Scrabble

[poliphilo]

Ourdert and Peter came to tea. They're used to spicy food so I made spaghetti putanesca- which is the spiciest thing in my- very limited- repertoire. Peter wanted a game of Scrabble. I've played en famille, but I've never played like this before. I play airily, in the spirit of Percy Bysshe Shelley; I like to spread my words over the whole board; I crave words of more than one syllable; I value the elegant over the high-scoring. He plays boxily, sticking letters into overcrowded corners to create several short words at a single move. Also he's studied the Scrabble Dictionary. He was playing words like "ti" and "si", so I thought it wouldn't be amiss to risk "ni". He spoke to me very gently- more in sorrow than in anger: " I don't think we'll find "ni" in the Scrabble Dictionary". I pleaded Monty Python's Knights who say "Ni", but he wasn't having any of it- pointing out that "Ni" is part of a proper name and proper names are disallowed.  He thrashed me of course. Twice. If I continue playing him I'm going to have to let the iron enter into my soul.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Now I can't get the "Ni" scene from Spamalot out of my head.
:D

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah, well, there are worse things to have going round one's head. :)

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I agree with you!

I bet he knows the word QI too... big score!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He not only knew it- he used it!

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I am not at all sure about that. I don't think Ni is a name, it's an exclamation, like the knights who might say "wow" or "yay!"

or eckyeckyphtang.... etc. Now that would be a high scoring scrabble word.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah well, I wasn't in a mood to argue. Another reason he won was that he was taking the whole thing very seriously- and I wasn't.

[zephyrcrow.livejournal.com]

If you ever want to practice Scrabble and learn some tips to improve, you might want to check out "Everything Scrabble" by Joe Edley and John D. Williams. It's really cheap on most used book sites, and full of invaluable info and puzzles.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. I need to raise my game if I'm going to go on playing.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

This was entertaining!

I think I prefer the "airy" method.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can think of better uses for words than arranging them on a grid. If the truth be told, I don't really like Scrabble at all.