Did you know that there was such a thing as the National Scrabble Championship? Well, there is and this year it will be held in Orlando. It starts this Friday (25 July) and runs through Tuesday the 29th. For more information about the NSCand Scrabble in general, you can visit the National Scrabble Association’s Web site at: http://www2.scrabble-assoc.com/
You need not be a national-level competitor to have fun playing the world’s favorite word game, though. As long as your playing partner agrees, you can be as competitive or as easy-going as you want when you play Scrabble. For example, when Deb and I play at home, our games are very laid back. But on the 2nd Sunday of every month I run a Scrabble event for Literacy Volunteers—Doña Ana County. Most of us are there for the fun of it, and don’t keep strict time for turns and allow players to consult the dictionary during the game. But two of our regular attendees are seriously competitive, though and almost always face off with each other. So, when I play one of them, I go along, and almost always (12 out of 13 times so far, but I’m not keeping count!) lose! I always learn something from them, though, so look forward to the challenge!
By the way, if you want to join us for 2nd Sunday Scrabble, we meet at 2:00 pm on 10 Aug. (and monthly, every second Sunday after that) at Hastings Books, Music and Video 2350 E. Lohman Ave. The fund-raising part of the gig is a $3.00 donation to Literacy Volunteers. All proceeds go to help this organization (part of the Continuing Education program at Dona Ana Community college) supply free books and materials to their students. For this paltry sum, you get to play at least one game but usually more. It depends on your speed and how many people want to play how many games. I have managed to get beaten no less than four times in a single afternoon! Not for want of trying desperately to win, mind! Oh, I do win sometimes, but I try to play with folk better at it than I, so it’s not very often, but my game improves by the experience.
One great thing about Scrabble is that you can play almost anywhere with almost anybody (who can spell.) There is even a mini magnetic edition of the game for travel, so you can take it on the plane or in the car with no fear of losing your tiles. There is also a Spanish edition, so one could, theoretically, play a bilingual game. Now that would be a blast! Another variant that I imagine would be to play in two teams of two players each. Each team would use double the normal seven tiles, so it would be possible to make some whopping great long words! What fun! I have yet to play either iteration, but live in hope!
We have some truly fascinating books (and at least one video) about Scrabble here at TBML. Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Game Circuit follows the paths of four men as they prepare for and compete in the North American Championships. If you want to check it out, though, you will have to wait until I return it! We also have some Scrabble word books in our collection. These range from dictionaries of acceptable words to books on strategy to one written by a Wall Street Journal reporter who started as a curious observer trying to understand the appeal of the game and ended up a hopeless addict!
So, if you’re fascinated with words and games, check some of these out! Who knows? You might even find yourself heading to Hastings at 2:00 o’clock on some 2nd Sunday afternoon of the month to join us! MP
