…with Gary Moss

Archive for February, 2010

A recording of a camel’s moan was slowed down and used as the sound of a tornado in the movie Twister.

A certain player’s incessant moaning after drawing tiles has been recorded and used to sooth moaning camels.

Big Ben is not a clock but the thirteen-ton bell inside the clock tower of England’s House of Parliament.

Big Bertha is not a golf club with a gigantic sweet spot but instead is an oversized scrabble player from for Kissimmee, Florida who has a propensity for playing on Hot Spots.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

You can predict that a newbie will make the grade when he/she can identify all 101 2-Letter-Words with one eye shut.

Three of the first five U.S. presidents- John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe all died on July 4th.

Three of the top five players at Club #350 all bombed in their first sanctioned tournaments.

There are 1,218 peanuts in a single twenty-eight-ounce jar of Jif peanut butter.

There are 763 sub-anagrams between 2 and 15 letters long in Jif peanut butter.

If Jell-O is hooked to an EEG it registers movements virtually identical to the brain waves of a healty adult.

After having played in the 28 game National Scrabble Tournament, most players will describe their brains as being reduced to the consistancy of Jell-O.

The only two words in the English dictionary that have 5 vowels in a row are ‘miaouing’ and ‘queueing’.

Most scrabble players who find themselves with 5 vowels on their rack at the same time, on the other hand have 5 fingers.

At first, you might think that you are going insane, but you will know that you are on the right path to becoming a scrabble aficionado when you find yourself dreaming about words.

I recall the first time that it happened to me. I had been playing club scrabble, very seriously, for about 6 months. I had been frantically studying, several hours each week, trying to become good enough to beat some of the heavy hitters at the Livonia, Michigan club. My biggest stumbling block was not knowing any of the strange words that THEY played. Once, at club, I had the tiles: ‘A’ ‘E’ ‘I’ ‘L’ ‘N’ ‘O’ ‘S’ When I rearranged them and played ‘sealion’, I was quickly challenged off the board. (I could swear that ‘sealion was a real word. I remembered seeing the ‘sealion’ exhibit the last time I had visited Sea World.) At the end of the game THEY told me that the legal word on that rack was ‘anisole’. Who knew?

So on this night I was in the most comfortable state of sleep. The dream was about me involved in a scrabble game. My opponent had just played a word ‘aboiteau’, and I thought that he were just funning with me. I yelled, “CHALLENGE!” My yell was so loud that it woke me from my sound sleep. I woke up, very disoriented. Unlike other times, the dream was vivid in my mind. I turned on the lamp on my bedside table, got my bearings, and headed straight for my scrabble dictionary. Whereas most of my dreams fade away as my head gets farther from my pillow, this time it was firmly planted in my memory. I located the OWL and frantically thumbed through the dictionary until I found the entry: ‘aboiteau’. Then I remembered that one of the club gurus, Rodney, had played that word against me at club last week; I didn’t challenge it, assuming that it was acceptable, but I had never done my homework and looked it up after the game, to validate its correctness. Now I knew.

I wrote down the word, certain that I wouldn’t remember a thing about this event or the dream when I awoke, later in the morning.

But I did remember, a few hours later. When I shared my tale with other players in the days and weeks to come, I learned that I was not the only person who dreams about words. Actually, it is fairly common among scrabble players.

Since that time I have always kept a pad of paper, pen, and a scrabble dictionary on my bedside table, right next to the lamp.

I feel like I am one of the luckiest people in the world. One of the reasons for feeling this way is that I’m a scrabble player and I live in one of a few scrabble hot spots, where one can play at an NASPA sanctioned scrabble club, nearly every day of the week. I live in Orange County, California (half-way between LA and San Diego). If one is willing and able to drive a few miles, one can find an NASPA club within 50 miles on everyday of the week but Friday. Some days there are several clubs from which to choose.

The people who direct these local clubs are cut from a very special cloth. They are very welcoming to strangers and first timers; they are able teachers who help newbies start off on the right foot; they are knowledgeable about the rules and official word lists; they have the organizational skills to lead their clubs through an afternoon or an evening of delight with our lexicon.

Directors have to do a constant balancing act, dealing with people with many diverse personality styles. They are mediators, adjudicators, mentors, and janitors.

The most difficult task of a club director’s job, in my opinion, is finding and maintaining a suitable playing environment for their club. Minimal income from club fees precludes most directors from renting facilities; they have to develop and maintain rapport with the management of eateries, or book stores, or other private properties to house their activities.

In southern California we have some awesome directors who have stepped up to the plate and do all these things.

When you are in our area, you must make it a priority to come and play at our clubs. We’ll stop short at not allowing you an easy victory. We will provide you with a challenging game.

CLICK HERE to see where and when my clubs and tournaments are scheduled. Come and come often.

Sometimes I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s because we were all raised differently and I become confused when other people do things in other ways and have different standards of conduct.

When we play at clubs and tournaments we usually share our personal equipment. I brought out my brand new set of tiles (black letters on white tiles). They were fresh and clean. After the session when I was putting my things away, I noticed that several of my new tile were stained with ink. I understood where the ink came from and that made me only the madder. Some non-caring players, when counting their scores, place the inky tip of their pen directly onto the tiles as they count them. (Couldn’t they have simply pointed at the tile? Couldn’t they have touched the tiles with a finger that wouldn’t have stained the tile? Couldn’t they have cleaned the tile after dirtying it?)

One of my clubs plays in the cafe section at BORDERS book store. Their cafe tables are much too small to play upon. I made the management a deal that they could not refuse. I purchased two 8′ folding table for use at club, I house them at their store, and BORDERS could use them any time other than the few hours that we play each week. Management was delighted and agreeable. After the second week of use I noticed a few changes to my tables. There were places on the table tops where people had doodled and/or written; there was a wad of gum stuck to the bottom of on of the tables. In my mind I was certain that my players were not responsible. Many of the patrons who come to BORDERS use it to read, do homework, have personal meeting and the like. It is an unthoughtful yet common practice of many regular patrons to take books and magazines from the shelves, use them, then leave them abandoned on the cafe tables when they leave the store. About once every 20 – 30 minutes a store employee must be scheduled to wander the area, pick up the misplaced items and re-shelve them.

What are those users thinking? They obviously are not thinking.

Oh yeah, I learned that my suspicions about the dirtying of my tables and the gum were traceable back to thoughtlessness of some of my club members. Pretty sad and disgusting.

When I was a younger man and saw the likes of a curmudgeon, I’d take pause, take exception with his crusty nature and say to whichever of my friends that was nearest, “If I ever become like that guy, shoot me please.” The time for my taking a bullet may be near. The scariest part of all of this is that I am beginning to see parts of life from a curmudgeon’s perspective.

My experience of curmudgeons is that they are constant self-righteous complainers. They see flaws and find fault with most everything. My seasoned eyes now see the cracks and imposters that a younger man misses, due to his optimism, hope, and naivety.

I don’t get any sense of joy or satisfaction at the end of the day, when I am holding both blanks and am able to be an ‘I told you so’. I feel frustrated when I know how to avert a calamity, give a loud warning to the proper authorities, and still watch helplessly as misfortune is allowed to play itself out. . . . all in the name of political correctness.

Stanton. Need I say more.

By not enumerating the transgressions and using proper names, rubbing their noses in it, this is my of succumbing to pathetic, political correctness. I may be cowardly but I have no desire to be accused of slander.

And that’s all I have to say about that. . . for now.

A few NEW RULES and changes in the game of scrabble are now in effect beginning yesterday, February 2.

I find it very interesting to see the wide range of reactions when I inform long time players about the new rules. Everything from very serious interest to ‘who cares’.

The truth be known, most players know little more than the basic rules. I shouldn’t complain. If all players knew all the rules than I might be out of a job as a club and tournament director. The nonchalant players simply want to form words and lay words down on the board. They have no interest in studying the rules. And once in a while when their ignorance to a rule costs them a turn or a game or some time off their clock, they holler and moan.

I encourage all my scrabble students to know the rules, adhere to the rules, and hold all opponents accountable to following the rules too. On several occasions I’ve had to stand by, watching a rule being broken, where the victim didn’t know that he was being cheated. In one instance, the rule breaker went on to win that game and the tournament. Not only did the opponent lose the game, but the whole field was effected.

As a director, there are many instances when I can only step in when summoned by a player. If not called, a transgression is ignored and the perpetrator benefits.

One of the constants in our world is CHANGE; whether you like it or not. Sometimes, just when we like the way that our life is going, someone gets sick, someone loses their job, or someone wins the lotto. Each of these circumstances dramatically alter the lives of the primary person, and like the ripples on a pond, influence countless others in that person’s circle. The recent earthquake in Haiti has changed the lives of millions and the actions of Tiger Woods has disrupted the lives, not only of his family, but also the golf community and sponsors that were counting on him for a pristine image.

When change occurs, it takes a while for the ripples to calm down again on the pond. The bigger the splash, the bigger the initial ripples, the longer it takes for calm to be restored.

One of my scrabble students followed my lead and began to study the top 3 stems. After a day or two he complained to me that he seemed to be more confused than ever, he was very frustrated after trying to assimilate all the new information.

Like it or not, that is part of the learning process. The first step in learning things is to disrupt what was there before by adding something new. When the learner perists and familiarity causes the ripples to calm again, the new information will be inplace, thereby expanding ones’ knowledge and memory. Most learning is a process; it is not an event, like learning a single phone number.

Attitude plays a huge roll in dealing with change. Without diminishing the calamity suffered in Haiti, there were tens of thousands who perished and yet there were countless others who survived. The people pulled from under the rubble after several days must have had a tremendous will to survive, wrapped around a very positive attitude.

Those who study word lists with passion, do so knowing that others before them followed the same path to mastery. Others who give up after a day, a week, a month, or longer saying, “I can’t”, simply lack the kind of attitude necessary to conquer change.

YES YOU CAN.
(That will be the title of my talk on Thursday, February 11, at Laguna Woods Village, Laguna Woods, California. CLICK HERE. Admission is FREE. Even though the talk is pointed toward computer enthusiasts, the message is timeless and can be applied by all to their own area of interest.)

After going 0/4 at my club last Thursday, the only thing that I could remember was that I couldn’t remember that last club session when I was winless. I remember being mildly depressed on the ride home from club and feeling famished. I headed straight for my refrigerator and some comfort food.

After calming myself (cheese cake always makes me feel better), I strolled over to a book shelf and pulled out my copy of The Doctors Book of HOME REMEDIES. I searched the index and found that the answer to my problem might just be on page 360: Memory Problems (21 Ways to Forget Less).

Certain words and phrases jumped off the page at me. My eyes were drawn to others. ‘Older adults’, ‘high-blood-presser’, ‘depression’, and ‘nutritional deficiencies’ topped my list. The list continued to expand when I came to ‘new medications’.

One assessment that I could perform on myself, right here, at home alone was to give my mind a workout. I headed for the bathroom where I keep my supply of Sudoku puzzles. I frequently predict my ‘success-for-today-ratio’ based on my ability to successfully complete a puzzle or two. I began with an intermediate puzzle and whipped through it in no time at all. Next I tried a more challenging puzzle and was able to find success there too.

I thought back to my diet and tried to make a mental list of all the things that I had been consuming in the last few days. I gave myself a ‘C+’ rating for diet. I remembered that my medications had been altered about two weeks ago and promised myself that I’d talk to my doctor if my memory continued to be an issue. I booted Zyzzyva and took a review test on some video flashcards; I performed just fine.

Since I am diabetic, I reviewed my blood-sugar for the past two days. BINGO. The day before last I had experienced a major sugar low which resulted in my feeling extreme fatigue. I made a note on my calendar to track my memory for the next week.

I felt a bit silly at this point for having moaned all evening about the tiles on my racks. I may well have had poor combinations of tiles to play outstanding words, but I didn’t bring my best self to the competition.

An athlete can’t give their best performance if suffering from flu symptoms. A basketball player can’t have a great shot if they have a broken finger (unless their name is Kobe). A scrabble player should do all that is necessary to stay in peak shape too.

And it never hurts to review some stems. Need some lists? CLICK HERE.