Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 July 18

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July 18

2022 White House Correspondents' Dinner wordle joke

I was watching the 2022 White House Correspondents' Dinner and came across this joke:

And yet, the biggest deaths threats that you received is because there were two Ls in the wordle that day. [1]

Is this in reference to any specific incident? Was there actually a wordle puzzle with two Ls in the solution and people got worked up over it?

I googled "new york times two ls in wordle" and "new york times wordle death threats" and nothing relevant came up.

I understand that the The New York Times Company recently purchased Wordle. I understand that it could be the case that there were no specific incidents and that this is a general joke about "people getting too worked up over a puzzle game".Daniel T Wolters (talk) 02:05, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

I've seen people take it as offensive when the answer proved to be a word in American spelling (particularly since Wardle in British and the game used to be on a British web site). You know, who on Earth could imagine that COLOR was an actual word? (I don't remember what the specific words were.) Now, there are words where British and American versions differ in the number of L's (e.g. TRAVELLER), but I don't know of any that are 5 letters long, so I think this is something else. --174.95.81.219 (talk) 02:14, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

People get upset when the Wordle has more than one occurrence of a letter as it makes it trickier to determine the word. I don't think the letter L has a special meaning, apart from it being a reasonably common letter to show up twice in a word. Matt Deres (talk) 02:22, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you both. I think I get the joke now. Daniel T Wolters (talk) 04:43, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Not that it actually affects the joke, but a possible candidate is 19 March 2022, when the answer was ALLOW:

"Today’s answer will be a tough one for many players, largely due to the duplicate consonant" - from one of many websites that give away the daily answer for those without scruples. Alansplodge (talk) 12:39, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you! Yes, I agree that it's very likely that ALLOW partly inspired the joke. The White House Correspondents' Dinner was April 20th, so roughly a month after the ALLOW puzzle. Daniel T Wolters (talk) 00:27, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Why is the [UK minus NI] south-biased?

Some people say north of the line between Norfolk bay and south of Wales bay is already North England, and the bishop ranked #2 after Canterbury who represents the north is only at York, not that far north. Maybe the population distribution of actually far north England is still affected by the ancient threat of Scottish invasion? Then in Scotland the biggest two cities are in the south, Aberdeen's significantly smaller than than either and not that north, Inverness is smaller than that and Wick even smaller. Also only a few million live in Scotland but like 60 million in England and Wales. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 12:50, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

By Norfolk bay, I presume you mean the Wash - not sure about south of Wales bay, is that the Bristol Channel or Cardigan Bay? Mikenorton (talk) 13:47, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Yes the Wash, I forgot what you call it. And the Bristol Channel not Cardigan Bay. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:45, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

"Population density is high in the south-east of England, due to the favourable climate and proximity to the capital city of the UK, London. The city has many industries and is a global financial centre". [2] Alansplodge (talk) 13:13, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Why not the south-west? I mean the other side of London, near Winchester. Ticks all the same boxes. Edit: I checked the population densities and they're almost the same, so I guess yes, the rest of the south is affluent and crowded too.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:21, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

For Scotland, see Scottish Highlands. They're pretty, but generally get in the way.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:22, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

WP:DENY
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
The south-west is more remote from the continent of Europe. You can see the phenomenon in North America - the northern areas of the contiguous states are sparsely populated, but a few miles north over the Canadian border are the huge metropolises, right across the continent, because that is the warmest and most popular part of the country. 79.73.129.243 (talk) 13:33, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Canadian border metropolises (metropoli?) are fairly close to rather large U.S. cities as well, though. See Great Lakes megalopolis, Pacific Northwest (Vancouver-Victoria-Seattle-Portland). Those two urban conglomerations contain the majority of the really large Canadian population centers; excepting the plains cities of Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg, of which only the last is close to the U.S. border, and aren't parts of major megalopolises like the Great Lakes region is. The point is, your really not that correct; most Canadian cities near the U.S. border are parts of larger cross-border megalopolises and not isolated from U.S. population centers. --Jayron32 18:12, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

The Greek nominative plural of polis is polites, i think. —Tamfang (talk) 04:17, 23 July 2022 (UTC)

'Ere Saggy, me ol' china plate,... as most Londoners know, Ver Norff begins at Watford Gap. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:39, 18 July 2022 (UTC) p.s. Norfolk bay?? I assume you meant The Wash.

Also, it's beyond Hatfield. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.199.169.199 (talk) 02:22, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The further you are from London and the Channel ports, the greater your costs if you want to move goods or people to where the money is. It's a vicious circle, the more people and businesses move to the Southeast, the greater the imperative is to be located there. For recent attempts to break the circle, see Levelling-up policy of the Boris Johnson government. Alansplodge (talk) 13:41, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Yay! Let's hear it for good old Michael "snake hips" Gove! Martinevans123 (talk) 13:45, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Just to clarify, I wasn't suggesting that they were successful attempts. Alansplodge (talk) 19:23, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

I forgot the name. The gap is essentially on the line. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 13:49, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

There's North–South divide in the United Kingdom. I didn't link to it before because it's annoyingly vague and says (I paraphrase) "nobody's sure where the line is exactly" and "maybe this isn't even a thing, except in some ways it is".  Card Zero  (talk) 13:55, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

If it were a thing, it would undoubtedly appear on our List of things that are things. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 17:45, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

This 2010 analysis contains a map, which shows the dividing line extending from the Bristol Channel up to the River Humber, although not including Hull. Worcester is in the north apparently and Leicester is in the south, although, as every self-respecting Midlander knows, they're both in the English Midlands, which tend to get forgotten in this debate. Mikenorton (talk) 14:14, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

That's quite surprising, but that line in Figure 2.2 it's meant to show a "clear North-west– South-east gradient to life expectancy." So not quite the same as the economic North-South thing? (and yes, people do live longer in Norwich - it's so cold in the Winter, people there enter a state of human cryogenesis) Martinevans123 (talk) 14:25, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

The boom in Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution, largely in the north/midlands, perhaps led to a rust belt effect after industrial decline?  Card Zero  (talk) 14:29, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Not sure why there are two separate articles "North-South divide in the United Kingdom" and "North-South divide in England", but there are. Traditionally, the River Trent was often considered to be the boundary between north and south in England... AnonMoos (talk) 14:17, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Because UK geography is complicated by the fact that the UK is a country of countries, and while it is a single sovereign state, there is still a place called "England" which is distinct from "Scotland", culturally speaking. But this is not unique to the UK and England. It's possible to speak of northern vs. southern cultural distinctions in a country and separately in one of its subdivision. The Southern United States and South Florida can happily co-exist, even though Florida is part of the United States (and many people tend to only include North Florida in the Southern United States, just to confuse the situation even more...) --Jayron32 17:59, 18 July 2022 (UTC)

Still, the two articles both suggest that it is the south of England which is the more prosperous, and largely cover the same ground. Alansplodge (talk) 19:30, 18 July 2022 (UTC)