May 13, 2004

• T1H4I1S1 I1S1 C3O1O1L1.
• Is that page unreadable, or is it just my browser (IE6)? Dark brown text on a black background????? WTF?
• Jesus! How many points you get for that comment, rocket88? I got 15.
• Is there anyone here who doesn't also read bOING bOING? If so, there shouldn't be!
• Think I've had nearly all of these -- they look appallingly familiar.
• Skirk: I don't read boing boing. Nor do i intend to.
• Unfair isn't it ? Then why don't people play like we (French) do : in duplicate(*) mode ! It's very easy to set up: . each player has their own set (board and letters, with the letters face up) . a sequence of letters is picked up from the referee's bag. . all players use that sequence as their hand. i.e. they all use the same combination of letters. . when ready, they reveal what they've found and score accordingly. . the word that scored the highest is selected and all players place it on their own board so that they all have the same board to start with, at the next round. ... and the game carries on like this until the referee's bag is empty. The winner is the person with highest total score. See ? At each turn, the players all have to use the same combination of letters !, no blaming the chance factor ! I really fail to understand why English-speaking competitions are not organized this way.. (*) French link, sorry
• The other way to end the French version is when B3O1O1 appears, all players surrender.
• I don't understand why #8 is in there. You could spell lots of things with that hand.
• and blogRot takes a lap!
• blogRot : eh? say what?
• Illegal Ghost Bikes
• I've had #10 more times than I care to think about.
• "I don't understand why #8 is in there. You could spell lots of things with that hand." I have to agree with you, Dr. Zira. All you need is one open "A" and you have at least a twelve point play with QAT. Most of these racks aren't too bad depending on what's on the board.
• #4 - any rack with a blank ain't that bad. QAT can be spelled... and if the other guy lays a U or an I, you can even make QUINT and only have a T, W and R left over (totally fine). or if they expose an E or I you can make WINTER. whiner! #5 - it's not that bad having a lot of vowels because every vowel you have is one that your opponent doesn't, as long as you have a couple consonants. LEAR or REAL or RALE can be made. or you can use the ER as a suffix. face it, that ain't so horrible. #6 is pretty fucking bad. #9 - a blank is the most valuable tile -- you'll never not be able to make move when you have a blank, even if it's just pluralizing a word by adding an S. if there's an open O you could jettison most of those vowels with EUOI and end up with a great rack if you pick up some decent letters. #12 - great letters there. all you need is an open vowel to make all kinds of words. PARK, PERK, PORK, MARK, MURK, MAP, DARK, LAMP, etc etc etc. plus there's an S! that is not a bad hand at all, unless we're talking late game. #14 - it has an S and an E. it's totally not in contention for horriblest rack! there are multiple 3 letter words possible, even 4 letter words if you use the S. and there are even more options if you use words already on the board. quitcher bitchin!
• I like playing scrabble combined with the dictionary game. You make up a word and a plausible (and preferably naughty) definition to go with it.
• F, U, K, C, Y, O, U Hmm ... I got nothin' here. Can anyone help me out?
• This reminds me of something that actually happened to me: We were having a friendly game of scrabble, in (as far as I can remember) the following configuration: --w-b --o-e famed --e-- --net Where "famed", "bed" and "net" are approximate, since I can't remember exactly what they were. I had j and e which would make a decent word with a colored tile (that is, jew), and then I realized what the board was starting to resemble. That was interesting, and I looked over at the tiles of the player before me (as this was a friendly game) and saw that she had a and g. Too perfect. We could've had a genuine Scrabble Board of Hate, but then she had to go and spoil it by playing somewhere else. Bah.
• certainly. YUCK is worth good pointage, and gets rid of that tricky K while evening out your vowels.
• Heh! Nice one, sutureself!* /drunk, happy :) *no offence meant to any monkey by that last comment, by the way!
• I love that combination, shinything. Many a fine word's been coined that way. Themed Scrabble is also entertaining; all words must somehow relate to one theme (Aileen Wournos Scrabble, as I remember, was a really good one).
• I don't think your system would work over here, Koant. There always seems to be one player who takes the whole thing far too seriously - under your rules I think that person would end up playing the whole game themselves while the others just waited around and reverently reproduced their words. (Apart from the problem of every player having to have their own set) So how about - Auction Scrabble? Instead of taking turns, everyone announces the best score they can make with whatever letters they have. The highest gets put down, and then instead of taking fresh tiles, the relevant player has to make up the seven with discards from the other players (who then get to take new tiles). This means the high scorers end up with other people's Qs and Xs, which keeps things nice and even.
• what about Action Scrabble... if you get a bad rack, punch the other guy in the damn face! plegmund... good players like having the high pointage letters :)
• Oh... Well, then, we can er.. play Monopoly? Stupid game anyway... what kind of a name is 'Scrabble'?
• I'd suggest word freak for anyone interested in Scrabble. It's a great book.
• *snicker* Best scrabble hand I've seen belonged to my ex. He'd spent the day bemoaning his (very slightly) receding hairline, only to pull this for his first turn: hairgo Can't make this kind of thing up.