It’s easy. It’s fun. It’s addictive.

If you are not me (which chances are, you aren’t) you know all about Wordle already.  I only learned of it from our friend Steve McCormick last evening and whamo! I’m hooked.  But as Will Shortz, editor of the NYT Crossword recently said, “What’s nice about Wordle is how simple, pleasant and attractive the computer interface is.  Limiting players to six guesses per day and rationing out one puzzle per day adds excitement to the solving process. It’s a great puzzle, and it doesn’t take long to play, which makes it perfect for our age when people have short attention spans.”

The game was created last October by Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer as a gift for his partner and it exploded in popularity.  In less than two months, 300,000 people were playing it and on January 31st — just seven days ago —  the New York Times  acquired Wordle for an “undisclosed price in the low seven figures” according a recent NYT announcement.

Jalak Shah and Josh Wardle

To join the fun, all you have to do is visit the Wordle website, where you will be greeted five-wide by a six-long grid of empty, white boxes. Each box can hold one letter, and so you guess at the answer by typing in a five-letter word and pressing Enter. The best news of all (say I, a recent and instantaneous Wordle convert) is that now Wordle will be free to play for new and existing players.

So far (and bearing in mind that I have won my first and only game so far)  I think it’s the perfect way to start the day.  Thanks, Steve!