I click links & read things. It's what I do.
This episode of me is just three rambly items. That is all. Yes, HUGE things are going on In The Real world. Bad things. Humanity being awful to humanity at home and abroad. But. Not here. ITRW I've done what I can for now--I've put my money where my principles are, voiced words of support--and I will continue to do what I can. As I have been reminded, so I remind others: dwelling & doomscrolling & working up a knot of stress helps no one. So. This blog post isn't about anything Real. It's about the usual: reading & cats & randoming.
Thing the First.
Did you know Lido means beach in Italian, and in British English, it also refers to an outdoor swimming pool + its associated amenities? I did not, until today.
At long last, I have an explanation for why there are "Lido Decks" on cruise ships! The term always puzzled me when I watched Love Boat in the late 70's. This trivium comes to us courtesy of a Guardian interview with some BBC broadcaster who's probably a household name in Britain but who was completely unknown to me. Score one for a beautifully designed enticing headline.
Which I've already forgotten.
Random thing 2: the latest in Cat adventures.
Pippin's current Favoritest Toys Ever are the tear-off strips from boxed Trader Joe's hot chocolate packets. (not the packet w/chocolate! The litle strip you pull on to open the box.)
These bits of paper hold a narrow lead over mylar strips cut from the bottom of pita chip bags. Something about the way those things crunch fascinates him endlessly. There are a dozen or more Stacey's Pita Chips bag-ends scattered about the house, built up over the last few months.
He is generous with his toys, too. On any given morning I'll find up several of crunchy mylar strips on the bed. Pips naps with us at night, but he comes and goes--and every time he returns from a ramble he brings us a toy in case we wake up and want to play with it.
Lastly, I have discovered A Best New Game for me, courtesy of Louis Evans, who I follow on Twitter because...yanno, I don't know if I met him or someone suggested I follow him, or he followed me for inexplicable reasons and I followed back, or what. I try not to let that ignorance bother me, but it still does sometimes. My discomfort over the parasocial nature of online connections is one of my biggest peeves with social media, and I have a LOT of peeves...never mind, this is digressing even more than usual, ANYWAY.
This game is Semantle, and it's SUPER FUN. Like Wordle it's a once-daily word puzzle, but that's about all they have in common. I like Wordle's simplicity, but that's about all I do like about it. It's a pretend word game. it isn't about language at all, nor really about vocabulary. It's letters as numbers, essentially. Finding a solution w/in 6 guesses is a process heavy on betting the odds of a given vowel or consonant being used, plus luck and eliminating variables.
I find it fun, don't get me wrong. But it isn't...stimulating, I guess? It's about spelling, not words.
And don't get me started on people who get hung up on use of wordfinders, dictionaries or other tools. Is it legitimate or does it constitute "cheating?" It's a SOLITAIRE WORD GAME FFS. What is even the point of getting judgey & snobby about how someone else plays it? Any yet. People gotta feel superior, I guess.
Solving a Semantle occupies a lot more of my wording brain than Wordle. That's my favorite part. My second favorite aspect is the no-limit guessing. There's no "genius!" for a lucky break or any competitive triggering at all. Guess until you get it right, for pure solution satisfaction.
And like the name implies, it's all about semantics. Associations. Connections. Right up my happy neighborhood parkway, in other words.
You're attempting to guess a secret word based on hot/cold responses to your attempts. The more similar your word is to the secret one, the higher your guess's rank will be. And once you get within 1000 words of the secret one, you get that clue as well.
Look. It's kinda hard to explain but super-simple to play. Type words, type more words that seem related, rinse & repeat. My best result so far is solving the puzzle in 33 guesses, my longest game was 87 guesses.
I find Semantle MUCH more satisfying to play. There's no right or wrong way to think of connections. I'm fond of Thesaurus.com for inspiration, but also fond of typing a bunch of ideas into Google & skimming the results for a word that just feels right as a guess, and also blindly staring at my list of guesses until the next inspiration strikes.
Spouseman still doesn't understand how I could look at bureaucrat and leap to the secret word (historian) in two guesses. (president and constitution in between)
I can't explain it either. But that's the wild thing about inspiration. It's always a leap into the dark that pays off. It's an idea arcing across a void of not-knowing.
And that's that for tonight. Gonna go play wordle as soon as it's midnight, and then off to bed.
TOmorrow I'll try to write my Winter Subscriber Newsletter before it's spring, and also get up some book reviews for all the amazing new speculative fiction I've been consuming.
Until later!
