a 30-page book of the show, with all the pictures and a little bit of text. The book will be available in two sizes: 8″x8″ signed, limited-edition softcover ($35, tax included, shipping extra if needed; limited to 40 numbered copies plus 10 artist proofs); and deluxe 12″x12″ hardcover ($100 plus tax and shipping if needed). Write to David: dbgetvisual[at]gmail[dot]com 

America Sings: one of my origin stories

Arthur, that dude from New Zealand via Illinois, wrote a post recently titled “One of my origin stories.” He noted, “’There was also a cookbook for kids in our house’, and that cookbook, first published in 1957, was called Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls.”

Moreover, he was motivated to “buy an authorised ‘facsimile edition’ that was a faithful reproduction of the original.” I recall that book, and we may have even owned it.

However, my wife DEFINITELY owned and owns it. She even imagined being in the cover tableau. In fact, she may want a new one because the original has grease and other stains. Maybe a gift idea? 

Music

This story reminded me of a similar item. From this blog in 2006: “At school, we had music class every day with Mrs. Joseph, starting in 4th grade. We used what I knew then was an ancient music book.” I do not recall the title. (Any of you, Daniel Dickinson school chums from Binghamton, NY, remember?)

I wrote: ” I wish I could find a copy of that book; I really liked most of the songs.” At some point in the past half-decade, I found a reasonable facsimile. America Sings Community Song Book from 1935. It has many of the same songs: Americana, religious, et al. It’s even in the same font. The fact that we were using a 30-year-old book absolutely tracks. I even sent a copy of America Sings to my sister Leslie, who would have used the same item. 

Actually, several similar books were published. A Capital Ship, the first song alphabetically, which I well recall, was in:

Songbooks:
Camp-Fire Choruses (1917)
Boy Scout Song Book (1920)
The Golden Book of Favorite Songs (1923)
Twice 55 Plus Community Songs (The New Brown Book) (1930)
The “Everybody Sing” Book, Revised Edition (1932)
America Sings Community Song Book (1935)
The Golden Book of Favorite Songs (1946)

The book didn’t have Shortnin’ Bread, which I didn’t particularly like. (I can’t find a book with both A Capital Ship and Shortnin’ Bread.)

THAT song

But it did have another song. As I wrote:

One day, when I was in the 5th grade, Mrs. Joseph announced that we could sing anything we wanted. One kid asked for an unfamiliar page. I turned to it, and, of course, it was that Stephen Foster classic, Old Black Joe. I had no idea the piece was in the book! What would Mrs. Joseph do? What would I do?

Quickly, I decided that if we sang the song, I would walk out of the room. (To go where, I had no idea.) Mrs. Joseph gets to the page, and she says, “Hmm, let’s sing something else.” Walkout averted.

That said, I loved that book. It reminds me of a specific timeframe and place, and having a great deal of affection for it.

Sunday Stealing with Steph

Communion

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week, we’re once again stealing from Steph, aka Cry Baby. She loves Taco Bell and asking questions like these.

More Questions from Steph

1) Are you the sort of person who can nap or sleep anywhere, any time?
No. But I could take a nap about three days a week. When I do nap, it’s usually once a week for between 45 and 75 minutes.
2) Have you ever walked in your sleep?
Yes, as a child, my mother told me. I usually spoke and, reportedly, occasionally even went to the bathroom.
3) Do you chat with your Uber/Lyft/taxi driver?
I’ve been taking an Uber about once a month, usually the return trip of some medical appointment. I could get home otherwise, but I’ve decided that taking two buses back home over two hours isn’t worth it. I’m too old for that.
As for conversation, it depends very much on the driver. Some have their music on and want to listen to their country/gospel/top 40 tunes. Some are more chatty, and I’m okay with that.
 One guy was playing sports radio, and he was bemoaning the poor start by his team, the Baltimore Ravens. I can be conversational, even though I rarely watch many early-season NFL games.
February 14
4) Do you remember what you did on Valentine’s Day?
Not specifically. But it’s likely we went somewhere not too expensive to eat. This past Feb 14 was on a Saturday, and usually we have a date night once a month on our lunaversary, which is the 15th of the month.
5) How many laptops have you owned over your lifetime?
I don’t know. For the longest time, I had a desktop. My current laptop may have been my third, which I purchased only because my previous one fell to the ground and was irreparable. I’ve bought one since then as a backup.
6) How many countries have you visited?
Four: Canada, Mexico, Barbados, and France.
7) Did you/will you go to work today?
Unless you count going to church to prepare Communion, serve it during the service, and then clean up afterward, I’ll go with no.
Just because: What Does ‘Roger That’ Mean?

 

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Ramblin' with Roger
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