SQUIRDLE

The lads in the office are playing Squirdle, which it seems, is a game like Wordle. Unlike the rather useful category of words, in Squirdle you have to identify a Pokémon from various clues.

“Hmm,” I said, “It’s not really my era.”

“What is your era then Matt?”

“The Napoleonic Wars,” I replied, dryly.

I mean it might as well have been.

Afterwards I pondered whether they would know what Thundercats was, or maybe the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - or whether those things would be as arcane as the War of Jenkins Ear and the Battle of Copenhagen. Sometimes you just need someone to slip in a ‘By the power of Greyskull’ reference, just to feel seen, and not alone.

Thundercaturdle would not be tremendously exciting. Clue 1. Wrapped in bandages or Looks like a cheetah. Pretty easy. Same for the Turtles - somehow in those days the idea of a gigantic universe of characters all interacting, all collectible and learnable, hadn’t really caught on - well, outside panini stickers anyway. Although there is something appealing about the game being called Turtlurdle.

I might just start slipping in a couple of ‘cowabungas’ to the conversation this afternoon, just to see what happens.