Jack’s Winning Words 4/29/20
“Old McDonald had a terrible Scrabble hand.  E-I-E-I-O.”  (Juicy Quotes)  Rachel is a good
Scrabble player.  She knows lots of 2-letter words and the obscure ones, too..  But, what do you do with E-I-E-I-O?  Some situations seem impossible! After thinking for a while. OE is a Faroe wind.  There are 6 other words using those tiles.  6?  How is that possible?  Some life problems seem to have no answer.  But, as the teacher used to say, “Put on your thinking cap.”  ;-)  Jack

FROM LBP:  If grandma got tiles like that she would start giggling, show me, and sing e-i-e-I-o. We played scrabble a lot so a hand full of vowels happened a lot. Grandma wasn’t super competitive about scrabble. Of course we kept score, but a good game to her fit all the tiles in. There are many old score papers in the scrabble box. A history of time spent with others.===JACK:  I wonder what it feels like not to be competitive?===L:  Her sister was very competitive. She would block spaces and target the big points.... no hints... no dictionaries. It's a different kind of fun to think about it strategically that way. Grandma did not like playing with her sister. For us it was just a social exercise. Like some folks might have a knitting circle, we had our scrabble games. I figured it was helping us get spelling and math practice when we were kids, but lots of folks visited grandma to play a game of scrabble, boggle, or similar games. Given that she was so shy, I wonder if it gave her something to do while visiting. Having tea and cookies, with a game of scrabble does give definition to a social visit.   ===JACK:  I like Grandma's way best.

FROM HY YO SILVER:  Oi- I have no idea.   Kidding. Only one I could think of is “I”.    A little help?  !That’s two. Oi and I.===JACK:  I have to laugh at your response.  I've heard my Jewish friends say, "Oi Vey!" but I've never stopped to ask for a translation.  I could Google it, but I'd rather ask you.===HYS:  It is Yiddish and doesn’t translate directly.  It is an exclamation of emotion. Often a depressed or frustrated or depressed term. It expresses grief but can be used in many ways. ===JACK:  OI VEY!!!

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I play VERY competitive Scrabble games with my daughter, and am familiar with the vowel two letter words like:AA,AE, OE, and two letter wds, like ZA,AR,AY,QI,XU,ETC! Recently I was able to use ALL 7 of my  tiles, which has big bonus pts., for the first time with her...she has done it several times!. I never beat her, but at times I come close, and it's a very good way to "think outside the box" and creatively use your letters to count for the most points! Sarah actually had a coffee mug made for me with all of the Scrabble two letter wds. allowed, so it's handy to grab my mug, and search for one, when I'm in a bind!  Quite unique!  My whole family is super competitive with games, but that makes for extra fun in winning! :-) Code Name is a new game that is challenging to play, with teams!===JACK:  No competitive Scrabble with someone who's a smirker, or with someone I hate losing to.  Which translates....I HATE TO LOSE!  I like the idea of a 2-letter-word coffee cup===BO:  So you play hard and well! But we all lose our share, right?!===JACK:  That describes it.  I'm proud of the words I know, especially obscure ones...and when people look them up, they're generally valid.  I like that feeling more than winning.