These strategic words will get you to those green squares in no time.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the game Wordle? It’s pretty hard to miss these days.
The strategic word game has positively swept the internet in recent weeks. Some are comparing it to baking sourdough as the craze of choice for a new phase of the pandemic. The New York Times liked it enough to cover its backstory at length (spoiler: its creator, a software engineer, made it as a love offering for his partner) …and then buy the game for a sum in the “low seven figures.”
Wordle start words matter (a lot) to serious players determined to flaunt their skills. Even if you’ve never actually played the game. You’re probably pretty familiar with the grid of yellow and green squares its users can display on social media to show just how quickly they solved the puzzle. You get six tries tops. However, devoted fans love to show off their skills when they complete the game in just two or three. (This high-profile score flaunting that has won the game some notoriety among people who choose to be in the anti-Wordle camp.)
Another unique feature of Wordle: Players only get one puzzle a day. (There’s no official option to binge on endless archives — at least for now.) And that means you’re going to want to make sure each play really counts.
What word should I start with in Wordle?
Sure, you could just choose any five-letter start word that strikes your fancy. But did you know that you can also choose strategic Wordle start words that can get you to those green squares even faster (because… math)? Consider these options to improve your next game.
The goal of Wordle is to guess the 5-letter word in 6 tries (or fewer).
Best Wordle start words
If you’ve ever watched Wheel of Fortune, you know that it only makes sense to start out by guessing letters that occur most commonly in the English language.
Google’s director of research Peter Norvig analyzed all the available data from Google Books to generate a list of most commonly used letters in English. His report concluded that the most commonly used letters are E, T, and A. Here’s the top 10 in order:
E
T
A
O
I
N
S
R
H
L Best Wordle starting word mathematically.
So it stands to reason, then, that you’d want to choose a Wordle start word that includes as many of the most common letters as possible, without repeating any.
TikTok user crvlwanek used his computer science know-how (and, evidently, abundant free time) to generate an algorithm that spit out the best Wordle start words based on all past answers to the puzzle so far. These words are:
LATER
ALTER
ALERT
AROSE
IRATE
For more variations on Wordle start word options, consider others that use five of the most commonly used letters without repeating — such as RESIN or NOTES.
One strategy is to choose a Wordle start word that includes as many of the most common letters as possible.
How to win Wordle
Because every word must have a vowel, it’s also a smart strategy to kick off your daily play using a World start word packed with vowels — ideally three or more if possible.
Consider these examples of vowel-packed options:
ADIEU
ABOUT
AISLE
OCEAN
AROSE
Or, if you find it boring to use any version of the same starting word every time — or simply don’t see the point in ruining a perfectly fun pastime with overwrought strategy — just do you instead. Start with whatever word makes you happy… after all, Wordle’s just a game! (And, of course, there’s always sourdough.)
Americans will soon be able to send their mail and honor an iconic TV star at the same time. The commemorative stamp honors the long and illustrious career of the beloved actress, who died a few weeks short of her 100th birthday back in 2021.
The U.S. Postal Service announced Friday it will release a stamp in 2025 commemorating beloved actress Betty White. The stamp shows the late “Golden Girls” star grinning on a violet background, a digital illustration created by Dale Stephanos based on a 2010 photo by Kwaku Alston.
The U.S. Postal Service said the stamp, which will be sold on a pane of 20, exudes White’s “spritely sense of fun” and features bubbly spots on the background “that befit her sparkling personality.” A first day of issue for the stamp was not announced.
The stamp itself features a 2010 photograph of the actress taken by Kwaku Alston, wearing a blue top against a purple background. The stamp itself was designed by Greg Breeding, who serves as an art director for the United States Postal Service.
I wonder if this was Oprah’s Valentine’s Day gift to herself.
The Promised Land
Oprah called her property the Promised Land, named after the land that God gave Adam in the Old Testament. Her main home is a 23,000-square-foot mansion in the Neo-Georgian style. It contains six bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a library, theater, and ten fireplaces.
The property also has a fruit orchard, equestrian ring, and luxurious garden. Oprah has called this garden her “sanctuary.” However, she has never demonstrated an interest in training horses in her equestrian ring.
The Property
To get to Oprah’s house, you’d have to drive up a long, private driveway. This aerial view shows the home surrounded by lush lawns and pine, eucalyptus, ad oak trees. Although there is a pool, you can’t see it from this angle.
The First Thing That Visitors See
If you were to walk into Oprah’s Montecito home, this is the first thing you would see. The entrance hall includes antique tables that display Oprah’s personal photos. A custard-colored staircase spirals to the upper floors.
For anyone who likes this layout, Oprah has bad news. In 2013, she suggested that she was planning to remodel the entrance hall. If she has redone it, she hasn’t posted any updated photos. Time will tell if she kept the creamy yellow staircase.
An Elegant Dining Room
Compared to the rest of her house, Oprah’s dining room appears small. But Oprah actually believes that it is too big. In O, Oprah said that she wanted “dinners to reflect my heart and spirit.” She also wants a space to be homey enough for “people to feel free to ask for seconds!”
The dining table seats up to ten people and holds two dramatic candelabras.
Cooking With Oprah
Oprah enjoys several different design styles, and her kitchen is an example of this. Unlike other rooms, the kitchen has a rustic style with chicken statues and gentle, wood-colored walls. The wall behind the stove brings in some Tuscan elements.
A Closet That Many Would Dream About
This is only a portion of Oprah’s massive Montecito closet. If you’ve ever wondered how many outfits she has, now you know. Shelves upon shelves of shoes, cardigans, shirts, and purses create no shortage of fashionable options to wear.
Like the rest of her home, Oprah shows off her design and organization skills here. Her shoes and clothing are mainly color-coded. Oak shelves are bathed in a warm light that makes it feel like a studio. And of course, there’s a TV for entertainment.
Orpah’s Preferred Bathtub
During a 1998 interview with Vogue, Oprah expressed how she spend much time looking for the best quality bathtub. “I majored in bathtubs,” she joked. So it’s no surprise that her tub at Montecito is luxurious.
Oprah mentioned that her love of bathrooms came from childhood when she had to clean her family’s single bathtub. Her Montecito bathroom includes a huge circular bathtub and a roomy shower with a seat. And that view of the Santa Ynez mountains is to die for!
A More Muted Living Room
Compared to the other living room, this room’s design is tame. Coral walls and olive green couches are easier on the eyes than the plaid. However, the sheer amount of decorations and ornate pillows adds quite a bit of detail to this room.
Oprah’s Sanctuary
When Oprah bought her Montecito property, it came with a structure built for a rose garden. But that didn’t suit Winfrey’s taste, according to Veranda. Instead, she adorned her garden with lilies, dahlias, daffodils, irises, and honey dijon.
Oprah’s garden was designed by the rose expert Dan Bifano, who also worked for Tom Ford and Barbra Streisand. The entire garden features networks of arches, cypresses, and hedges. It’s no wonder why Oprah called her garden a “sanctuary.”
A $3 Million Statue
If a visitor were to walk the paths around Oprah’s estate, they would come upon an unusual bronze statue. The artwork is called Grupo de quarto Mujeres de Pie and it was made by the Mexican painter and sculptor, Fransisco Zuniga. Reportedly, Oprah paid around $3.1 million for it.
When translated, the statue is called “A Group of Four Standing Women.” Each of the women represents a different stage of life.
Sorry, Oprah didn’t share her bedroom photos with us.
Oscar-nominated actor Ryan O’Neal, who came to prominence on TV’s “Peyton Place” and became a top star of the 1970s in films including “Love Story,” “What’s Up, Doc?,” “Paper Moon” and “Barry Lyndon,” died Friday, his son Patrick said on Instagram. He was 82.
O’Neal was diagnosed with chronic leukemia in 2001 and with prostate cancer in 2012.
In the 1970s, he was a marquee draw. In 1973, he ranked behind only Clint Eastwood in terms of box office draw – and ahead of stars like Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds and Robert Redford.
“Love Story” was the No. 1 film of 1970, grossing $106 million in the U.S. and Canada, and the sixth highest grossing film of all time at that point. The melodramatic romance, based on Erich Segal’s bestselling novel, was also a cultural phenomenon, with its signature line of dialogue, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” spoken both by Ali MacGraw and O’Neal at different times, inspiring parody for decades.
O’Neal was married twice, both time to actresses: Joanna Moore, who died in 1997, and Leigh Taylor-Young. He is survived by daughter Tatum and son Griffin, by Moore; son Patrick, an actor and sportscaster, by Taylor-Young; and son Redmond, from his relationship with Fawcett.
We all know that our online browsing habits are being tracked. Unless you take steps to prevent it, most websites see where you come from, what you are searching for and what you like.
All this data is valuable to sites and services, as they use it to serve targeted advertising. Ever searched for something on Amazon and then seen an ad for a similar product on Facebook? That is targeted advertising at work.
Thankfully, not all websites treat you as a treasure trove of information. You might be pleasantly surprised to find out which sites have the least amount of trackers. But on the other end of the spectrum, the biggest culprits shamefully stuff their sites with hundreds of trackers.
The most invasive sites
SurfShark found 143 trackers on the most invasive website, 92 of which are used for advertising purposes. Tracker counts also vary by category, with Men’s & Women’s Lifestyle websites having the most trackers (59) on average than other categories.
The most invasive sites are:
theChive (143)
Salon (139)
NY Daily News (126)
HGTV (121)
Crooks and Liars (116)
Barstool Sports (116)
LADbible (114)
Adweek (112)
Refinery29 (111)
USA TODAY (104)
How to stop sites from tracking you
If you don’t want websites or services to track you, there are ways to stop them. Here are some suggestions:
Use a VPN to block your location. When you mask where you are from, in most cases you won’t be served ads that relate to your area.
Switch to a secure browser that has additional privacy features. Browsers like Brave have been developed to block sites from tracking you.
Restrict ad tracking in your browser, or block ads completely. In Google Chrome, click on the menu icon and tap Settings. Next, select Privacy & Security and click Cookies and Other Data. Then slide the toggle next to Send “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic to the right to enable it.
Here’s the good news. Websites with the least amount of trackers:
February 2 is Groundhog Day. Groundhogs are small brown furry animals. They live in burrows in the ground, and they eat grass, berries, and other vegetation. Groundhog Day is based on folklore. The folklore is that if the groundhog comes out of its hole and sees its shadow then there will be six more weeks of winter weather. But if the groundhog comes out of its hole and doesn’t see its shadow, then there will be an early spring
The Groundhog Day ceremony is held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering around a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most attended. Grundsow Lodges in Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the southeastern part of the state celebrate them as well. Other cities in the United States and Canada have also adopted the event.
How much do you know about groundhogs? Try this matching quiz to test your knowledge.
These strategic words will get you to those green squares in no time.
Perhaps you’ve heard of the game Wordle? It’s pretty hard to miss these days.
The strategic word game has positively swept the internet in recent weeks. Some are comparing it to baking sourdough as the craze of choice for a new phase of the pandemic. The New York Times liked it enough to cover its backstory at length (spoiler: its creator, a software engineer, made it as a love offering for his partner) …and then buy the game for a sum in the “low seven figures.”
Wordle start words matter (a lot) to serious players determined to flaunt their skills. Even if you’ve never actually played the game. You’re probably pretty familiar with the grid of yellow and green squares its users can display on social media to show just how quickly they solved the puzzle. You get six tries tops. However, devoted fans love to show off their skills when they complete the game in just two or three. (This high-profile score flaunting that has won the game some notoriety among people who choose to be in the anti-Wordle camp.)
Another unique feature of Wordle: Players only get one puzzle a day. (There’s no official option to binge on endless archives — at least for now.) And that means you’re going to want to make sure each play really counts.
What word should I start with in Wordle?
Sure, you could just choose any five-letter start word that strikes your fancy. But did you know that you can also choose strategic Wordle start words that can get you to those green squares even faster (because… math)? Consider these options to improve your next game.
The goal of Wordle is to guess the 5-letter word in 6 tries (or fewer).
Best Wordle start words
If you’ve ever watched Wheel of Fortune, you know that it only makes sense to start out by guessing letters that occur most commonly in the English language.
Google’s director of research Peter Norvig analyzed all the available data from Google Books to generate a list of most commonly used letters in English. His report concluded that the most commonly used letters are E, T, and A. Here’s the top 10 in order:
E
T
A
O
I
N
S
R
H
L Best Wordle starting word mathematically.
So it stands to reason, then, that you’d want to choose a Wordle start word that includes as many of the most common letters as possible, without repeating any.
TikTok user crvlwanek used his computer science know-how (and, evidently, abundant free time) to generate an algorithm that spit out the best Wordle start words based on all past answers to the puzzle so far. These words are:
LATER
ALTER
ALERT
AROSE
IRATE
For more variations on Wordle start word options, consider others that use five of the most commonly used letters without repeating — such as RESIN or NOTES.
One strategy is to choose a Wordle start word that includes as many of the most common letters as possible.
How to win Wordle
Because every word must have a vowel, it’s also a smart strategy to kick off your daily play using a World start word packed with vowels — ideally three or more if possible.
Consider these examples of vowel-packed options:
ADIEU
ABOUT
AISLE
OCEAN
AROSE
Or, if you find it boring to use any version of the same starting word every time — or simply don’t see the point in ruining a perfectly fun pastime with overwrought strategy — just do you instead. Start with whatever word makes you happy… after all, Wordle’s just a game! (And, of course, there’s always sourdough.)
You can throw a legendary Super Bowl party—even when you’re only watching for the commercials. Here’s what to do!
It seems that the best parties in the winter all revolve around football. Even if you don’t love sports, fear not. Throwing a Super Bowl party can be just as fun for the host as it is for sports fans. Stock up on tailgate snacks and slammin’ Super Bowl cocktails and let’s get going!
2 / 10
BRIANNA GRIEPENTROG/TASTE OF HOME
Bring on the Drinks
Football wouldn’t be a great American sport without a great American beverage. Before the party, snag a local beer from the cities of the teams competing or pick up one of our favorite cheap beer brands for your shindig. If they’re not into beer, pick a signature cocktail for each team based on their city, mascot or team colors. Mix up a pitcher of each drink ahead of time with a little splash of food coloring to match each team’s jerseys.
3 / 10
TASTE OF HOME
Do a Dip
Cheesy dips are a staple of any legendary tailgate, and a Super Bowl party is no different. Look for a few creative recipes and choose one that is cheesy, one that is meaty, one that is spicy and one that is vegan to appease all the different taste preferences of your group. Look to these dip recipes for inspiration.
4 / 10
VIA PROPARTYPLANNER/ETSY.COM
Play Some Games
Keep the competition alive with adult party games, like team and city trivia or football bingo. If your guests are more into the ads than the game, this Super Bowl commercial bingo will be sure to bring on some fun. Bake some football-shaped cookies to hand out as prizes.
5 / 10
TASTE OF HOME
Build a Snack Stadium
To be the envy of all your friends (and the star of their Instagram stories) build yourself a snack stadium. Fill a few cardboard boxes or aluminum pans with all your favorite snacks (including some of these healthy Super Bowl recipes, for a well-balanced selection). Make a field out of a frosted cake and place it in the center.
It’s time to kick your cable box, and pricy cable TV bill, to the curb. Thanks to streaming, you don’t need cable or satellite service anymore to watch all of the TV shows, movies, news and sporting events live or on-demand. And if you’re used to your cable box’s DVR, live TV streaming services offer cloud DVRs of their own that work in the same way, no box required. All you need to cut the cord is a good internet connection and the apps built into your smart TV or running on an inexpensive streamer, such as a Roku or Amazon Fire TV.
More Americans than ever are cutting the cable TV cord in favor of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, HBO Max and Hulu. There are thousands of TV shows and movies to stream on-demand, but that’s just the beginning. Direct cable replacement services like Sling TV and YouTube TV start at $25 a month and can stream most of the live channels, sports and news available on your cable box with no contracts to sign, so you can cancel anytime. And if you don’t want to pay at all, numerous other services stream free TV shows, free movies and even live news.
If you’re ready to save, here’s how to cut the cable TV cord and replace it with streaming services. You just need to a good internet connection and the apps built into your smart TV or running on an inexpensive streamer, such as a Roku or Amazon Fire TV. They’ll give you access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and more, as well as numerous free TV streaming options. Here’s how to get started.
Set up a home internet plan with unlimited data, if you can
Even if you cut cable TV, you’ll still need a home internet connection for streaming. Many people get their internet as part of a cable TV bundle, maybe with phone service too. Often your cable company is the same one providing your internet connection, but sometimes you can shop around to multiple internet providers.
You’ll need to find out how much home broadband costs by itself, without a TV bundle. If your bundle is $130 a month, maybe you’ll have to pay $60 for just internet. That leaves $70 of potential savings by cutting cable TV. That’s a lot of money every month to pocket or spend on new streaming services.
Other things to consider as you shop for internet-only plans:
Are you under contract? If so, you’ll have to either wait it out, renegotiate a new internet-only deal with your cable company or eat the early termination fee.
How fast of a connection do you need? Start by pricing out the same speed you have already but keep in mind that with everyone in your home streaming more, you might need a faster connection.
You should get a plan with unlimited data, if available, which can cost more than data-limited plans. Streaming video can really add up.
Which TV shows and channels are your must-haves?
Now it’s time to figure out your TV must-haves. Canceling cable means you’ll need to stream the stuff you normally watch on your cable box.
Make a list of the shows and channels you and your family watch regularly. In some cases, you’ll be able to replace your favorite channel programming with a streaming service such as Netflix or Hulu, but be aware that many current-season episodes won’t be available immediately.
The best option to replace your cable box directly is with a live TV streaming service. Each offers a package of live channels you can watch on a streaming app that, with a bit of a learning curve, works just as well as (or better than) a cable box. They include program guides, cloud DVRs and extras your box can’t deliver including user profiles and mobile streaming. Prices start at $25 a month but to get live local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or PBS) and a package comparable to cable, you’ll need to pay at least $65 per month. For premium shows, HBO ($15 a month), Showtime ($11) and Starz ($9) all have standalone services, too.
The best part about any of the services above? Unlike cable, you can cancel and restart service anytime without contracts or penalties. You can subscribe to follow a particular show, for example, and then cancel after the finale.
Try to replace your DVR’d shows with streaming options
Do you use your cable box’s DVR a lot? Live TV streaming services offer a “cloud DVR,” but they do have some limitations compared to TiVo or the DVR from your cable company. They often have storage limits, shows that expire after a certain time, limitations on which channels can be recorded, and some even force you to watch commercials. YouTube TV has the best cloud DVR we’ve tested, and in most ways it’s as good as TiVo, but other services’ cloud DVRs aren’t as good.
Thanks to on-demand, however, you might not miss your DVR much at all. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and others let you watch shows on-demand — often the same shows you’re using your DVR to record. And live TV services such as YouTube TV and Sling TV offer a lot of on-demand shows, and you can often pause or even skip commercials. On the other hand, every episode of every show might not be available.
Use a streaming device: smart TV, game console, Roku, Fire Stick or Apple TV
You won’t need that cable box anymore, but you will need some kind of streaming device to watch services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max. Maybe the app is built into your smart TV, maybe into your game console, or maybe you have to buy a new streaming device like a Roku or a Fire Stick. In any case you’ll also need to connect such a device to each TV that’s currently connected to a cable box.
At least they’re relatively cheap and you don’t have to pay the cable company every month to rent one. And with most services you can also watch on your phone, tablet or computer.
Do you care about watching sports?
Sports fans have an increasing number of streaming options that show live games but depending on which sport(s) you follow, the local team(s) in your area and how many games you want to watch, it can get costly. Channels devoted to pro basketball, hockey and baseball teams, known as RSNs (regional sports networks), are available on most cable networks but are rare and expensive on streaming services. These are the channels you’ll need to watch most regular season games for those sports.
Do a trial run before you cut the cord for good
Cutting the cable cord can save you a lot of money but you’ll need to do some planning to make the transition as painless as possible. It pays to get all your streaming ducks in a row before you make that final fateful call to your cable provider.
Go through your checklist and figure out which services you need to subscribe to and which devices you’ll need to get. Install everything on your main TV, unplug your cable box and get used to using streaming instead. Familiarize yourself first, then move on to helping other members of your household.
Chances are you’ll experience some bumps along the way. The menu systems on some streaming services are different, the remote controls on devices are different, even the lack of channel numbers and need to use search can be tough to grok. Give it time and patience, however, and it will be fine.
Ready? It’s time to cancel your cable service
After you’ve lived with streaming for a while and have grown comfortable with the process of clicking on an app rather than firing up your cable box, it’s time to make the fateful call. Your cable provider might offer you incentives to stick around and you’ll have to weigh those against the benefits of cutting the cord, but do so carefully. Especially if the offer is contingent on signing a two-year contract. A lot can change in two years and with the freedom of streaming, it’s simply a lot easier to save money than with cable.
In the end, cutting cable TV isn’t for everyone. No single device or service has as many channels as a premium cable package. Juggling different services to find the shows you want to watch can be more effort than some people are willing to put in.
On the other hand, cutting cable is getting easier with every new option that hits the market. Beyond the savings, you get the freedom of being able to pick and choose the service you want — and drop it like a hot potato if you don’t like it anymore, your favorite show ends or something new comes along. Cutting cable is all about choice and if you do it right, you’ll never miss that old cable box.
Damian Lewis penned a touching tribute to his wife, Helen McCrory. The piece was published by The Sunday Times, following McCrory’s death earlier this week.
The actress — best known for her roles as Narcissa Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise and Polly Gray in Peaky Blinders — died of cancer. She was 52.
“Many people have spoken about her career and many more will, so that’s where I’ll leave it, because it strikes me that two things are happening this weekend: an outpouring of grief and shock, and a celebration of Helen McCrory the actress from fans everywhere, and of Helen the person,” Lewis wrote. “And that’s who I want to talk about.”
“Helen was an even more brilliant person than she was an actress,” he continued. “She was a people person, sure. ‘I’m much more interested in who I’m with than where I am,’ she would say, and innately wanted to share. But she also lived by the principle of kindness and generosity. That you put these things out into the world to make it better, to make people feel better.”
Lewis and McCrory had been married since 2007 and shared two children together — 14-year-old daughter Mannon and 13-year-old son Gulliver. The actor said on Friday that his wife had died peacefully at home.
In his piece for The Sunday Times, Lewis remembered how McCrory “spread happiness.” “Even when dying in her last few days, when talking to our wonderful carers, she repeatedly said, ‘thank you so much’ in her half delirious state,” he wrote.
Lewis said he already missed his wife, who “shone more brightly in the last months than you would imagine even the brightest star could shine.”
“I’m staggered by her,” he added of McCrory. “She’s been a meteor in our life.”
McCrory will be remembered by both those who worked alongside her and those who admired her work. On Saturday, Tom Felton, who played McCrory’s son in the Harry Potter films, said goodbye.
“So sad to say farewell so suddenly – I never took the chance to tell her, but she helped shape me as a person so much – on & off screen,” Felton expressed. “She was always relentlessly herself- razor sharp wit – silver tongued – kind & warm hearted – she suffered no fools yet had time for everyone – thank you for lighting the way forward & holding my hand when I needed it xx.”
