Today’s Wordle Hints, Clues And Answer — Sunday, September 18th (#456)

It is, at last, the day of the Sun!

Here are some fun facts about Sunday:

• In the Western world, Sunday is considered part of the weekend. Most everywhere else, it’s considered the first day of the week, though in Japan school is held Monday through Friday and in some schools on Saturday. In many countries, including the US, Sunday is the first day in the seven-day week even though it’s part of the weekend. Not confusing at all!
• The etymology of Sunday derives from Hellenistic astrology, in which there are seven ‘planets’: Saturn, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon.
• The day is holy in the Christian faith, though that has pagan origins. The day was the day of the Sun god in Roman culture. On March 7th, 321, Constantine I, the first Christian emperor of Rome, declared that Sunday would be the Roman day of rest (similar to the Sabbath in Jewish culture, though that falls on Saturday). The day of rest is not typically followed as strictly as the Sabbath, though “Lazy Sunday” is a wonderful thing and I recommend observing it regardless of your faith!
• If you really like Sundays, consider converting to Catholicism. Saturday evening Mass counts as a Sunday mass and, liturgically at least, Sunday begins on Saturday evening.
• Sunday newspapers are often (or were often back when people got dead-tree-papers) the fattest of the week, with full-color comics and lots of extra content and specials. Sports like American football and many cable shows also often air on Sunday evenings.

Wordle, of course, falls on every day of the week, including Sundays. Let’s take a look at this Sunday Wordle shall we?

So, my first guess today was ariel after the name of the Little Mermaid. That character has sparked some controversy in the new live-action Disney remake because the actress playing the live-action Ariel is Halle Bailey, who is black. I wrote about that at my Substack and made a video about it on my YouTube channel for those of you interested in my non-Wordle content.

My next guess brought the 96 remaining possible solutions down to 52, which isn’t super great by any means. But what a terrific word, right? Odium. The definition of the word is truly unique: “the state or fact of being subjected to hatred and contempt as a result of a despicable act or blameworthy circumstance.”

When I hear odium I think of Brandon Sanderson’s excellent fantasy epic The Stormlight Archive. When I hear the phrase “Let’s go Brandon!” I think of Brandon Sanderson’s epic Kickstarter success.

From here, stubbornly guessing words with an ‘I’ in the middle (even if that’s not the best strategy) I went with thick and narrowed my choices down to just 1. It was pretty easy to guess stick next . . . for the win! Huzzah!