Flu shots work, and are a smart way to reduce the chances that you’ll end up sick this winter (especially if you get the new COVID booster too while you’re at it). But that’s not the impression you might get if you listen to the rumor mill, online or otherwise.

Flu shot myths abound, and it’s time to put the four biggest ones to rest.

Myth: The flu shot doesn’t work

The flu vaccine isn’t perfect, but you’re still better off getting it than not. In a good year, the flu vaccine is about 70 percent effective; if we’re unlucky, the rate can dip lower, but it still offers some protection.

Last year’s flu shot was 59%-67% effective for kids and 33%-49% effective for adults. (There were multiple studies done, which the CDC collected in a report here.) The exact effectiveness varies from year to year, with better years over 60% effective overall, and less-good years closer to 25%. We won’t know the effectiveness of this year’s shots until flu season is over, but clearly flu shots reduce the odds that you’ll get the flu, and they also prevent hospitalizations from severe cases.

The CDC has the receipts on all the ways flu shots result in people being healthier and at less risk of severe illness or death. They highlight research that confirms that flu vaccines result in less flu illness, reduced risk of hospitalizations from the flu, reduced risk of heart and lung disease in people with those health conditions, reduced flu illness in people who are pregnant (while also protecting their babies after birth), and significantly reduced risk of children dying from the flu. Plus, the shot helps to prevent the spread of flu—so even if you aren’t worried about your own health, getting a flu shot means it’s harder for the virus to use you as a stepping stone to infect others.

So why are flu shots not always effective? Other vaccines have better track records; the measles vaccine is 97 percent effective, for example, in children who get both of the recommended doses. Here are a few reasons the flu vaccine is an odd case:

• There isn’t just one type of flu. Flu viruses mutate a lot, so we need a new shot every year. The people who make flu shots have to choose in the spring which strains should go in the shot for that fall and winter, and if they guess wrong, the shot will be less effective. (That’s what happened in 2014, when the shot was only 23% effective.)

• Some people don’t respond well to the vaccine. Flu shots are less effective in children under age 2, and adults over 65 (although high-dose, adjuvanted, and recombinant shots can make up some of that gap for older adults). Other factors and health conditions can affect how well you’ll respond.

Because effectiveness varies so much, scientists, including those at the CDC, keep tabs on what strains of flu are circulating and how the vaccine currently fares against them. When they change their recommendations it can look like a flip-flop, but they’re really just staying on top of the best available information. For example, nasal flu vaccines were pulled from the market for a few years because they were’t providing enough protection, but the current version of that vaccine is improved enough that it’s recommended for the general public once again.

Myth: I don’t need a flu shot

Depending on the year, about 8% of Americans get the flu each year. The people at greatest risk of getting sick or dying from the flu are young children, the elderly, and people with underlying health problems. But healthy people are just less likely to get seriously ill; they’re not invincible.

Flu symptoms can include fever, cough, and sore throat, so they’re similar to the symptoms of colds, COVID, and other respiratory illnesses. That means plenty of people think they’ve had the flu when really they’ve had something else. Ask anyone who’s had a confirmed case of influenza: flu knocks you on your ass, with fatigue and body aches that last a week or more.

And, not to get too morbid, but people really do die from the flu: Last year, 5,944 of them. In general this figure can be anywhere between 3,300 to 49,000 per year. For comparison, around 30,000 people die in car crashes.

There’s another important reason to get a flu shot, even if you’re healthy: Every person who is susceptible to the flu is a stepping stone the virus can use to reach the elderly and sick. Those people are the most vulnerable to flu complications like pneumonia—and the most likely to die from flu.

Myth: The flu shot can give you the flu

This is a persistent myth, and it’s just plain wrong. Flu shots do not contain fully functioning flu viruses. Depending on which version of the flu vaccine you get, it contains either:

• Chopped up flu viruses (most of the injectable vaccines)

• An isolated protein from the flu virus (recombinant vaccines)

• An attenuated (weakened) version of the flu virus that can only survive in your nose (the nasal vaccine).

That last one is the only flu vaccine that has an actual virus that can replicate. But it still cannot give you the flu, since the flu is a full-body illness, and the attenuated virus in the nasal spray cannot survive, replicate, or grow in your lungs or other parts of your body. It replicates in your nose, triggers an immune response, and then it’s gone. In rare cases the nasal flu vaccine can give people a mild flu-like illness, but it cannot cause full-blown flu.

I know some folks reading this will swear that they, or someone they know, totally got the flu from the flu shot once. But remember, we tend to misremember and misunderstand our own experiences. You may remember getting sick, figure that was “the flu”, and blame the flu shot you got. You may also have gotten the actual flu, and blamed the shot for giving it to you rather than remembering the shot is only partially effective.

If you got a flu shot, and then came down with a case of the definite actual flu, here’s what may have happened:

• Maybe the shot didn’t work for you, that time. Like we said above, it’s not perfect.

• Maybe you got very mild flu-like symptoms after the shot. This isn’t super common but it happens—and it’s not the actual flu. Remember, flu tends to be pretty long-lasting and severe. A fever or cough that develops as a reaction to the flu shot won’t last more than a day or so.

• Maybe you didn’t get the shot soon enough. You’re not fully protected until two weeks after you get the shot, so it’s possible to catch the flu in the meantime.

Overall, side effects from the flu shot are minimal to nonexistent for most people. If there’s a reason the shot might be risky for you, your doctor or the person who administers your shot will be able to discuss this with you. For example, infants under six months and people with life-threatening allergies to ingredients of the vaccine should not get the shot. It’s recommended for almost everyone else.

Myth: It’s not the right time to get a shot

September might seem too early to get a flu shot, since the disease isn’t really circulating yet. But remember, if you wait to get the shot until everyone you know is getting sick, you might get infected before the vaccine has a chance to take effect.

The CDC says that the best time to get your flu shot is in September or October, so that you’re protected in case flu season starts early, and your protection will last through the months that the flu is most commonly circulating. That’s right now, and there’s no such thing as too late to get a flu shot, as long as pharmacies still have it in stock.

The only real caveat is that getting the flu shot early—in July or August, when pharmacies first get it in stock—may make actually sense for some people:

• People who are in their third trimester of pregnancy during that time should get a shot to protect their baby as well as themselves (some of those antibodies will stay with the baby after birth)

• Children who need two doses should get the first shot in late summer so that they can get the second shot closer to flu season.

• Anybody who might not be able to get their flu shot during September or October should get it whenever they can. Better early (or late) than never.

The rest of us should get the shot as soon as it’s convenient, with a goal of getting it done by Halloween. If you forget, though, and find that everyone around you is getting sick in January, you should still go ahead and get the shot then. It will still protect you for however much of the flu season remains.

Remember the two week delay, though: If everyone around you is sick and you go get your shot after they cough on you, you could get sick anyway, because the shot wasn’t there in time to protect you. That’s why earlier is better. You’re less likely to get sick, and less likely to fall prey to this particular myth.

Like them or not, ads run the world. They’re the reason so much content out there is free of charge—or, at least, less expensive. But while it’s one thing to watch an ad before jumping into a YouTube video, or to see ads surrounding an article, it’s another thing entirely to be forced to see ads even when you’re not engaging with the product.

That, apparently, is what’s going on with LG TVs right now. While anyone with a smart TV may be familiar with seeing more ads throughout their television experience, LG is taking things up a notch” Now, the company is displaying ads during screensavers. I guess leaving your TV idle isn’t “free” anymore.

FlatpanelsHD made the discovery when reviewing LG’s G4 OLED TV. These ads display in full-screen before reverting back to the screensaver you expect to see. FlatpanelsHD saw full-screen ads for LG Channels, LG’s free streaming service that includes ads, but confirmed through LG there can be advertisements from third-party partners as well.

While FlatpanelsHD may have been among the first to see these ads in the wild, they aren’t a secret. In fact, LG Ad Solutions announced the initiative on Sept. 5, in a post titled “Idle Time Isn’t Wasted Time — LG Ad Solutions Finds that Screensaver Ads Are In Fact Effective.” The program even has a name, “Native Screensaver Ads,” and runs across the Home Screen, LG Channels, and Content Store on LG Smart TVs. According to the announcement, Native Screensaver Ads turn “what may be perceived as a period of downtime into a valuable engagement opportunity.” Cool.

LG Ad Solutions is very excited about the initiative, claiming that these targeted ads boost customer engagement in multiple categories. The idea is, people don’t leave the room when the TV is idle anymore: They’re doing other things, like messaging, playing games, or shopping. Displaying ads on a giant screen in their peripheral vision, then, means that companies like LG can try to capture a different kind of audience.

That’s all well and good, but to me, and I’d wager a lot of people, the idea is just a step too far. I didn’t buy my LG TV to encourage me to buy stuff: I purposefully watch shows and movies on it (and play the occasional game). It’s insulting to think I want to leave my TV running in the background at all times, and be fine with constant, targeted ads in my space. If you feel the same, the good news is there’s a way to block these ads in the first place.

How to disable LG screensaver ads

If you have an LG smart TV, head to your device’s Settings, then choose Additional Settings. If your TV is affected, you should see a Screen Saver Promotion option. Disable it, and you should be spared from idle encouragements to shop.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2024 — Today, the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce released a report outlining recommendations to enhance community-led economic development by creating jobs in the sustainable forest product sector and outdoor recreation while supporting healthy, resilient forests.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for September 27, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 27, Wordle #1,196! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

There are four common letters from our mnemonic today. The fifth is somewhat common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

Trust or belief in something or someone.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There are no repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There are two vowels.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with F. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with H. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is FAITH.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE then tried PAINT, which was a possible solution and also helped eliminate common consonants. This left FAITH as the best answer.

Wordle 1,196 3/6

⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “part of a phrase expressing appreciation” and the answer contained four common letters and one somewhat common letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was THANK.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

When you’re training for a race, a good training plan is key. With a plan, you’ll have all your runs planned out for you, with just the right mix of long runs, speed work, and easy mileage to get you to the start line strong and ready. But what do you do when the plan doesn’t match up with your life? You get sick and miss a week, or you realize too late you started on the wrong date. Or the plan calls for something you just can’t make happen on schedule, like a tune-up race. 

“What do I do???” I hear you wailing. Well, don’t worry. I’ll tell you what you do: you do your best to follow the plan, without letting any feelings of guilt or nervousness take over. Missed workouts are in the past, and you’ll move on without trying to make them up. For the most part, anyway. Let’s look at a few scenarios where you might have questions. But first—let’s zoom out so we can see the big picture.

Understand what your training plan is trying to do

Before we can talk about whether to do this or that run off-schedule, we need to get our bearings and understand what each part of the training plan is trying to do. I’m going to describe the phases in a typical marathon training program, and they apply to most hard training programs, including those for half marathons. There are a few different phases over the course of what’s usually a 12- to 18-week plan, and they’re laid out something like this:

The beginning

What it is: Several weeks where you run a similar number of miles per week to what you were used to doing before you started this program. During this on-ramp phase, the program will challenge you to keep a consistent training routine, and add some extra distance to your long runs and perhaps some extra speed work or strength training that you had previously been neglecting. This may or may not feel like its own phase; it may just be the beginning of the build. 

How you’ll feel: You’ll feel pretty good during this phase.

Your biggest priority in this phase: Sticking to the program and preparing for the work to come.

The build

What it is: A nice long stretch focused on building up your mileage, both in the long run and in total weekly mileage. This is the longest phase of the program, perhaps six to eight weeks long. 

How you’ll feel: You’ll experience some fatigue, sore muscles, and maybe some blisters or minor injuries—but these tend to be pretty mild and overall you’re feeling OK.

Your biggest priority in this phase: Keeping up with the increases and taking care of your body (good nutrition, shoes, etc.) so that you can stay healthy and keep training.

The peak

What it is: This is the three to four weeks or so when mileage is highest, workouts are hardest, and the fatigue is really starting to catch up with you. If it’s a marathon program, you’re probably doing some 18+ mile long runs. If your race is a half marathon or less, you’re probably doing long runs that are longer than your race. 

How you’ll feel: Somewhere between “pretty rough, but hanging in there” and “frankly, I feel like shit.” 

Your biggest priority in this phase: Surviving.

The taper

What it is: After all that hard work, you finally get a break. The long runs are suddenly a lot shorter, and you’ll find yourself running a lot less mileage than you were during the peak. This phase is often about three weeks long for a marathon, and one to two weeks for a half marathon. For shorter races it may be just a few easy days so you can rest up before race day.

How you’ll feel: Often this is when you feel the worst, because all of that fatigue has built up, but you haven’t had enough of a break yet to feel rested. It’s also very normal to go a little crazy as you start wondering whether your training was really good enough and whether you’re really ready for your race. But this is all part of the plan, and if you stick with it you’ll feel like a million bucks on race day. 

Your biggest priority in this phase: Recovery. Or to put it another way: following the damn program, and not giving in to the temptation to go run an extra 20-miler or a race-pace workout “just to be sure” that you can. 

General rules for modifying your training program when life intervenes

With those phases in mind, it becomes a lot easier to figure out what to do when something messes with your schedule. Here are some very general rules to follow in every phase:

• It’s OK to rearrange workouts. For example, if you can’t do your long run on Saturday, go ahead and move it to Friday or Sunday. 

• Prioritize your “key” workouts (long runs, speed work) and try not to miss those. If you have to miss a run for scheduling/life reasons, make it an easy run. 

• Don’t try to make up missed runs, especially if you were sick and/or had to miss multiple sessions. Pick up where you left off. And give yourself some grace those first few days back—take it easy and do what you can.

• Make sure the program ends on race day. The taper works genuine magic if you time it right, and the peak is what sets up the taper. Don’t mess with the timing of those last few weeks. 

• Nobody’s perfect. If you manage to do 90% of the program as written, you’re still on track and you’ll do great at the race.

Got it? Now let’s tackle some specific questions. These are all taken from running forums, subreddits, and coaches’ anecdotes about what questions they get most often. A coach or experienced friend is the best resource, since they know you and you can discuss the specifics of your situation, but if you’re just looking for general advice, here goes:

I started the program too early, and now I have extra time to fill. Should I repeat some of the weeks?

That depends on where you are in the program. Do not repeat weeks in the taper. That’s meant to be a short, sharp decrease in mileage. Stretching it out will rob it of its power. (Tapers are magic, I swear.) 

You also do not want to repeat hard weeks in the peak. Remember, that’s the highest fatigue part of the program, and you’re just trying to hang in there and not let it kill you. If the program is designed to have one 20-mile training run, it is foolishness to try to run two in a row. 

(There are, of course, exceptions to these rules. Some people might benefit from a longer taper, or have the fitness to do an extra long run and recover from it without too much trouble. But I’m trying to keep my advice general, and most people who say “fuck it, I’ll do an extra long run” will end up regretting it.)

So what can you do? I’d recommend these approaches, in this order of preference: 

1. Extend the beginning or build phases. You can certainly repeat week five of a 16-week program, no sweat. Feel free to make the repeated week(s) slightly different, maybe decreasing the long run by a mile or two, or doing hills instead of track repeats. Just try to keep it within the spirit of what that phase of training is trying to accomplish.

2. Add cutback weeks during the peak or late build phases. If you’re already in the peak phase when you notice your scheduling mishap, add an easy week in between some of the hard weeks. For example, the Level 3 Boston Marathon program has a 17-20 mile run in week 16, followed by 18-20 in week 17. You could insert a week in between where your long run is 13 miles or so, to give you a little bit of a break. Or say you’re following a Hal Higdon program that alternates between 20-mile and 12-mile long runs during the peak. Add an extra repeat of that cycle, maybe doing 16 or 18 rather than another 20-miler (since multiple 20’s is a lot), and following it with a 12 according to the pattern.

When in doubt, make the added week easier than the weeks before and after it. Your body will appreciate the extra recovery.

What if I don’t have a “tune-up race” to run? 

Some training plans will throw in a race partway through the program. A marathon program might have you race a half marathon in the middle of your training. A half marathon might have you race a 10K. 

Ideally this will be an actual race. You’ll sign up for the My Town 10K and have to figure out all your race day logistics: how early to wake up, what to eat, whether you want to carry your phone, and so on. You’ll also have the pressure of a timed course (no free pauses for water breaks) and the adrenaline rush of a crowd cheering you on. 

Having to deal with all that bullshit is half the point of doing a tune-up race. The other half is getting a chance to see how fast you can really run, and then you can use that result to help you decide what pace to target for your big race. (Plug in your race time here to see your predicted times at other distances.)

But maybe there isn’t a 10K in your town that weekend. Here are, in my opinion, your best options: 

1. Find a race of the correct (or similar) distance on a different weekend. Usually this isn’t a part of the training program where the timing is super critical. If you can get the full race day experience a week or two earlier or later, go ahead and swap things around to make that happen.

2. Run a time trial. This is just a race that you do on your own. There won’t be a crowd or a bib pickup table, but you can still test your fitness over the programmed distance. Reward yourself with a stale post-race bagel for verisimilitude.

3. Just do a regular long run. Usually the tune-up race takes the place of your weekend long run. Look at the weeks before and after it on the calendar, and ask yourself “if there wasn’t a race here, what would it be instead?” Make your best guess, and then do that. 

What if I have 12 miles programmed, but I really want to race a 5K or join a friend for a short run that day? 

This is the opposite of the dilemma above. There isn’t a race scheduled, but you want to do one anyway. Or some other scenario where you’ll be running, but not hitting the programmed distance.

The simplest answer is just: run a loooong warmup and cooldown. Three real easy miles before the 5K shouldn’t ruin the race for you; in fact, you’ll probably feel nicely warmed up by the time you get to the start line. And then you can do the other six miles as an extended cooldown. 

Same idea if you’re meeting a friend for a run. If they want to do a nice easy five-miler, you can do seven before they show up, run your last five with them, and then go to brunch together. 

If the race is a longer one—say, a 10K—you can also just treat it as a tune-up race. Run it all-out, and don’t bother making up the mileage. Depending on where you are in the program, a race and a long run might be too much to recover from. 

You wouldn’t want to do this every week, but once or twice in your training plan isn’t the end of the world. 

I missed my longest run, and now it’s taper time! Should I squeeze in a 20-miler real quick? 

You know the answer to this one by now: no. The taper is for recovery. Also, my god, you have no idea how many people miss their last 20-miler and then do absolutely fine at their marathon. 

I ran all my long runs, but some of them went really badly. I think I can redo my last 16-miler, but do it better this time. How do I—

That’s the neat thing, you don’t.

What if I am a special snowflake and believe these rules don’t apply to me? 

Honestly: maybe you’re right.  A cookie-cutter program is not guaranteed to be perfect for everyone. Just promise me something: whatever “bad” decisions you make, learn from them. Maybe you think you’ll be fine with a shorter taper. If you truly want to test that hypothesis, shorten your taper! Keep notes. And then see how you do in the race. 

Just remember that this kind of self-experimentation works best if you do the program as written your first time around, and then tweak it when you run your next race. You’re learning how you respond to training, which is an incredibly valuable skill as you grow as an athlete.

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for September 26, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is easier; I got it in three. Beware, there are spoilers below for September 26, Wordle #1,195! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today’s Wordle game.

How to play Wordle

Wordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.

Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if they’re correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn’t in the day’s secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

We’ll define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters’ phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it “Edwin Shirdloo,” like a name, and pretend he’s a friend of yours.)

There are four common letters from our mnemonic today. The fifth is somewhat common.

Can you give me a hint for today’s Wordle?

Part of a phrase expressing appreciation.

Does today’s Wordle have any double or repeated letters?

There are no repeated letters today. 

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with T. 

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with K. 

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is THANK.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE and TOUCH, which left THANK as the best solution.

Wordle 1,195 3/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “this is carried to the Olympics” and the answer contained four common letters and one pretty common letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was TORCH.

A primer on Wordle basics

The idea of Wordle is to guess the day’s secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, you’ll see an empty grid of letters. It’s up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word. 

Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word: Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and it’s in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)

• Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)

• Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)

With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then it’s game over.

The best starter words for Wordle

What should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that’s still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn’t a single “best” starting word, but the New York Times’s Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:

• CRANE

• TRACE

• SLANT

• CRATE

• CARTE

Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you’ll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:

• SALET

• REAST

• TRACE

• CRATE

• SLATE

Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it’s better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.

How to win at Wordle

We have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if you’re a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.

The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, don’t waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.

One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldn’t have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.

Wordle alternatives

If you can’t get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:

• Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after another

• Dordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.

• Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.

• Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.

• Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.

• Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the day’s solution. You’re required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

To stave off winter illness, now is a great time for all of us—especially older adults—to get updated flu and COVID shots. If you are over 65, you may want to consider a high-dose or adjuvanted version of the flu shot. These formulations are recommended for older adults, since they may be more effective. (That said, the CDC says the regular flu shot is fine if you can’t conveniently access the preferred formulations for your age group.)

Which are the preferred flu shots for older adults?

These are the three shots that the CDC recommends getting, if you can, if you are 65 or older:

• A high-dose flu shot.

• A recombinant flu shot, which also happens to be egg-free.

• An adjuvanted flu shot.

I’ll walk you through what these terms mean, and why these shots are considered to be better for older adults. But you don’t need an in-depth understanding of the differences to make an appointment at your local pharmacy. Just ask whether they have any of the vaccines above, and if they do, get one of those in preference to the other, “regular” flu shots.

What does “high dose” mean, and why is that a good thing?

The way a vaccine works is to expose your immune system to a little bit of antigen. The antigen is something that the immune system can recognize and later respond to; in many flu vaccines, the antigen is an influenza virus that has been killed and ripped into pieces. (That’s why the flu shot cannot give you the flu.)

As we age, our immune system sometimes doesn’t respond as strongly as it did when we were younger, so a regular flu vaccine may not spur as strong an immune response as we need for the vaccine to be effective. One way around this is to just give more antigen. That’s the idea behind the high-dose shot: it just contains more of those virus pieces. Specifically, four times more.

Side effects are slightly more common with the high-dose flu vaccine than with the regular kind, but they’re the same types of side effects anyone might get from a flu shot, and like the regular flu shot, they are not usually serious. The CDC says: “The most common adverse events experienced during clinical studies were mild and temporary, and included pain, redness at the injection site, headache, muscle aches, and malaise.”

What does “adjuvanted” mean?

Instead of a high-dose flu vaccine, another extra-strength option for older adults is an adjuvanted vaccine. Instead of a higher dose of the antigen, it contains an adjuvant, which is an ingredient that makes your immune system react more strongly. (The adjuvant in this case is squalene oil, also called MF59.)

Like the high dose vaccine, adverse effects for this vaccine are slightly more common than with a standard flu vaccine, but do not tend to be serious. The CDC says: “The most common adverse events experienced during clinical studies were mild to moderate and were temporary, and included pain, redness at the injection site, headache, muscle aches, and malaise.”

What is a “recombinant” flu shot?

The term “recombinant” refers to the way the virus particles were manufactured for the vaccine. Traditionally, flu vaccines were made with a process that involved chicken eggs. There is also a newer, cell-culture-based vaccine that does not use eggs. And then there is a third type: the recombinant vaccine.

As the CDC explains, a recombinant vaccine doesn’t use flu viruses at all in its manufacturing. Instead, a portion of the flu virus’s genome is added to a different type of virus (“recombinant” means that different bits of genetic material are combined together) and this virus is grown in cells and then the portion that contains the influenza virus protein is purified out and used to make the vaccine.

The recombinant vaccine is available for all age groups, not just older adults. It is one of the preferred vaccines for older adults because it contains more antigen than the other, regular flu vaccines, and has been shown to work well for older adults.

If I’m over 65, do I need a special flu shot?

The CDC says that any flu shot is fine if it’s been approved for people in your age group. But there are three flu vaccines that are specifically for adults who are 65 and older.

There haven’t been randomized studies comparing these three vaccines to each other, the CDC says, but there is evidence showing that each vaccine works better for people over 65 (preventing cases of the flu, and reducing hospital admissions) than the standard vaccine.

Complications of the flu are especially likely to be serious in older people, with those over 65 accounting for more than half of hospitalizations and more than 70% of deaths according to a 2013 study. Therefore, flu shots are especially important in this age range.