October 03, 2004
Word Freak
Fatsis befriends a band of Scrabble misfits. There's Joel Sherman, a top player who claims that his gastro-intenstinal problems prevent him from holding a steady job (thus earning mimself the moniker "G.I. Joel"). After winning a national championship, G.I. Joel states, "This basically validates my existence."
Then there's Matt Graham, a vitamin popping stand-up comedian who loves to bet on games, and his friend Marlon Hill, an unemployed trash-talking African American. Joe Edley is a three-time Scrabble Champion practices yoga and uses the principles of Zen Buddhism in order to prepare for games. There's even Scrabble players who play in English, but can't speak it. Fatsis also makes a pilgrimage to the home of Alfred Butts, the inventor of Scrabble.
The characters are memorable enough to carry the story through more esoteric passages (such as the details of how the official Scrabble dictionaries came to be). In one intriguing coincidence, Fatsis happens to talk with a homeless person outside of an airport. He discovers that the disheveled shell of a man is a former Scrabble expert. Luckily for Fatsis, he achieves his goal of achieving expert status within a year and thus is able to return to a life of normalcy before being overwhelmed.
October 01, 2004
A puzzle of sorts
This position came up today. I came up with a 101 point play. Can you find it? My rack is shown at the top: ABILOPR.
If you click on the link below you will find the answer.
The answer is BIPOLAR on O7 for 101 points, which also forms MACER and FA.