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OK, I get extra credit today for solving this one at a 90 degree angle. Weirdly, my wordle slate was rotated clockwise 90 degrees (thus, I had 6 squares horizontal and 5 vertical). I tried reopening it, I tried it in a different browser. Same result. The rest of the NYT site was fine. I didn't try anything further, e.g. restarting my computer, just tilted my head some. (I now have a slight headache and just took some aspirin).
I can't find any other comments about this phenomenon today. And after I solved it, quit the site, and then called it up again, it was ok.