Words

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words shall never hurt me. — children’s rhyme

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That old kids’ rhyme may still be an effective retort to verbal bullies but it is not true in a literal sense. Words hurt, of course, and they hurt relentlessly, cruelly and sometimes irreversibly.

On the other hand, words also can bring pleasure as surely as food, drink, stories and sex.

Thus for many of us, word games are among our favorite daily habits.

The venerable Scrabble and the addictive Wordle are two of my personal favorites. For years, two of my sons competed in “Words With Friends.”

And then there are Semantle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle, Nerdle, and hello wordl, among many others.

Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle says “What’s fun about Wordle, I think, is what you can tease out, based on what you know about language. What the word should be.”

Some of what goes wrong in our national and international dialogues can be traced to words and what they should mean. Political and military opponents often seem to be talking right past each other.

Certainly this is the case between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East.

But back to Wordle, where I’ve won 97 percent of the time, which is fairly good but not great.

During my recent trip to Arizona to visit my three sisters, one revealing moment found all four of us drinking coffee or tea and playing Wordle at the same time.

It must be in the genes.

(This is from 2022.)

HEADLINES:

• U.S. Seizes Tanker Off Venezuela (NYT)

• 3 separate US strikes on alleged drug boats have initially left survivors. Each time they’ve been treated differently (CNN)

• Inside the Pentagon’s Scramble to Deal With Boat Strike Survivors (NYT)

• Trump’s New Imperialism (Atlantic)

• Fed Cuts Rates Again, Is Divided Over Future Moves (NYT)

• The Supreme Court is handing Donald Trump more power (Economist)

• House Passes $900 Billion Bill That Would Put Trump’s Stamp on Military (NYT)

• Exclusive: U.S. businesses are getting throttled by the drop in tourism from Canada: ‘I can count the number of Canadian visitors on one hand’ (Fortune)

• Judge blocks Trump administration from deploying California National Guard members in Los Angeles (CBS)

• The Economics of Immigration (WSJ)

• Immigrant students experience more bullying as ICE raids cause ‘culture of fear’, says survey (Guardian)

• US threatens new ICC sanctions unless the court pledges not to prosecute Trump (Reuters)

• 2 Democrats, 2 strategies: Texas Senate race shows party split on Trump-focus in midterm elections (AP)

• Paramount fights Netflix for Warner Bros—and the future of Hollywood (Economist)

• Australia’s Social Media Ban for Children Takes Effect (NYT)

• All of the ways we remember: How data scientists hold memory with and for survivors (Structural Zero)

• Marjorie Taylor Greene’s boyfriend has had a weird month (WP)

• Judge rules Epstein grand jury records from 2019 case can be released (BBC)

• Scientists Thought Parkinson’s Was in Our Genes. It Might Be in the Water (Wired)

• America’s New Enemies List: Trump’s NSPM-7 Turns Dissent Into Domestic Terrorism (Daily Kos)

• We guarantee the death of most remaining newsrooms (Nieman)

• There’s a better way to play with your cat (WP)

• Pete Hegseth’s New AI Defense Tool Rollout Immediately Derails (TNR)

• OpenAI Is in Trouble (Atlantic)

• Google launches sub-$5 AI Plus plan in India to compete with ChatGPT Go (TechCrunch)

• Why the A.I. Boom Is Unlike the Dot-Com Boom (NYT)

• Fraternity Under Investigation After Forcing Pledges To Volunteer At Soup Kitchen (Onion)