Episode 60 notes

It's funny, I didn't advertise this one at all, yet it still got a ton of downloads (or so my host site tells me). Perhaps people mainly get notified of it through iTunes?



snapbacks
BLA ZONED
BLA ZONER

extensions:
DUMB, HEAD, A WAITERS
unWARIEST

over and out
OVER/OUT HAUL HEAR HUNT


three letter words surprise verbs (make 6 letter words)
AAH
ABY  ABOUGHT
ADZ adzing/dazing
ASH  fpASHING

BELGA former Belgian monetary unit

NONIONIC not ionic
hjOSTLERS hostler,  a person who tends horses or mules
KHEDIVE a Turkish viceroy khedival

One thing I learned at club tonight

1. If you get to the end of the game, and you've tracked correctly, and your opponent has DEERST? on their rack, BLOCK THE ONE POSSIBLE SPOT ON THE BOARD FOR THEM TO BINGO! Don't sit there and try and figure out what the 9's are through TA or IT. Just play something there in case they've already figured out a 9, (which you should have suspected since they weren't shuffling their tiles around at all, just waiting for you), RES(TA)rTED, for example.

In my defense, I stopped in for a quick game (sometimes on mondays I skip my lunch and try and squeeze a game in before I clock out of work), and just didn't have the patience to really figure out what bingos might have been possible. And at second glance, there was actually one other spot to bingo out. But I'm not sure she would have seen it.

Found word of the day

GMRUYYZ



-a branch of chemistry dealing with fermentation.

I'm sure I've seen this crazy word near the back of the OSPD, but I didn't remember it. It definitely jumped out at me off the cover of this magazine. (For those of you who haven't been reading long, I work at the post office, thus the often-captured words from magazine covers, etc.)

Found word of the day

AABIKSN.. spotted at the local florist. I've learned a few other good ones here.



an australian plant.

Add an E and you get the Japanese art of flower arranging.

7 more things I learned at club this week, and a rules question.

1. It feels good to go 4-0. I don't usually get to stay for more than 2 games.
2. I apparently have a reputation for not playing phonies. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing. (I still drew challenges on FURZY, ONERY, and RESITING, though.)
3. FORM takes and E hook. FORME also takes an E hook. FORMEE takes no hooks.
4. Double check what the blanks are before deciding you have no play. I held an X in my hand and passed for the last three turns because I thought a blank above a DWS was an 'I' instead of an 'E'. I could have played it for 36 points and instead my opponent racked up 50+ points including my X. Luckily I was up 130!
5. LOWBORN doesn't take an S (I wasn't 100% and didn't play it, luckily)
6. NICE has only one 4 letter front extension.
7. LEU only takes a D back hook.

Ok, here's the rules question: I play TODD(Y). Several turns later, opponent exchanges, and a few turns after that, on my turn, I notice that the T is missing from TODDY! Opponent says she may have taken the T somehow during her exchange but neither of us is sure. Both of us have played a T between the exchange and the current turn. Club is pretty laid back, so the club director suggests we leave the board as it is, even though ODDY* is now on the board. I end up making a play on that turn that puts another T on top of it, giving me more points than I would have otherwise gained. Seems kind of unfair, but on the other hand, I did discover that the tile was missing, (and I suspect that my opponent in fact did accidentally pick the tile up.) Anyone know the proper ruling on this? I don't want to post it to cgp if I don't have to.

If scrabble had a superheroine:

Her name might be:


Yup, delivered a letter to this person today. I've seen her name before, but never had my camera phone on me. I wonder if she knows that her last name is 'famous' in the scrabble world? I'm sure if I stopped her on the street and started babbling about it, she'd think I was really cool.

The other half of my dashboard

Some of you may have seen the scrabble rack near the center of my dash in previous posts... I thought I'd post this shot showing my flashcard storage area. (Notice my son's 'scrabble cards' label underneath) I also may use this post when people question a word I play on Facebook scrabble. I'll say, 'it's somewhere in that pile.'

7 things I learned at club this week

1. don't play a phony in a desperate attempt to win an unwinnable end game without seeing if it opens up an easy out-bingo for your opponent. (In this case, I had DDNNRU? and tried UNDeR(WET)* for 33, leaving me with an out play of D(O)N. Unfortunately, I didn't take the .5 seconds to see that I set him up for RELATIO(N)).

2. There are 4 bingos in LORSTY?.

3. There is 1 bingo in DELMNRY?.

4. There is an even awesomer* bingo in ADIRRWY?

5. GASSINGS is not a phony.

6. It's possible for me to make mistakes 2 thru 5 and still win a game.

7. I need to look harder for parallel plays when I don't have other ways to score decently.

Episode 59 notes

extensions
TARRIESt- STARRIEST
twARTIEST- HEARTIEST
RATITES- ZARATITES

snapbacks:
GLA GRA SEI ZINGS

VEXIL (vexillum, part of a feather)

HEX words
HEXAD a group of six HEXADIC
HEXADE a hexad
HEXANE a volatile liquid
HEXER one that hexes
HEXONE a hydrocarbon solvent
HEXOSE a simple sugar
HEXYL a hydrocarbon radical HEXYLIC

interesting hooks:

BLASTYier stably blowing in gusts

OBLAST(I) an administrative division of Russia OBLASTS

TRUNNELS (treenail)
FAROUCHE sullenly shy (no s) BAROUCHE: type of carriage
PHRATRY a tribal unit among primitive peoples PHRATRAL PHRATRIC
TACITRUN =URTICANTs

vAGUE a malarial fever AGUELIKE, AGUISH, AGUISHLY, AGUEWEED
CRUE* CURE ECRU
GRUEls a shudder of fear
SLUE to cause to move sideways
SPUE to spew

Episode 59

out now...
here
or
here

(ed. note: an astute listener pointed out an egregious error I made during the 'stupid tip of the week' section. this has now been seamlessly repaired and the new version uploaded.)

Another fill-in-the-blank quiz

This one has three answers, all pretty interesting, I thought. Notice the wrench in the picture, for emergency under-the-hood alternator belt tightening....

Seven things I learned at club this week.

hook1. If you're fishing off two tiles to get a bingo-prone rack, and the board is closed, put them somewhere that opens it up. (even if it's a few less points)

2. DULA* is not an alternate spelling of DOULA. (didn't challenge it, but mainly because it took the TWS for a low score, and I couldn't put anything there anyways.)

3. KAFTANS is good. (spotted on another board.)

4. AMI-, CAS-, EDU-, EVO-, PEC- and PLA- are all ways to extend an opening move of CABLE.

5. ALCADES is good. (anagram is eSCALADE; it's an alternate spelling of ALCALDES.  Interestingly, I knew ALCAIDE, which is a slightly different word, and convinced myself I was imagining it without the I.)

6. RELAYERS* is not good!!!! Best phony I've seen in a while.

7. EDGIER takes front hooks H, L, S, W. (couldn't remember them from a month ago, when someone played EDGY on me.)

The latest quiz from my dashboard

I've been staring at this one for a few days, and finally gave up on the answer (I wasn't sure if there was one.) The tiles are GHIIRT? in case you can't see.


Also, can anyone tell me why this is the most viewed page on my blog? Leave a comment, please.