March 31, 1999
Grace Witwer Housholder
Our fling with Scrabble lasted only a fortnight but it was
passionate.
When snow locked us in for a weekend we turned off the TV
and removed the cellophane from an overlooked Christmas present.
The 11-year-old was hesitant at first. But he soon progressed
from "boo" (5 points) and "hoe" (6 points)
to "hook" (11) and "qua" (12 points).
Qua?
We decided that under our house rules any word in the dictionary
(except proper nouns) could be used and that included prefixes
and suffixes and abbreviations. So we allowed "qua"
and "ed" and "oz."
Our rules were that there was no time limit on the search
for words in the dictionary. (Persistent perusal produced premium
plays!) But you had to be considerate so that the other players
wouldn't become impatient and quit.
"Quit" (13 points) became "quite" nicely
with the "e" on double word score (28 points)! "Hand"
was even more beautiful as "handsome."
"Hero" was good. "Heroine" was better.
The kids quickly realized that while "oxygen" (17 points)
looked breathtaking, "ox" would carry you on wings
toward victory if the "x" was on a triple word score
(25)!
We learned to plan our words around the triple- and double-word
score squares and to treasure every "z," "x,"
"j" and "q" that came our way - unless they
all came at once. (Unfortunately, no word contains all four of
those letters - believe me, we tried!) Almost every game had
at least one blemish - "zit" which often became more
palatable as "ziti."
Even after the snows melted and school was back in session,
there was rarely a night that the 13-year-old didn't ask, "Mom,
Dad, can we play Scrabble?" Her flexible mind and willingness
to scour Webster's meant that more often than not she won.
After two weeks, the fling finally began to fade. But this
little board game had already "equipped" (63 points,
triple word score!) us with some basic life lessons:
- Fun doesn't require a TV remote control.
- The dictionary is your friend.
- Patience pays.
- Throwing letters at your opponents causes more problems than
it solves.
- Most important, it's not the length and elegance of your
words but where they are placed that determines the final outcome.
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