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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Sunday, June 30, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for June 30, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is harder; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 30, Wordle #1,107! 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.)

Three of today's letters are from our mnemonic. One is fairly common, and one is uncommon.

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

As a proper noun, the name of an elf.

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

There is one repeated letter today.

How many vowels are in today’s Wordle?

There is one vowel and one "sometimes" vowel.

What letter does today’s Wordle start with?

Today’s word starts with B.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with Y.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is BUDDY.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE and TOUCH, which yielded only one letter. I went with PYLON next, then tried GAMED to eliminate consonants that were common in possible solutions. This left only a few words, of which BUDDY was the most common.

Wordle 1,107 5/6

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was medium difficult. The hint was “like a horse, but always black and white” and the answer contained three common letters, one fairly common letter, and one uncommon letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was ZEBRA.

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.

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My Seven Favorite Productivity Methods in One Efficient List

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My Seven Favorite Productivity Methods in One Efficient List

A good productivity method can mean the difference between a disorganized, unfulfilling day and one during which you get a lot done and feel great about it. That tradeoff is why so many of these methods, techniques, and hacks exist.

That said, not every productivity method will work for every person. To find the one that works best for you, take a look through this guide to seven of my favorites. Try one that sounds like a strong match for how you think and work (or try to avoid work).

The “Action Method” of productivity

This method is one of my favorites for keeping on task when I’m juggling multiple projects. It calls on you to organize your tasks into three categories: Action steps, references, and back-burners. Once you’ve done that, you put it all into a spreadsheet with those three categories as the column headers. You slot tasks into each column alongside notes, supplemental material, and whatever else you need—and move them around as they change their designations, as what is a back-burner today might be an action step tomorrow. Organizing it all this way helps you keep on top of the most pressing needs.

Here’s a full explanation of how to employ the Action Method. (The “ABC” method is very similar, with “A” tasks being must-do and high-priority, “B” tasks being should-do activities, and “C” tasks being low-priority ones.)

The 3-3-3 productivity method

Using this technique, you aim to plan your day in threes: Spend your first three hours engaging in deep work on your most important project, then complete three other urgent tasks that require less time, and then do three “maintenance” tasks, like answering emails or scheduling other work. This method works because you do your deep, focused work up-front, which gets you in the zone and gives you a sense of accomplishment, which makes tackling the stuff afterward easier.

Here’s a guide to planning your day in threes.

The “Eat the Frog” productivity method

Similar to 3-3-3, the “Eat the Frog” method invites you to tackle work on your biggest, scariest, wartiest task first thing in the morning. Whatever time-intensive task that has kept you up at night is, that’s what you should do first. After that, everything else should be easy. Some proponents argue you should “eat the frog” as soon as you wake up, but this method can work on any schedule as long as you commit to jumping into the hard thing early, enthusiastically, and without hesitation, thus freeing up the rest of your day for other work and lowering your overall stress level.

Here’s a guide to eating your first frog, so to speak.

The Kanban productivity method

Kanban is similar to the Action Method but requires you to label your tasks as to-do, doing, and done. It works best when managed in a spreadsheet or even on a big board with sticky notes, but you need the three columns so you can move whatever is completed into your “done” pile and anything that still needs doing into “to-do.” If you’re a visual person, this is going to be a game-changer, as it helps you easily see what needs to be done, and gives you some satisfaction when you see what you’ve already accomplished piling up under “done.”

Here’s a guide to implementing the Kanban productivity method.

The timeboxing productivity method

Another trick for the visually inclined and motivated, timeboxing requires you to schedule your entire day. Every activity, from answering emails, to working on a big project, to eating a snack, should go on your calendar. It’s much easier to use a digital calendar, like Google Calendar, for this, since so much of the average day is subject to change and it’s simpler to move things around there than in a physical planner, but try not to deviate from the schedule too much. The idea behind this method is that it allows you to plan to devote exactly as much time to each task as you need to complete it while still filling your entire day with activity.

Here’s a guide to getting started with timeboxing.

The Pomodoro productivity technique

This is an old standby that has withstood the test of time because it works so well: Work for 25 minutes on a task, take a short break of about five minutes, and work for 25 minutes again. Every time you complete four 25-minute cycles, take a longer break. This gets you into the groove of working hard in those 25-minute bursts, since you know a little reprieve is coming. The break recharges you and you get back at it, over and over again, until your job is complete. To maximize the benefits of Pomodoro, get a specialized timer so you don't have to set alarms on your phone and can work without glancing at it and all its distracting apps.

Here’s a guide to getting started with the Pomodoro method.

The Results Planning Method (RPM)

This technique comes from famed motivational speaker Tony Robbins, who outlined it in his Time of Your Life program and designed it to be motivational, fast, and efficient. Not only does does the acronym stand for Rapid Planning Method, but it can also serve as a guide to what your day should look like: Results-oriented, purpose-driven, and built around a "massive action plan."

Consistently—every morning or week—ask yourself these three questions:

What do I want?
What is my purpose?
What do I need to do/What is my massive action plan?

By doing this, you connect more to your mission and get more energized about getting to work right away on the answer to the third question, rather than spending a bunch of time deliberating about what you should or shouldn't be doing with your time.

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Overhaul Your To-Do List With the 'ABCDE' Method

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Overhaul Your To-Do List With the 'ABCDE' Method

A major component of productivity is prioritizing your daily responsibilities, which is why to-do lists are so important. Usually, I suggest using the Eisenhower Matrix, which helps you visually sort tasks according to how urgent and important they are, but there is another way: The ABCDE method, which comes from Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. Obviously, eating the frog—or doing your biggest, most demanding task first—is one way to tackle the day’s duties, but structuring out how you’ll do the rest is pretty important, too. Here’s how it works.

What is the ABCDE method of productivity?

The ABCDE method is a simple way to categorize whatever you need to do. Using it can be a solid first step to making your to-do list, especially if you’re following a model like the 1-3-5 list, which requires you to do one major task, three medium-sized ones, and five small ones every day. Figuring out the big, medium, and small tasks is actually a task in itself (but it doesn’t count as one of the five, sorry).

When you are planning out your day, you’re going to give each task in front of you a grade. First, list out everything you need to do. This can be a list of your tasks for the day, week, or month—you’ll weed it all down eventually. Then, give them each a grade based on this outline:

A is for the most important tasks, like anything that will have a consequence if it doesn’t get done. These are those “frog” tasks that will require resources and time, but they can also be something that doesn’t take a lot of time but does have a hefty associated punishment for failure, like paying a bill on time.
B tasks are ones that also need to get done, but won’t have such serious ramifications if they’re not done immediately. You know you need to do them at some point (lest they escalate to the urgency of an A task) but you have a little wiggle room.
C tasks don’t have any consequences for not getting done, but are things it would be good to get taken care of. For me, a C task might be responding to a PR pitch to say I’m not interested in interviewing their client. I didn’t need to do it, but it’s a nice thing to do that keeps a professional relationship friendly. (Conversely, a B task would be responding to someone’s publicity agent right away when they’re trying to nail down a time for an interview. An A task would be doing the interview.)
D tasks are anything that you can delegate to someone else. The person you give it to shouldn’t have any A or B tasks it will take away from; it should become a priority for them, even if it’s not major for you or simply something you trust they’ll get done right.
E tasks are ones you eliminate altogether. If they serve absolutely no purpose, have no consequences attached to them, or may even pull you off course or be a detriment, just don’t do them. This is a pretty relative grade, though: Say you wanted to go to the grocery store tonight but just don’t have time. You have enough food at home or could order takeout. It’s fine to eliminate it this time, but when you deplete all your food, the grocery store trip will roar back onto the list in a higher position. Other E tasks may never reappear; they’re just inconsequential. Ignore them to reduce pressure on yourself.

Bear in mind this should be a little subjective. There are other, more intense ways of categorizing your daily tasks and if you're struggling with giving your responsibilities a grade, you might need to try something a little more data-focused. The goal here is to be quick and efficient so you can stop stressing about what needs to be done, prioritize it, and just start doing it.

Use the ABCDE grades to be more productive

Once every task has been assigned a grade, start planning out your day (and week and month). Here’s where that 1-3-5 to-do list comes in: The one big task should be an A task, something that is urgent and timely, and/or requires major resources and focus. The three medium-sized tasks might include a smaller A-level one, but will most likely be Bs. For the five smaller tasks, pick up any leftover B grades and, if you want, Cs. As for the D-level things, outsourcing and coordinating on them might still require enough work to qualify carrying out the delegation as one of your five smaller tasks, but it depends how much effort that really takes and what the rest of your day is looking like. Don’t shoot the messenger, but you might have to fall back on a C task to get the delegation taken care of.

The E grades can just be crossed off. Go ahead and delete them or strike them out. It’ll feel good (and productive) to get that finality on them.

Once you’ve organized which tasks are necessary for the day, look ahead at the week and make sure you keep any B-level responsibilities in mind and roll them over to a day that works for you if you don’t have time that particular day. Putting them off will turn them into As pretty quickly.

As always, rely on timeboxing to schedule out the day from there. Allocate time for each task in your calendar, giving yourself the most time for major A-level duties and less and less time for B and C. Don’t multitask; instead, do each thing in order, starting by eating the frog and moving through the other things one at a time until they’re done. (The exception here is that if you’re delegating tasks, try to get it done early so the other person has time to complete what should be an A- or B-level job for them, too.)

Grading your responsibilities is an easy way to get perspective on them and enhance your sense of urgency around them, which compels you to be more productive. Getting it all into an ordered list gives you structure and direction, wastes less time throughout the day, and will give you a sense of accomplishment when you’re done, which itself is a productivity win.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Friday, June 28, 2024

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Friday, June 28, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for June 28, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is medium difficult; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 28, Wordle #1,105! 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.

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

Almost all of today's letters are from our mnemonic! Only one is uncommon.

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

As a verb, past tense; as a noun, a flock of animals.

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 D.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with E.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is DROVE.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE and TOUCH followed by BIPED to eliminate likely consonants. With a few possible solutions, I guessed DRONE, leaving DROVE as the answer.

Wordle 1,105 5/6

🟨⬛⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was medium difficult. The hint was “as a noun, something you place at a restaurant” and the answer contained all common letters.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was ORDER.

A primer on Wordle basics

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

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

How to win at Wordle

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.

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Five Ways to Sun-Proof Your Home (and Keep It Cooler)

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Five Ways to Sun-Proof Your Home (and Keep It Cooler)

Depending on where you live, the summer months might mean lazy afternoons and cookouts by the pool, or cowering in dark rooms with the air conditioning cranked up. Air conditioning is great, of course, but sun exposure plays a huge factor in your home’s overall temperature.

You can’t easily move your house to a shadier spot, but you can take some steps to sun-proof your home. Here are five options to consider.

Repaint in a color that reflects the sun's rays

The color of your house can have a big impact on the ambient temperature inside. White paint has been shown to be very effective in reflecting the sun’s rays—and just about any white paint will do it (it reflects about 80% of visible light, though it will still absorb the non-visible radiation that warms up surfaces). White paint so effective that science went to the effort of inventing the whitest paint possible in the hopes it could have a dramatic impact on cooling down our houses. And while white paint will be most effective, if your home currently has a darker exterior color, lightening it to any significant degree will have at least some impact on the amount of heat it absorbs.

Add a reflective roof coating

Just as you paint the walls of your home, you can paint your roof with a reflective coating to bounce all that heat away. Again, white is the coolest color—a white roof can reflect 80% of the sun’s rays, keeping the roof about 50°F cooler—which means a lot less heat being transferred down into the interior of your house. Coating your roof is a relatively easy DIY job, but you can also hire contractors to take care of it for you.

Choose the right window treatments

The main villains keeping your house hot? Your windows, which just indiscriminately allow all that heat-producing solar radiation to stream into your home. About 76% of the sunlight that hits your window will transform into palpable heat. Keeping that sun out of your house is a key way to cool things down, so invest in some window treatments.

Blackout shades or blackout curtains can be very effective because they stop all the sunlight from getting into your rooms and heating them up, but they can make the house dark and aren’t always the most attractive option. Heat-blocking films can block out the ultraviolet (UV) rays that heat up your house. They’re relatively easy to apply and remove, they're affordable, and they can be a better option than shades or curtains because they don’t obscure your view or make you feel like you’re living in a cave.

Original Blackout Pleated Paper Shade Black, 36” x 72”, 6-Pack

$29.99 at Amazon Amazon Prime

$34.99 Save $5.00

Original Blackout Pleated Paper Shade Black, 36” x 72”, 6-Pack

$29.99 at Amazon Amazon Prime

$34.99 Save $5.00

Install skylight films or covers

Skylights are great if you lack exterior windows or just love a home awash in natural light, but they can also act as heat beams during the summer. Just like your windows, you can cut some heat-blocking film to fit your skylights—though it can be trickier than applying to windows. If you can't access the skylight easily, or you’re not sure how to cut and apply the film to a curved surface if you have a bubble skylight, you should seek out a professional to do it for you.

As with a regular window, a UV-blocking film will allow your skylight to still be, you know, a skylight. But you can also purchase waterproof skylight covers that will block the sun during the hotter months. These can then be removed when the temperatures fall so you can go back to enjoying all that light.

Add some shade

All the strategies you pursue to mitigate the impact of the sun on your home’s interior temperature will be even more effective if you stop the sun from reaching your house in the first place by increasing the amount of shade cover it enjoys. There are a variety of ways to do this:

Landscaping can be really effective at adding shade while enhancing your home’s curb appeal. Leafy trees do a great job of blocking the sun, but a trellis with a robust climbing vine along the sunny side of your home is another way to create a living wall between you and those damaging, heating rays.
Awnings installed on the exterior walls of the home will keep the sun off the walls of your house. A retractable awning offers flexibility because you can roll it up when it’s not so hot out, or when you’re willing to trade heat for light. You can also consider a side awning for the later hours when the sun’s heat is blasting from the side instead of overhead.

Keeping your house cooler in the summer isn’t just about your HVAC settings. Keeping the sun away from and out of your home will have a dramatic impact on your level of comfort—and your AC’s ability to work efficiently.

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Five Signs Your AC Window Unit Is About to Die

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Five Signs Your AC Window Unit Is About to Die

It's hard to resist the urge to crank up the AC during a heatwave. But if you rely on a window unit to stay cool, you may notice that when temperatures soar, your AC isn't as effective as usual, and may even cut out altogether from time to time.

The cause could have nothing to do with your window unit—in the past, you've probably received messages from your local electricity supplier about conserving energy and possible outages during a heatwave, and if your window unit is suddenly not keeping you cool, that could be why.

Asif Bux, the service manager at Comfort Union, a full-service HVAC and plumbing company, says it's a question he deals with a lot: Is it a power issue, or is my AC failing?

Common signs your AC window unit might be failing

According to Bux and Brad Roberson, president of Aire Serv Heating & Air Conditioning and an expert in HVAC and indoor air quality, some common signs that your AC window unit might be dying include:

It stops blowing cold air (or the air is not as cool as it used to be)
It's making loud, unusual noises (e.g. grinding or buzzing)
It's leaking water
It's frequently switching on and off
You're getting unusually high energy bills, even accounting for regular AC use (a sign of reduced efficiency)

Reasons your AC unit may be struggling

Before writing your current AC window unit off completely, do some detective work to figure out if it's actually broken, or there's something else going on.

1. It's a power issue

According to Roberson, AC window units are designed to lower temperatures by a certain amount, and sometimes the heat becomes too much for them. "During times of extreme heat and extended use, the unit may struggle to achieve or maintain desired temperatures," he says.

Power supply issues might also be to blame, Bux says—especially during peak usage times, when the electrical grid could experience voltage drops. "Dimmed lights or other electrical anomalies can indicate a grid issue," he says.

If the unit functions properly again when outdoor temperatures cool down, you'll know it was likely a heat-load or electrical grid issue, Bux says.

2. The filter is dirty

The first thing to check is your unit's air filter. These get dirtier quicker than you think they will, and can reduce cooling efficiency, Bux says. A filthy filter can also cause your unit to cycle on and off frequently.

3. The coil fins are bent and/or dirty

Check to make sure the coil fins—located on the part sticking outside of the window—aren't bent and/or folded over, which will restrict airflow, Roberson says. While you're back there, clean off any dirt or debris on the coils, which Bux says can "impeded heat exchange." Frost buildup is another sign clogged condenser coils, he says.

4. Something is blocking the airflow

Make sure the outside part of the window unit isn’t blocked by anything that would reduce airflow, Roberson says.

5. The condensate drain is blocked

Check the condensate drain to make sure it's not obstructed and operating properly, Roberson adds.

6. There's a problem with the settings and/or power supply

Check the unit's thermostat settings. This sounds obvious, but maybe you forgot that you set it to "low" at night and forgot to set it back to full capacity during the day. Bux also recommends making sure the power supply is adequate by checking the breaker panel and inspecting the power cord.

7. It's the wrong size

If your AC unit is switching on and off frequently, Bux says that it could be a sign that the unit isn't powerful enough to cool the room or space that it's in. One way to find out if this is the case is to check the BTU rating and ensure that it's high enough for the square footage of the room.

8. It's actually broken

If you've checked all of the areas mentioned above and you're not in the middle of a heatwave, your AC window unit may actually be broken. "The unit may have a problem with the compressor, or refrigerant levels may be low, or there is a refrigerant leak," Roberson says. Water leakage can stem from a failing gasket, Bux says, while unusual noises—like buzzing or grinding—may be the result of loose components, a failing motor, or electrical issues.

Should you repair or replace a broken AC window unit?

In short, it comes down to the age of the AC unit. If it's more than eight to 10 years old, it's usually less expensive to replace the unit because parts to fix it may be harder to find, and it may use outdated, less-energy-efficient technology, Roberson says.

For newer AC window units, Bux says that if repair costs exceed 50% of a new unit's price, you're better off replacing it—especially considering the likelihood future repairs. Plus, because new units are more energy efficient, you'll likely save money on your electricity bills.

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You Can Get This USB-C Apple Pencil on Sale for $60 Right Now

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You Can Get This USB-C Apple Pencil on Sale for $60 Right Now

You can get this USB-C Apple Pencil on sale for $59.99 right now (reg. $79). You can use it for writing, drawing, and marking up, and it comes with low latency, magnetic attachment, hover for previewing your marks, and tilt sensitivity, but it doesn’t have pressure sensitivity or magnetic charging. It works with the latest versions of the iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini, and some older models. It’s cheaper than buying from Apple’s website because it's an open-box model—excess inventory from store shelves or customer returns—but it’s been repackaged and verified to be in new condition.

You can get this USB-C Apple Pencil on sale for $59.99 right now (reg. $79), though prices can change at any time.

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What's New on Paramount+ With Showtime in July 2024

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What's New on Paramount+ With Showtime in July 2024

New seasons of reality TV are hitting Paramount+ in July, including season 26 (!) of Big Brother, which launches with a two-night premiere on July 17 and 18 and continues with live streaming episodes on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The most recent seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race and RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked, which wrapped up in April, are coming to the platform at the end of the month (July 24).

Following last month's Cindy Lauper documentary, viewers can stream Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken (July 9), which explores themes of addiction and grief through the artist's process of composing and performing "Burning Woman" inside a prison in Kansas, as well as the premiere of Mafia Spies (July 16), a docuseries about a CIA and mob plot to assassinate Castro.

Here’s everything else coming to the service in July, including films from the Die Hard and Star Trek franchises. Note that titles with an asterisk are exclusive to Paramount+ With Showtime; everything else is also available to subscribers on the ad-supported plan. Those with two asterisks are available to Paramount+ With Showtime users streaming live on CBS and to all subscribers the following day.

Paramount+ Originals and premieres coming in July 2024

Arriving July 1

Memory*

Arriving July 9

Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken, premiere

Arriving July 10

Kamp Koral: Spongebob's Under Years, season two premiere

Arriving July 16

Mafia Spies, premiere

TV shows coming to Paramount+ in July 2024

Arriving July 3

The National Parks

Arriving July 4

CBS Reports: America Unfiltered: The Voices Behind the Polls

Arriving July 10

Beavis and Butt-Head Classic (Seasons 2, 4-6)
Ice Airport Alaska (Season 4)
Ridiculousness (Seasons 11-12)
SpongeBob SquarePants (Season 13)
The Patrick Star Show (Season 2)

Arriving July 17

Basketball Wives (Season 11)

Arriving July 18

Big Brother (Season 26)**

Arriving July 22

PD True (Season 1)

Arriving July 24

RuPaul's Drag Race (Season 16)
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked (Seasons 14-15)

Arriving July 31

Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship (Season 2)

Movies coming to Paramount+ in July 2024

Arriving July 1

A Good Day to Die Hard*
A Perfect Day*
A Thin Line Between Love and Hate
American History X
Apache Junction*
Big Top Pee-Wee
Biker Boyz*
Blades of Glory
Blue Chips
Boyz N' The Hood*
Caddyshack
Catch the Bullet*
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels Full Throttle
Charlotte's Web
Copycat
Defiance
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star*
Die Hard*
Die Hard 2*
Die Hard with a Vengeance*
Drag Me to Hell
El Dorado
Enemy at the Gates*
Fear
Freedom Writers*
Funny Face
Gone Baby Gone*
Good Mourning*
Grease
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Hamburger Hill
Heat*
Heist*
Identity
Imagine That
John Grisham's The Rainmaker
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Legends of the Fall*
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Live Free or Die Hard*
Love The Coopers*
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Miss Sloane*
My Left Foot
Necessary Roughness
New Jack City
Outlaw Posse*
Paid in Full*
Pawn Sacrifice*
Private Parts
Rounders
Rudy*
Rules of Engagement
Rushmore
RV*
Sahara
Set It Off: Director's Cut
Sexy Beast
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition
Stephen King's Thinner
Stop-Loss
Summer Rental
Summer School*
Sunset Boulevard
Superstar
Swingers
Terms of Endearment
The Baby-Sitters Club
The Babysitter
The East
The Love Letter
The Mechanic
The Running Man
The Saint*
The Silence of the Lambs*
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
The Truman Show
The Yards
Timeline
Tom & Jerry
Top Secret!*
Total Recall
Trainspotting
Uncommon Valor
Universal Soldier*
What Men Want*
Without a Paddle
World Trade Center
Yours, Mine & Ours
Zero Dark Thirty

Arriving July 8

Anesthesia*

Arriving July 13

Arthur and the Invisibles*

Arriving July 15

Fifty Shades of Black*
The Current War*

Arriving July 24

Weiner*

Arriving July 27

Hannibal Rising*

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Your Next BBQ Needs a 'Garbage Plate' Station

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Your Next BBQ Needs a 'Garbage Plate' Station

During college when the weather would warm up for three whole seconds in upstate New York, my friends and I would journey out to get garbage plates. Yes, this dish looks a lot like the name suggests—opening the trash can after a backyard party—but for a certain type of person, this dish is a menagerie of summer delights. I am that person, and maybe you are too. I’d like to invite you into a world where all of your favorite BBQ foods can live together on one plate. Join me, won’t you?

The Rochester garbage plate, also called a trash plate, is a point of pride for upstate New York. It’s said to have originated at Nick Tahou Hots, though I don’t know if anyone else is competing for the title. My friends and I would get it at a random roadside drive-in-esque situation.

A garbage plate consists of all the classic yard party favorites: a grilled cheeseburger, hot dog, or sausage nested upon some home fries (or French fries), sharing space with a mound of macaroni salad, and a scoop of baked beans. Beef chili is ladled over the top along with chopped raw onions, and a streak of yellow mustard. This combination may be horrifying for some, but others have been eating barbecue sides in this manner their whole lives.

A garbage plate grocery list:

100% Grass-Fed and Pasture-Raised

Applegate Naturals Uncured Beef Hot Dogs

One pound of creamy macaroni salad.

Market Pantry Macaroni Salad

$2.99 at Target

A close-up of macaroni salad in a container.

$2.99 at Target

Classic straight cut shaped french fries.

Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food Fries

$8.24 at Walmart

$8.24 at Walmart

A savory chili sauce perfect for burgers and hot dogs.

Texas Tailgate Chili Sauce

$7.94 at Amazon Amazon Prime

Texas Tailgate Chili Sauce for Burgers and Dogs, 10 Oz

$7.94 at Amazon

While you might not subscribe to the original version of the garbage plate (I get it, baked beans, mustard, and macaroni salad might be a tad offensive), I do believe that a garbage plate is completely open to interpretation. Even Nick Tahou Hots’ order form shows a wide variety of options, including a grilled cheese or fried ham. No matter the person, there is some glorious combination of side dishes out there for everyone. Which means that hosting a build-your-own-garbage-plate station at your next cookout is a good and smart idea.

To make a great garbage plate consider the formula: a grilled protein + a salad of sorts (preferably mayonnaise-coated)+ fried or roasted potatoes + sauce. Serve up some barbecued chicken thighs, fried fish, tofu planks, or soy sauce glazed pork belly. I love macaroni salad, but you could offer a German-style potato salad instead or even coleslaw. I don’t know who’s going to argue with fries or roasted potatoes—they’re gluten-free and vegan—so those can stay, and the sauce is up to you. The classic “hot sauce” is like a spicy ground beef chili, but you could offer a vegetarian chili, or for a lighter take, I’d recommend pico de gallo or salsa verde.

If you decide to have the classic garbage plate offerings available, there’s no need to stress it—you can buy almost all of the components pre-made from the deli section of your grocery store. However, if you’re doing parts of it homemade, the best tip I ever took was from A.A. Newton on macaroni salad: Make sure to overcook your pasta.

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Wednesday, June 26, 2024

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Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Wednesday, June 26, 2024

If you’re looking for the Wordle answer for June 26, 2024 read on. We’ll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Today’s puzzle is harder; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for June 26, Wordle #1,103! 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.

Ready for the hints? Let’s go!

Does today’s Wordle have any unusual letters?

Four of today's letters are from our mnemonic! The other one is less common.

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

A step in baking bread.

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 K.

What letter does today’s Wordle end with?

Today’s word ends with D.

What is the solution to today’s Wordle?

Ready? Today’s word is KNEAD.

How I solved today’s Wordle

I started with RAISE, followed by NOTCH and PLUGS to eliminate likely consonants (and the remaining vowels, by extension). Next I tried MIKED based on letters remaining in possible solutions, which left KNEAD as the answer.

Wordle 1,103 5/6

⬛🟨⬛⬛🟨
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle was easier. The hint was “something you might do with an incredible meal” and the answer contained four common letters and one uncommon letter.

The answer to yesterday’s Wordle was SAVOR.

A primer on Wordle basics

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

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

How to win at Wordle

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.

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How to Use the ‘80/20’ Rule for Running

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Runners often swear by the 80/20 rule for organizing their training—but this is no relation to the Pareto principle of the same name. Let’s talk about where the 80/20 idea comes from, how to implement it, and when it is and isn’t a good idea to train this way.

What is the 80/20 rule for running?

Briefly, it’s the idea that 80% of your running should be low intensity, and only 20% at medium or high intensity. Recreational runners (like you and me) often run closer to a 50/50 split. The 80/20 rule suggests that we should take some of those faster runs and slow them the heck down to reach a better training balance.

The 80/20 rule was popularized in a 2014 book, 80/20 Running, by Matt Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, in turn, based his recommendations off research by Stephen Seiler, who found that elite athletes in a variety of endurance sports, including running, cycling, and cross-country skiing, did about 80% of their training sessions at intensities much lower than they would ever use in racing. In other words: To train your body to go fast, you have to log a lot of miles going slow. This is similar to the idea of “polarized training,” which means that you stick to the extremes—either working very easy, or very hard, rather than spending much time in the in-between.

80/20 Running Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower Illustrated 2015 Paperback 26 Nov

$28.97 at Amazon

Note that 80/20 here only refers to how you split up your training: 80% easy versus 20% hard. This is not the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your…whatever. (80% of sales coming from 20% of customers, 80% of your needs met by 20% of the stuff you own, etc.) In running, there is only really one result—your race time—so the question is just how to split up your training time. 80% easy and 20% hard is the balance that, Fitzgerald and Seidler would argue, will get you the best race times.

What counts as low intensity for the 80%?

If you’ve been paying attention to the “zone 2” trend, you’re probably thinking you should be in zone 2 (arguably 60-70% of your max heart rate) for 80% of your training. And you know what? That will get you close enough. Go with it.

But the definitions more often used in the scientific research aren’t based on heart rate alone. Some of them use metrics we can’t easily measure on our own—go ahead, try to keep your blood lactate below 2 millimoles per liter.

What’s more useful—and still borne out by research—is to use VT1, the “first ventilatory threshold.” That’s a fancy word for what old heads will know as the “talk test.” If you can carry on a conversation without taking extra breaths mid-sentence, you’re below VT1. That’s what 80% of your training should feel like.

I know that’s not enough information for the more data-minded among you, so I’ll note that Fitzgerald reported in his book that this level is often found around 77% to 79% of elites’ max heart rate. The exact number might vary from person to person, and heart rate numbers are never totally objective, since they can be affected by heat and stress among other things. But as a gut check, 77% of my own known, tested max puts me around 153, which matches shockingly well to what I consider my easy pace—I try to stay in the low 150’s for my easy runs.

Taking this information together, it turns out we can go a bit higher than “zone 2” and still be at the right intensity for the 80% part of our 80/20 running—as long as it truly feels easy. If you’d like, you could customize your zones on your running watch so that you have a zone that tops out at 77% or so. (It might even make more sense for that to be zone 3 rather than zone 2.)

How to train with the 80/20 rule

Before we can divvy up our training, we need to decide how we’re measuring our training. Are we aiming for easy runs to be 80% of our training sessions? 80% of our miles? 80% of our total training time?

Fitzgerald, in his book, counted up minutes in easy, moderate, and hard intensity levels. But if you’re doing an interval run, he counted the intervals and the recovery between them as part of your harder intensity work. (A cooldown after those intervals would count as low intensity, though.)

So you can do the same. It would also get you in the right ballpark to think in terms of miles or sessions. If you do one hard run for every four easy runs, you’re still doing 80/20 (as long as those runs are roughly similar in mileage).

How important is it to stick to the 80/20 rule?

Even though it’s called a “rule,” this isn’t a thing you have to follow. It’s just one way of training that matches what a lot of elite athletes do. There has also been research showing that recreational runners can benefit—but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way to train.

Seidler, the researcher, even told Fitzgerald, the author, that if he could only train twice a week, he’d do a mix of harder and easier work in both sessions. Research on competitive recreational runners found that a 77/23 split and a 46/54 split both resulted in small improvements to 10K time, and the difference between groups was not statistically significant. That said, these folks had 10K times (that’s a 6.2-mile race) under 40 minutes to start, so they were pretty fast to start with, compared to a lot of beginner runners.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of other research showing that casual runners can improve with almost any type of training, and that increasing your total mileage (measured in miles per week) is helpful for improving your fitness and your race times.

The bottom line

If you’re a runner with lots of room for improvement—which covers many of us beginner, intermediate, and casual runners—you don’t necessarily have to slow down 80% of your runs to a crawl. You can use any conversational pace that works for you, even if your watch says that’s zone 3. And since increasing mileage is usually part of improving as a runner, it may make more sense to think about adding easy miles, rather than turning your hard miles into easy ones.

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