…with Gary Moss

Archive for March, 2010

My family moved into an upstairs flat on Northlawn in the summer of 1948. I turned 6 years old that summer. Six is an exciting age; I was finally old enough to ride my shiny red 20″ Schwinn two-wheeler around the block by myself. Six can be a scary age; all those rules that come with a little independence weigh heavily, if one has a conscience. Being the new kid on the block at six is awkward; going from not knowing anyone to becoming the center of attention for a few days, until you meld in with the others. I didn’t have any ‘friends’ to invite to my birthday party so my mom simply invited every kid on the block who was between the ages of 5 and 7. She made sure that they all had a good time and passed out great party favors to insure that they would remember me and my party. Within a few hours I ………………………………………was one of the gang.

It was the summer that I turned 13. I had just graduated the 7th Grade as President of my class at Noble Elementary School. Most of my neighborhood friends were heading to Tappan Intermediate School. My folks wanted me to attend Post Intermediate School, where I would meet more kids who practiced our same religion. It was very upsetting for me at first, not going forward with all my elementary school friends. But you know how parents are (or were). They made those kind of decisions. So while my neighborhood buddies stood on the corner of Northlawn at Schoolcraft for their bus, I had to walk six blocks and take to city buses to get to my school. When I got to Post, most of the kids there, had been friends for years in their previous schools. Again, I found myself being the new kid in the group with its perks and drawbacks. Within a week or so I began to feel comfortable at school, but after school was over each day I traveled separately from my classmates. And yet again, I developed a new set of friends.

In 1964, at age 22, I got married; me and everyone else that I knew. During those days it seemed that every other weekend there was another wedding party. Besides being the timely thing to be doing, it provided a deferment for young men from being drafted into the army. It was a time when couples were friends with other couples who were experiencing the growing pains that newlyweds go through. We partied together, we bowled in mixed doubles leagues, we shared dinners out on the weekends, and we poured out our souls to each other when there were bumps in our relationships.

No matter what our age or stage, it is common to seek out others who are similar to ourselves in one regard or another. Most find it easiest to relate to people who are going through the same kinds of experiences, who share similar beliefs, or who have similar interests. You won’t find me at the ballet (Unless I’m trying to make points with some fair lady.) You won’t find me in attendance at a curling match (Unless I’m in the market for a new broom.) And wherever there is competitive scrabble being played, you can count on finding me there.

And so we find and make our friends in the places we spend our time. Scrabble isn’t nearly as much fun for me when I play against a faceless computer as it is playing against a live Jim or Pat or Amnon or Gretchen. And so at this time in my life my friends are a set of scrabble addicts.

Isn’t that what life is all about anyway?

I wonder WHY.

Why you went away

Why is ‘I’ before E except after “C’

Why are politicians cloned into ‘Stepford Wives’ after we elect them

Why do people still text while driving

Why aren’t convicted rapists and murderers simply hung

Why did Alfred Butts really put 9 ‘Is’ in the tile mix

Why doesn’t everyone in the world want to own WHIZ CARDS

Why do I always get the good tiles against weaker players and get awful racks when I play the experts

Why has your smile lost its glory

Why people live in the Arctic Circle

Why everyone doesn’t own a ‘magic jack’

Why people like ‘Rap’

Why everyone isn’t entitled to basic health care?

Why this night is different from all other nights only two nights each year

If scrabblesense is only ‘common sense’

I WONDER.

It kills me every time I meet a newbie. They look at the board and say are those real words? They say it as if they know every word in the dictionary. Duh.

Most people know as little as 5% of the words in the dictionary and probably a lesser percent of other general information. For instance:
Did you know that Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald?
Did you know that ‘stewardesses’ is the longest word typed using only the left hand? (That doesn’t apply if you hunt and peck like I do.)
Did you know that the sight of oranges in all three Godfather films signals that death, or a close call, is about to happen?
Did you know that there are 3 seven letter words in the OWL2 that have no vowels? (glycyls, tsktsks, and rhythms)
Did you know that before becoming famous for her culinary arts, Julia Childs did intelligence work during WWII?
Did you know that there are approximately 1750 ‘Os’ in every can of SpaghettiOs?
Did you know that Alfred Butts put 9 ‘Is’ in the scrabble tile mix just to infuriate ME? (I made that one up, but at times I think it is true.)

The point is, none of us know everything (except my ex-wife). If you are like me, you welcome new information. For me, that enjoyment extends to words. Every time I play scrabble at club, even after 20+ years, I still learn a new word or two from my opponents.

On a recent drive from Orange County, CA. to a club in Escondido there were three of us scrabble players. When scrabble players are together the topic always comes back to words. Gretchen Cowan pointed out the wealth of words related to the ‘ hearts stem’, words like ‘berthas’, ‘hardset’, and ‘aethers’. That prompted me to create a set of WHIZ CARDS for the ‘Hearts STEM’ as soon as I got back home.

As a former teacher, my interest has always been on learning and conveying information to others in a way that it would stick. My WHIZ CARDS work for most people. However, like acquiring most knowledge, you can’t obtain it by sitting on or sleeping on the dictionary. You actually have to look at the WHIZ CARDS and review them in order for them to have an impact.

Many newbies realize how little they know, become overwhelmed, and vanish. Some newbie become excited about the things that they are about to learn and the personal challenge that confronts them.

“No matter how much you think you know, there is still so much more to learn.”
~ Gary Moss

SPECIAL OFFER: The HEARTS Stem on WHIZ CARDS. CLICK HERE

As you already know, it is not permissible to legally play proper nouns when playing the game of scrabble. However, many of the words that in fact may be proper nouns at one time, can also be used as ‘common nouns’.

Which of the following words can not be used as common nouns?
___bob
___gloria
___einstein
___newton
___godiva
___louie
___lulu
___henry
___betty
___benny

.
.
.
.

I have taken the time to make an exhaustive list of 100′s of words that are at times considered Proper Nouns, but have another Common Noun meaning. In consideration of your donation to JFTSOI (Just For The Spell Of It), I will gladly send you a copy of that list, via email in a PDF format. CLICK HERE

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY

Erin go bragh = ‘Ireland Forever’

Erin go braugh is a phonetic version of “Éirinn go brách,” which in Irish (Gaelic) means “Ireland Forever.” It was an Irish blessing used to express allegiance to Ireland.
It could also translate as “Ireland ’till doomsday,” “Ireland until eternity,” “Ireland until the end (of time)” or “Ireland until the Day of Judgment.”
(Éire and Éirinn are both used as names for Ireland.)

In 1956 Robert Briscoe became the first Jewish, Lord Mayor of Dublin. It was at that time that my Jewish Baubee told me that on St. Patricks Day the whole world is Irish. So, Erin Go Bragh.

And since sharing is a good thing, I’m sure that it will be completely okay with the Irish if we scrabble players borrow the verbiage and apply it to our beloved game that has us hooked.

Scrabble Go Bragh

We humans, for the most part, are collectors. We accumulate all sorts of things over time. Many of us find it difficult to let go of things for a whole variety of different reasons. As long as we remain in the same household we rarely notice the growing mass of ‘stuff’ that we gathered over time. But if you ever moved, and were involved in the packing process, you know about all of that ‘stuff’ that you put into boxes. And if you’ve made several moves you know how that ‘stuff’ has followed you from place to place, sometimes having never been unpacked since first being put into the storage box.

If you have a storage locker somewhere, and I asked you to enumerate the things that are in that space, could you tell me? As for me, every time I look in my storage locker it is like traveling back in time to visit old memories. Everything in my locker has a personal story. That’s why it is so hard to actually throw things away. We each have our own personal history museums in our storage lockers. If we toured my locker you’d find my bowling ball (even though I haven’t bowled for more than 20 years), you’d find several formerly used scrabble boards, old dictionaries, a set of golf clubs, some roller-blades that I used about three times, 3 space heaters, 4 umbrellas, WHIZ CARDS, beach chairs, 3 scrabble carpets, several unlabeled/sealed boxes with unknown contents, tools, books, a bag of unused pencils from the 2000 Census, and lots of dust.

When I left Michigan in 1995 and drove West, I took only as much as would fit into my 4 door sedan. Somehow over time my ‘stuff’ expanded to fill my home and my storage locker.

In spite of having so much ‘stuff’, most of it doesn’t really mean that much to me. There are only 3 things among all the ‘stuff’ that I consider as my prized possessions: Louis Freedman’s watch; Abe Moss’ ring; and Harmon Moss’ shoes.
Louis Freedman was my grandfather, my mother’s father. He went awol from the Czar’s army, in Russia in the 1890s because the shoes issued to him were making him lame. He made his way to America, via Ellis Island and brought over his wife and child. He hated New York so he found his way to Detroit, with the help of a cousin. There he opened a tailor and cleaning shop on Hamilton Avenue. He was a hard working family man. In his last years, while I was still living in my parent’s home, he share a room with me and my brother. He was a loving grandfather. He was a clothes horse and always dressed in a suit and tie, every day of his life; the tie hid a goiter, due to a thyroid problem. His gold pocket watch passed down to me after his passing. Dementia stole him away from us in his final days.
Abraham Moss was my grandfather, my father’s father. Abe was born in the United States to immigrant parents in the 1890s. He was a hard working family man all the days of his life. Abe loved to write and rhyme. At one point he wrote articles published in the The Toledo Blade. The love of grandpa’s life was his sweet Jenny, my grandmother. The story has it that the ring that I now wear on the middle finger of my right hand was an engagement gift from Jenny to Abe, in 1916.
Harmon Moss was my dad. My dad taught me many life lessons through the years. In my memories, my dad was always working hard, but never realized material wealth and riches. The story goes that while dad was a later teenager, he, his brother, and his father were all the same size. Between them they owned 6 sets of underware, 6 pair of sox, 6 shirts, and 3 pair of trousers. The first one up in the morning got pick of the clothing, etc. Grandma washed and ironed clothes every night to keep her men looking fresh. Later in life when he could afford it, my dad always bought multiple shirts, shoes, and jackets. After dad passed, the one thing that I wanted as a remembrance were his shoes. And I still proudly walk in them.

Oh yeh, I do like the custom scrabble board that I built in 1988.

Many of us learned to play scrabble as children. I played with my mom and maybe a few friends. I don’t specifically recall if any of my teachers used scrabble in the classroom, but it would have been a good idea back then. (Thousands of teachers now use the game of scrabble as a teaching tool.)

At some time, while playing and merely forming words with the tiles, the playful game shifted into a competition: et tu Brute? My friends and teachers were out to beat me and show me up with longer words and bigger scores. For some it was the parting of the ways. Those who didn’t enjoy competition formed human circles and played ‘Hug Of War’. The rest of us discovered the thrill of searching the dictionary of obscure words that when played might earn a challenge from our opponents.

Friendships altered. Now we were always jousting with words and wit. Our demeanor and never-ending quest for impressing each other caused us all to grow dynamically. Words were everywhere. We sparred in English class, History class, and Biology class. We anagrammed signs as we walked to and from school. (The STOP sign represented: OPTS, POST, POTS, SPOT, STOP, and TOPS.) The YIELD sign had no anagrams but it did contain 27 smaller words made up from its letters.
We all graduated and went our separate ways. We established our careers and families. During vacation times we went to resorts, went on cruises, went camping, and hosted family gatherings. At those times we played games and frequently the maroon scrabble box and a dictionary came out of the closet to provide some fun for all. Those of us ‘word nerds’ were in our glory on these occasions and our word prowess was unleashed. While we basked in the joy of words, many of the others shrunk away from the game; those remaining took fifteen or twenty minutes to fashion a single word. It was clear that nobody wanted to play with us and we became bored by their elementary level of play.

Then came the 1970s and along with it, the beginnings of the NSA (National Scrabble Association). Scrabble clubs began to spring up in and around some of the major cities.

There is nothing more satisfying than being with like-minded-people. When ‘word nerds’ found other ‘word nerds’ the angels smiled. There was a downside too. For the first time ever there were ‘scrabble widows’ and ‘scrabble widowers’. For the most part, couples adjusted; and they tell me that there were a few casualties too.

So on this March 15th, The Ides Of March, we remember Caesar and the lesson learned, that even your closest friend can be you major opponent and biggest challenger.

WHIZ CARDS are flash cards but flash cards are not necessarily WHIZ CARDS.

An Aside: My college degrees, both B.S. and M.A. are in education. I taught in the public schools, in Detroit and Oak Park, Michigan for five years in the 1960s. I founded a private school in 1968 and served as its Headmaster for about twenty years. Over the years I worked directly with students with learning disabilities and students who were gifted. All the while I observed that one teaching technique that is universal and works is ‘Flash Cards’. So, when I became obsessed by the game of scrabble and set my sights upon learning the words in the dictionary, it was only reasonable for me to assume that flash cards were the tools that could be of best use. Other competitive players who had already been playing, years before me, had their own methods for building their word power. And just like any teacher would build a curriculum, along with the necessary tools to impart knowledge, I set out to design my WHIZ CARDS to benefit scrabble enthusiasts.

WHIZ CARDS are flash cards, organized in specific sets; each set teaches a specific lesson. As you might imagine, with more than 155,000 words in the OWL2, there are many lessons to be learned and many different approaches that one could use to take on a challenge.

Because people are all different, people have different styles in which they learn. People have different life styles and schedule, so the tools had to be fashioned so that people would use them, not put them into a drawer. People like immediate gratification, so the tools had to be user friendly and productive.

But like everything else that is worthwhile, the users still have to expend some energy to attain a favorable result. No pain; no gain.

The sample card pictured above shows both the front side and the back side of a single card. This is WHIZ CARD #8, from a set of 26 cards, which focuses on the SATINE-STEM, converting the 6 letter stem to 7 letter words. The meaning of the words are secondary to competitive scrabble players. If you wish to learn the definitions, you are welcome to do so. But for most of the top players in the game, scrabble is a memory game and a game of strategies and word placement.

There is a very good reason that scrabble players will want to master the SATINE 6′s To 7′s. These six tiles have the highest probability of appearing randomly on your rack during a game. The savvy player who knows the SATINE stem realizes that SATINE + A = entasia or taenias and earns a 50 point bonus for using all 7 tiles on a single turn; the less knowledgeable player will play ‘stain’ for a few points.

If you want some direction in how to improve your game, drop me a line: jftsoi.moss@gmail.com

The power of WHIZ CARDS is awesome.

If you don’t believe me, just reread the history books or watch the evening news.

History and Herstory clearly show us that societies and despots denied education to most in order to keep them captive and subservient. Women, the poor, slaves, serfs, untouchables, and others spent most of history and still continue their fight for the knowledge that will set them free. When you think about it from the perspective of the dictators and kings and popes and Caesars, it is very scary and threatening to imagine a world of free thinkers, learners, and doers. Slaves in Roman times, in the Americas, and those currently living in fear and ignorance around the world today, exist/ed by their master’s whim or grace.

Scattered among the pages of history we find stories of rare individuals who were able to break out of their bondage and achieve significant gains for themselves and others: Joseph, Moses, Jesus, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, George Washington Carver, Nelson Mandela, Alfred Butts, and Oprah are a few who come to mind. On the other side of the ledger you won’t find Agrippa, Crispus, Mariana, Ijaba, Melvin Lang, and Jaabili. They were the worker bees; they lived and died with little if any recognition.

Serve yourself and others with your devotion to educating the multitudes. My way is with scrabble. Some may believe that scrabble is only a game, but I understand the ways in which it can unlock minds, providing a global experience through words, definitions, and relationships. Serious scrabble players quickly discover their primary style of learning. That style when put to proper use opens countless avenues acquiring any other knowledge. And the most important thing that people in these circles learn is that ‘THEY CAN’. And if they choose, these same learning tools can open most any other door to other knowledge. Set yourself free. Attend Club #350 or the 1st Sunday Tournament in southern California. If you live somewhere else, write to me for information about another venue in your community. . . jftsoi.moss@gmail.com

Here’s our chance for a little advantage. I’ve been keeping track of the effects that DST (Daylight Savings Time) has on the general population. . . and scrabble players in particular.

Did you know that 22.2% of the population will not realize that Sunday, March 14, 2010 is the day that DST goes into effect? Those folks will realize it when they get to the scrabble club or tournament LATE and realize that their clock has been started by the director.

HINT: Always play in a scrabble tournament that falls on DST day in the spring and you’ll have the extreme advantage of winning the first game via a forfeit.

Did you know, that even though some brillant PR staff of yore penned the slogan ‘Fall Back, Spring Forward’ 11.7% of people move their clocks in the wrong direction, when resetting them on DST Day?

What does that say?

If on Saturday night you go to bed at the same time as usual and wake up at the usual clock time on Sunday morning, you will in fact have had 1 hour less sleep. That doesn’t seem like much, but it makes a significant difference for many people. Large numbers of people will be tired on Sunday; people will be cranky; people will have short tempers; there will be more road rage, people abuse, and profanity. If you live in Arizon or other locations that do not readjust their clocks, it will be life as usual. (You folks can disregard this post.)

HINT: Go to bed early on Saturday night. Adjust your schedule to get the amount of sleep that your body requires. Avoid grumpy people on Sunday. Go to the movies after playing scrabble at Club #350.

Spring ahead with a spring in your step.