Sideswipe: February 17: Wordle too hard?

Twitter users are complaining that Wordle is using more difficult words now The New York Times has taken over. Tiger Webb, a language specialist with the ABC, tells the Guardian he isn't so sure the game's complexity has increased. "It could be harder, they could have changed something, we don't know. But even if they haven't changed anything ... open a dictionary at a random page and you will find a five-letter word in English you don't know," he added. The New York Times says it hasn't changed anything.

Caught on security camera

1. "I have a brick house, and the mailbox is bolted to it. Somehow one side managed to come loose, so it had been dangling for a couple of weeks ... I got home from work one day and it was fixed. I checked to see if there was a note or anything, but nope ... A couple of days later I remembered I have cameras and could check to see if they had caught anything. Turns out an older guy with a tool belt just casually walked up, fixed my mailbox, and left. He wasn't there for more than three or four minutes. Eventually, I was able to piece together that one of my neighbours was having some roofing work done and this was one of the workers."

2. "My neighbour told me they thought they'd been hearing someone walking around my yard at night. I scanned through the footage the very next morning and saw a guy come into frame wearing only boxers and laced-up combat boots. He stood by my bedroom window, stared in for about 45 minutes then walked back out of frame. I was able to get a pretty good look at his face, and that's when I realised that I'd been sleepwalking. I have no idea how long it has been going on or where else I've been at night, and that terrified me. I honestly think I might've preferred seeing an actual intruder."

3. "Had a guy come in the middle of the night and take his clothes off before jumping in the pool. He swam around naked for about 10 minutes before getting out and grabbing a beer from the outdoor fridge. He went over and sat on the couch naked while he drank it before leaving. Weirdest part was that his clothes were still there in the morning."

Two startled firefighters

A gull of your own

Kate Saunders writes: "When I was a child, and packing up from the summer holidays, my wonderful grandmother, as a way to entertain us (or getting us out of her hair), told us that if we managed to get the salt on the seagull's tail, that the seagull would be ours and follow us home!! This fascinated me for many years and a lot of salt was poured over the beach with no luck. Then one year I had a realisation - would I actually want a seagull to follow me home? I visualised it in the car with us on the four-hour trip home and never played the game again."