JACK REANEY, Staff Writer—
He could have gone to sleep instead.
Minutes after Wednesday, March 23 became Thursday, March 24, 2022, Denison senior Henry Burnett pulled out his phone to visit one of the hottest websites of early 2022: Wordle.
“I start with a random word every time, whatever pops into my creative cranium,” said Burnett. “As I typed in the letters to make the word ‘CHEST’, something felt great about it. It has a vowel, and good consonant combinations.”
Playing the once-a-day New York Times’ Wordle, a player has six chances to guess the five-letter “word of the day”; it’s the same English word for everyone in the world, changing when the clock strikes midnight in “The Big Apple”. After one’s first guess, the interface shows if they’ve got the right letter in the right spot by highlighting it green, or the right letter in the wrong spot by highlighting it yellow. If a letter stays gray, it’s not part of the word. With up to six guesses, players often figure out the word by their fourth or fifth guess.
At 12:12 AM, Henry threw a dart in the dark. CHEST. Bulls eye.
“I hit enter, and the rest was history,” said Henry, who quickly shared the accomplishment with a group chat called “wordle buddies”, composed of ten Denison seniors.
MIDNIGHT WORDLE LFG, wrote Burnett. HOLY SH**
“It felt like trying ice cream for the first time; my brain could not comprehend the exponential levels of serotonin racing throughout my mind and body.”
According to the app’s source code, 12,972 words are accepted as “valid” five-letter words. Henry Burnett had a .00771% chance of typing “CHEST”, but by leveraging his Global Commerce degree with Portuguese bilinguacy, he did it.
“My message to all the Wordle players is not to give up. One day this can happen to you!”
Mr. Burnett is not taking any further questions at this time.