…with Gary Moss

Archive for May, 2010

Most of us see the world from eye level, wherever we happen be. And if we are relatively comfortable and satisfied with our vantage point, you and I willl tend to remain stationary, from a little to a very long time.

We’re born into a family; we become part of a clan; we are fed the beliefs and prejudices of our parents and caregivers.

People generally don’t even consider becoming ‘free thinkers’ until their teen years. Often the choice that we make at that time is one of two extremes: in concert with our upbringing; in opposition to the lessons we’ve been carefully taught.

The lessons that I learned, as a Jewish boy growing up in a predominantly gentile neighborhood, may be different from yours, but I’d be willing to bet that there are many similarities, just wearing different costumes.

Aren’t we all just people? Don’t we all just want the same things for ourselves and our families? Isn’t our desire for Health, Peace, relative Wealth, and Love the same regardless of our roots?

And still, many people consider themselves superior to other groups of people. You need look no further to the offensive terms on The Pooh List to confirm the derogatory names that people have for other groups.

SCRABBLE offers us each the opportunity grow larger, as citizens of the world, and vault higher than the lowly stereotypic teachings of our clansmen. The scrabble community is like a mini United Nations. The lesson available is that we are all just people, regardless of our difference in appearance and sound.

(And some people have more luck than others at being able to pick the BLANKS, ESSES, and other prime tiles.)

P.S. Happy Birthday: Lieba, Joel, & Beth

I frequently find my inspiration to write on a particular theme while standing under a streaming, steaming hot shower. The ideas that live in my head are loosened up by the steam in the shower and then come pouring out. At times, my ideas stream out so quickly that a few great thoughts get away and flow down the drain with the suds from my bar of soap. I have learned over time to use a notepad as my dreamcatcher. If I don’t write things down within a few minutes, the inspiration can dissolve into thin air. And, if I fail to relive my vision by writing it out on my computer within the hour, the same concept that inspired me will sometimes seem to change and become trivial to me.

Believe it or not, there are times when I get down on myself and feel very low. It seems to me that the higher the highs, the lower the lows.

Feeling low or down and out, is no fun at all. And I have come to understand that it is a part of the human condition. I have also learned that we each have a choice about the way we respond to circumstances. Even if we’ve been trained by the examples of our parents and teachers, we each have the free will to choose our responses and actions.

Some will tell you to wait and pray; they’ll tell you that ‘TIME’ heals and changes circumstances. My approach is a different one. I believe in taking a positive action to facilitate CHANGE.

It was the Fall of 1967. Life was unfolding before me. I had been married for 3 years; I was a public school teacher; a daughter was born to me and my wife that September. Before December 18, 1967 I had never heard of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). But I became a fast learner. In a poof, Laurie was gone.

Heartache; devastation; guilt; meaninglessness; empty condolences from well-meaning family and friends; shock; self-doubt; uncontrollable sobbing; grief.

We’ve all experienced loss. In that moment, back then, I took it personally, as if I was different and had been singled out, like Job in the biblical story. But I never responded as Job responded to the tests that he confronted. My heroine in the story of Job was his wife. She was defiant. I became defiant and looked for some greater purpose for the loss of my first born. Shortly after the week of ‘shiva’ I began to develop a plan for the founding of a private school. Hours and days that may have been spent grieving, by others, were spent in dreaming and planning. In nine short months from mid-December, 1967 thru mid-September, 1968 an idea was conceived and a school was created (Bloomfield Nursery School & Kindergarten). During the 20 year run of that enterprise it served as many as 8,000 children.

It is not necessary to experience a loss to be inspired. You can find inspiration in the beauty of a sunset, in the smile of your child, in the energy of your dog, or in the way you just learned something.

Do a positive action to build on your inspiration. Make a difference in your own life and the lives of others. Do it in a small way or a big way, it doesn’t matter; just do it. There are big pay-offs when you are inspired and take a positive action: your behavior becomes an inspiration for others in ways that you may never know.

Seven year old scrabble player, Cooper Komatsu, is an inspiration to me and every other player who knows him. Knowing Cooper makes me double my efforts to become and even better player.

What inspires you? What positive actions do to intend to take? WHEN?

M. . . molds our being
O. . .oversees our development
T. . .teaches us right from wrong
H. . .holds our hand
E. . .encourages our curiosity
R. . .raves at our achievements
S. . .strong, savvy, and sentimental
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A. . .authentic and artful
R. . .reassuring and rational
E. . .energized and everlasting
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Q. . .quality control
U. . .understanding and unique
E. . .empathetic and emotional
E. . .exercises authority
N. . .never gives up on you
S. . .smiles, smells like springtime
.

The OWL2 includes this list of words with mother within.
CHEMOTHERAPIES CHEMOTHERAPY [n]
CHEMOTHERAPIST [n -S] s
CHEMOTHERAPISTS CHEMOTHERAPIST [n]
CHEMOTHERAPY [n -PIES]
FOREMOTHER [n -S] s
FOREMOTHERS FOREMOTHER [n]
GODMOTHER [v -ED, -ING, -S] s
GODMOTHERED GODMOTHER [v]
GODMOTHERING GODMOTHER [v]
GODMOTHERS GODMOTHER [v]
GRANDMOTHER [n -S] s
GRANDMOTHERLY [adj]
GRANDMOTHERS GRANDMOTHER [n]
HOUSEMOTHER [n -S] s
HOUSEMOTHERS HOUSEMOTHER [n]
MOTHER to give birth to [v -ED, -ING, -S] sy
MOTHERBOARD [n -S] s
MOTHERBOARDS MOTHERBOARD [n]
MOTHERED MOTHER, to give birth to [v]
MOTHERFUCKER [n -S] s
MOTHERFUCKERS MOTHERFUCKER [n]
MOTHERFUCKING [adj]
MOTHERHOOD [n -S] s
MOTHERHOODS MOTHERHOOD [n]
MOTHERHOUSE [n -S] s
MOTHERHOUSES MOTHERHOUSE [n]
MOTHERING [n -S] s
MOTHERINGS MOTHERING [n]
MOTHERLAND [n -S] s
MOTHERLANDS MOTHERLAND [n]
MOTHERLESS [adj]
MOTHERLESSNESS [n -ES]
MOTHERLINESS [n -ES]
MOTHERLINESSES MOTHERLINESS [n]
MOTHERLY maternal (pertaining to a mother) [adj]
MOTHERS MOTHER, to give birth to [v]
MOTHERY slimy (resembling slime) [adj]
NORMOTHERMIA [n -S] s
NORMOTHERMIAS NORMOTHERMIA [n]
NORMOTHERMIC [adj]
SMOTHER to prevent from breathing [v -ED, -ING, -S] sy
SMOTHERED SMOTHER, to prevent from breathing [v]
SMOTHERER [n -S] s
SMOTHERERS SMOTHERER [n]
SMOTHERING SMOTHER, to prevent from breathing [v]
SMOTHERS SMOTHER, to prevent from breathing [v]
SMOTHERY tending to smother [adj]
STEPMOTHER [n -S] s
STEPMOTHERS STEPMOTHER [n]

I am always meeting newer players at clubs who declare, “I can’t learn a word if I don’t know its meaning.” Wow, how did they every pass their final spelling tests every Friday throughout elementary school. (I am assuming that they passed those tests.) Sure, I’ll agree that it is usually a good thing to know the meaning of words. But come on now, how much memory does a poor guy possess?

Let’s say that I asked that guy to go through the dictionary and make a list of animals. When he comes across the ‘unau’, and has no idea what a two-toed sloth is, what should he do? Should he skip over it? Or should he think to himself, “what a great word to use to dump off two U’s. What should anyone poo-poo a legal word because they may never use it in everyday conversation. I bet the mother of a unau thinks her offspring is worth remembering.

Creating a list of animals or flowers or tools is very challenging. You could go to the google search engine and type in tools. You’d find the history of tools, pictures of tools, categories of tools and so much more. What you will not fine is a complete list of the tools that as listed as words in the OWL2. For that list you’ll have to use the Gary Moss method: open the OWL2 to page #1; place your index finger at the top of the page; bring it down the page slowly and look at the definition of each entry; if it is a tool, stop and record the word; continue . . . . . Depending on the amount of time you are willing to invest in each sitting, it could take you days to complete your list of tools.

Once you obtain the list you will discover that there are many that you already know and others which are new to you. You’ll also notice that there is no particular pattern of common letters that flows through your list. You’ll have to learn them each independently from the others. If you were to have A-E-H-M-M-R-S on your rack, you could play ‘hammers’, but you probably never learned ‘shammer’, because it is not a tool. And after all that work.

But some people want to do it their own way. Who am I to interfere?

The player who studies by using ‘stems’ is latching onto a system that was invented by and used by the best players in the game. The ‘stems’ focus on words with letters that have a high probability of being on your rack with regularity. There is a very small chance that any player will have both M’s + an H, needed to play hammer.

WARNING!! At first, many of the words created from stems will be unfamiliar. But like everything else, the more your study stems, the more familiar the words become. You can even take time to learn what those words mean, if you so choose. But you will learn that when you have the ‘SATINE STEM’ on your rack, and you have studied it, there could be one of the 69 bingos on your rack, depending on your 7th letter.

Who cares if on DAY #1 you don’t know the meaning of ‘etesian’ or ‘elastin’. By DAY #2 or DAY #3 you can learn them and they will appear on your rack 50 to 100 times before you’ll every play ‘hammers’.

I am not telling you not to have fun with category lists. But that is all it is . . . F.U.N. Serious players will use their energy more productively with efficient learning systems.

There are may STEMS. They are numbered from 1 – 100 in order of probability. The more you know, the luckier you’ll become. Learning the top 3 is a MUST. Learning the top 10 should be a priority. To make it easier for you, I have created them on BOOKMARKS and on WHIZ CARDS (flashcards). Get started today. See you in the ‘Winner’s Circle’ soon.

One of the most important parts of your anatomy when playing scrabble is your derriere. That’s not to discount the importance of your hands, fingers, eyes, ears, and brain. There are many players, in fact, who play scrabble very well without sight. ( The late, great, Cecile Betts taught a scrabble class at The Braille Institute in Santa Ana, California. )

Derriere or derrière, the word comes from French for “behind, or in back of”. That which we sit upon.

Scrabble players sit throughout every game, often for as long as 40 minutes to an hour. This demands some planning and preparation on the part of wannabes. First and foremost is comfortable underpants. You don’t want them too tight, hindering blood circulation; that blood down there will eventually have to make it’s way around your system and carry vital oxygen to your brain. There is no value in creating restrictions. Next, you don’t want them too loose where they’ll slip slide around and get caught in embarrassing configurations, causing you to tug and pull at your rump. A few extra pounds of padding in the buttocks will serve well, especially for longer tournaments and marathons.

A variety of tournament aides have been used and developed since Alfred BUTTS first invented the game, in the mid 1930s. Alfred was the first scrabble player known to have sat upon a pillow during a game of scrabble (hemorrhoids). Others saw him using a cushion and soon players from Maine to Montana were using a variety of pads and pillows to soften their seats. Shorter players like Penny Baker will use multiple cushions to increase their height at the table. ( In the early days, Penny and other used telephone books to sit upon; now that most phonebooks are a thing of the past and phone information exists on thin disks, it takes too many disks to achieve any significant height. And it hurts to sit on them.)

Trainers at SIFCT (Scrabble Institute For Cushy Tushies) have developed a regimen of movements and exercises, especially for scrabble players. The basic movement can be done as you are playing the game. It requires the player to rock from left-to-right and back again, from cheek-to-cheek of the buttocks. For ultimate success, trainers suggest that you rock in 3/4 time, as if waltzing. 4/4 time, it is warned, may be dangerous to your general health, and may cause blisters, sores, and night blindness. SIFCT also offers an entire product line of creams and oils for pre-club and pre-tournament use.

A habit is a behavior that one repeats with consistency. Some habits are empowering and productive; other habits are destructive and hurtful. All the habits that we embrace take a hold in our lives and become very difficult to modify or quit.

And all the while, we do possess the ultimate power to break old habits; we do have the ability to create new habits.

Think of a habit as something that occupies a space. It may even be something that we’ve made as important as part of the foundation of our life. If and when we remove it, that which it is built upon will collapse. So, we cannot just remove it. We must replace it with something else.

Many smokers over the years have reported that when they tried to quit smoking, they turned to eating (eating replaced smoking). Dieters are coached to replace bad menu choices with healthy foods and exercise. Alcoholics and drug users are taught how to use support groups like AA to change their behaviors.

In our schools, teachers coach students in the ways of working on schedules, being consistent, and remaining true to their study regimens. Students who follow these plans have fewer learning difficulties and tend to soar to the top of their classes.

Let’s talk about you and scrabble. How many words did you learn this week? How much time did you specifically use to build your personal ‘word arsenal’, today? Which ‘stem’ did you review this week? These are a few of the things that you need to be doing if you choose to become a more challenging scrabble opponent.

The people who opt to become my students, taking my online scrabble class, Scrabble 101, usually ask me before signing up, about the time commitment that I require. ( I will only accept students who agree to devoting a minimum of 15-30 minutes each day, 7 days each week, for 5 consecutive weeks.) Most people have extreme difficulty making such a commitment. But, in my opinion, that is what it takes to establish a new habit. People who become really good scrabble players develop that kind of regimen. Even the very best players know that without continually review word lists, the new words that you learn today with simply float away out of your memory.

Think about anything at which you became really good. Wasn’t there a link to the amount of time that you spent doing it? I dare say that it was one of your habits.

Is there anything that you need to do today?

A ‘scrabble daddy’ is someone who owns you. By that I mean that statistically they out draw you and beat you a very high percentage of the time. A scrabble daddy may or may not be a better player than you, having a higher sanctioned rating. But they seem to have incredible luck drawing the blanks and esses and they always seem to have the right stuff, whenever you create the slightest opening on the board.

It is possible to have more than one ‘scrabble daddy’.

More than likely, you are somebody’s ‘scrabble daddy’. Stop and think about it. Who do you tend to beat most of the time? That person probably doesn’t enjoy playing against you, as much as he/she enjoys playing against others.

There is one player, rated 200 points higher than me, whom I play against in club; he beats me 3 out of every 4 times during club competitions. Yet, whenever we play at tournaments I tend to beat him frequently. Why is that?

I’m certain that some psychology comes into play. When you get it into your head that someone is your ‘scrabble daddy’ or visa-versa, strange things seem to occur, with regard to drawing tiles and identifying words, that tilts the playing field, in favor of the ‘daddy’. Today I played my ‘scrabble daddy,’ Tom. He got both blanks, all four esses, and I missed catching an obvious phoney. I seem to be hypnotized into allowing him to win. I can’t account for the tile thing.

I’ve tried a number of different techniques to break the spell that Tom and my other ‘daddies’ have over me. None have worked so far. If you have some suggestions, I am willing to consider them.

Being a ‘scrabble daddy’ and quashing others feels empowering and validating. The two extremes are like night and day, pain and pleasure, tuna fish and hot fudge sundaes.

You know what I mean. After a stunning victory you are all smiles, all puffed up, quite the talker, retelling and reliving every bingo with vivid detail. Now remember a dreadful loss. You were pretty quiet and invisible afterward. You may have slouched in your seat or thumbed through the OWL2 searching for a weapon for your next encounter.

And to tell the truth, scrabble is a lot like the rest of life. Some days are diamonds while others are stones. It doesn’t matter whether were considering scrabble, the ups and downs of the stock market, the health of our family and friends, or the weather. There are good days, great days, not so good days, and disasters.

Whenever something falls into the category of being more of an extreme, it draws our attention. That’s what lopsided losses to others creates. Hence, the ‘scrabble daddy’ phenomenon.

Is it real? Or, does it only seem that way? One thing for certain, it is quite a challenge.

One of the keys to growing and building strength is with the use of stretching. Whether you are focusing on your body or your mind, without any exercise any muscle will turn to flab. (And in my opinion, there is nothing less attractive than a flabby thinker.) Physical exercise looks like walking, running, lifting, climbing, bending, breathing deeply, jumping, swimming, and more.
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But what exactly does stretching your mind look like?
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A ‘mind stretcher ‘ can do it sitting in a chair, walking through the mall, flying on a plane, driving in a car, and a gazillion other places. Mind stretching can involve, but is not limited to reading, writing, composing, debating, puzzle solving, and planning.
It is hard to get through a day without having an opportunity to stretch our minds. And yet many people work diligently on avoiding such opportunities, classifying those opportunities as ‘WORK’.
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In the senior community where I reside, upwards of 27.6% of all seniors would rather coast than meeting the challenge to learn anything new. They want to live out their days without change and do things the same ways that they always did them in the past. These folks don’t want to know a thing about computers, iPhones, or digital cameras. They don’t want to be bothered with anything that they don’t already know. A scrabble coach, such as myself, has no chance of convincing these people that ‘aa’, ‘qat’, or ‘za’ are words. They play scrabble but will only use words like ‘mother’, ‘apple’, ‘pie’, and ‘country’.

In my opinion, there is a MIND/BODY connection. The 72.4% of seniors who are willing to stretch themselves to the point of breaking live longer, healthier, and more interesting lives. . . right up to the end.

I think it is easy and fun for wordsmiths to stretch their minds all day long, with little effort. We are surrounded by words all day long. There are words on signs, in our cars, on menus, on documents, in books, and, and, and. I bet you can’t go even a minute without encountering a word. To some, words are just there. To folks like me words invite ‘word play’: I’m sitting at Bruegger’s having my morning coffee and I notice the flier on the table that says, “Eat your veggies.” That reminds me that another spelling for veggies=vegies; last week, while waiting for a scheduled doctor’s appointment, the doc was predictably late. I took out pencil and paper, wrote physician at the top of the page and made a list of as many words as I could using the letters in ‘physician’. I found 130 before the doctor was ready for me. Later at home I checked and there are a total of 192 words I could have found.

Check out the partial list of words that begin with ‘head’. If you find list fun, you may want to create some of your own lists or purchase one or more of my books of lists. CLICK HERE.

STRETCH YOUR MIND!

Most people are not listening or paying attention.

It was 1981. I was taking part in a ‘personal growth’ seminar known as EST. The facilitator stood at the front of the room and greeted the audience of 500 attendees. He began by explaining that one of the simple practices, in this seminar, required that we not be wearing a watch or have any other time-piece in our possession, during each session. He invited anyone with such a device to take it to one of the monitors at the front of the room at the right or left, and check it with them. We could reclaim our property at the end of the session.

About 250 of the 500 people got up and went to one of the two long lines on opposite sides of the front of the room to comply. The checking in took as long as an hour, if I remember correctly. The group leader called for our attention again, after the last person from the lines returned to their seat. He told us that the core principles of this experience was related to acknowledgement and honesty. He then repeated his original request, asking those who still had time-pieces in their possession to get up, and check them in with the assistants at the front of the room.

I thought to myself, “How silly, there can’t be anyone who defied his original request.”

About 125 people got up and walked sheepishly to the front of the room and complied. (This time we waited about 30 minutes for the exchanges.)

Again the leader thanked those in the second group of respondents. He then repeated the request for a third time and pointed out that some in this group simply have to be willing to give it up and comply if they hoped to get any value out of this seminar.

Another 50 people rose from the pack and strolled to the front. The masses, who had already complied, gave this group hostile looks and I remember thinking to myself, “What were they thinking. They’re wasting my time.”

The facilitator did the same thing for a 4th time, a 5th time, a 6th time, and even a 7th time. Each time he made the request, yet another few people gave up their time-pieces.

I didn’t realize until years later the value of that lesson:

People Do Things For Their Own Reasons, Not Yours.

This past week I was trained to be a employee of the 2010 Census. I found myself in a classroom with 40 other trainees. In my opinion, not much has changed since 1981. People are still doing things for their own reasons. The group was asked to silence our cell phones; guess how many people’s phones still rang. We were asked to listen to the trainer; guess how many people found it necessary to talk among themselves and then have to ask someone else later, “What did she say?”

If you play scrabble by the rules, there are many, many rules that are important to know and live by. For instance, when you draw your tiles from the tile bag you are supposed to hold the bag in one hand, at eye level or higher, and select the tiles with the other hand. Some people are still too lazy to raise their arms; instead they lay the bag on the table and slide the tiles out. Sometimes they see extra tiles and return some to the bag. (That’s not fair. But they don’t seem to care.) When many little kids get a ‘NEW’ toy or game they want to play right away. They have little to NO patience to read the rules. Many adult scrabble players are exactly the same. They believe that they know the rules and begin playing right away. These people will even take exception and offence to another person correcting them.

If you’re going to do something, why not do it right?

LEARN THE RULES. DO IT RIGHT. CLICK HERE for FREE.

AHA Moments happen everyday throughout this great country. For some sick reason, the masses are mesmerized by blood and guts, so that’s what fills the airwaves on the evening news. Tooooo bad.

Good stuff happens all the time too. We just don’t hear about a lot of it.

Nothing is as powerful as the moment when a person learns something ‘NEW’. Their eyes light up, they stand taller than before, there is a lilt in their step, and sometimes they’ll even fall down and roll around in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

A little 1st Grade boy in Mrs. Metzger’s class in Long Beach, California learned how to read today; a middle school, 7th Grade girl, in Columbus, Ohio earned all ‘A’s on her mid-term exams. A 5th Grade class in Corpus Christi, Texas raised $10,000 for Haitian relief, and thousands of students are participating in competitive scrabble events in schools from coast to coast.

Isn’t life amazing.

It was 1880 in northwest Alabama. An infant girl, having been born with full sight and hearing, lost both after an illness at about the age of 2. She lived in a world of darkness; she lived in a world of silence; some, including members of her own family gave up on Helen Keller, believing that she was now a monster. And then, a few years later, in 1887, something amazing occurred. A teacher, Anne Sullivan, came to meet and work with Helen, and opened doors via teaching and learning, that changed many lives, and the way that we view blindness and deafness.

Those of us without handicaps have it so good. We can do and learn almost anything we choose.

As you know, I am a dedicated teacher. I’ve been teaching things to others for more than a half century. As a young teen, I taught lessons and gave talks in the youth group; I worked as a camp counselor through my high school years, guiding six year olds; I obtained my degrees in Education from Wayne State University and taught reading and math and science in Detroit, Michigan and its suburbs; from ’68-’88 I was headmaster of a school which I founded in West Bloomfield, Michigan; and since that time I have fashioned my life being a Johnny Appleseed type character for the game of scrabble.

I love learning; I love teaching; I love the skills and knowledge that scrabble brings to its devotees. You may assume that the scrabble game is solely about ‘words’. But you’d be very wrong. Scrabble is about life and interactions; its about perceptions and strategies; its about memory and history; its about decision making and building relationships; its about learning and cherishing knowledge.

The learning is just sitting there, waiting for you, whenever you choose to dive in. CLICK HERE!