…with Gary Moss

Archive for June, 2010

This experience has happened to me more than once. I’ll be at a scrabble club and meet a player, thinking it is our first meeting. Sometime in the next few minutes the person says to me, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I apologize for not remembering them. Then they go on to tell me that they played me during some tournament, 14 years ago. They then continue to tell me what they played on their opening play and then what I played next. I stare at them in disbelief that they can remember all this. There is no way that I would know if they are for real or just pulling my leg. (But the scary thing is that I know that they are for real.)

I have recounted the story of my loss to Chuck Armstrong in 1993, many times. But that was one of a few amazing comebacks in the history of scrabble where he score nearly 200 points on his last play to snatch victory out of my grasp. But remembering something ordinary? What color shirt were you wearing on October 21, 2002?

Many of the expert players review, reconstruct, and dissect most of their games at games’ end. They are always thinking ‘what if this’ and ‘what if that’. I can see some point to doing that. They are looking for strategical errors that they may have made in the heat of battle. Sometimes I’ll hear one expert say to another expert, “you could have played usufruct.” I’m sorry, you can’t play something that you don’t know.

Within a few minutes after a game is over, in my mind ‘what’s done is done’. On to the next. Most novice and intermediate players I know are that way because they don’t ponder words and strategies like the experts. They find their fun and pleasure by simply identifying words on their racks and getting them down on the board. When I was a budding player I had the pleasure of meeting Reverend Andrew Allie. I had just returned home from the National Scrabble Tournament in New York, in 1989. I had been fortunate enough to have finished first among the players with ratings under 1400. The Detroit News had featured me in an article. My telephone rang. The African voice introduced himself as Andrew. He said something like, “They say here in the newspaper that you are a scrabble champion. That’s not true. I am the champion. I challenge you.” I told him that I would meet him. He was at Pontiac General Hospital where he served as a chaplain. It was 2PM. I said that I could be there by 4PM. We took over one of the visitors lounges and played endlessly until two o’clock in the morning. We became fast friends and met for scrabble games many times each week for years. When each game finished, Andrew flipped the board, scooped the tiles back into the tile bag, and went on to play the next game.

What’s done is done.

Check out some of the custom scrabble boards that we play on. If you want one, I can hook you up.
CLICK HERE

Do you ever wake up in the morning after an amazing dream, knowing that you’ve seen the light, then sit on the edge of the bed trying to remember every detail before they seep away like some lapping waves returns to the ocean?

Have you ever experienced a close call and had thoughts and memories flood your senses, bringing renewed resolve to how precious your life is, how fragile, and how fleeting?

Have you ever questioned whatever it is, that you do: your work, your recreation, playing scrabble, polishing your car, reading trashy novels? (Is this of value or just frittering away valuable time?)

When I begin thinking these thought I virtually begin shrinking in size and visualize myself as merely a drop of rain in the grander thunderstorm of things. I am merely playing my part on this stage we call Earth in some remote place in the universe. If there are even half the number of stars that scientists tell us there are, we are each mere specks, like the grains of sand at the beach. And if time on this planet is 4 billion years and counting, our entire lifetimes will consume less than a fraction of a second.

We humans are so fearful of the unknown that we have constructed belief systems and distractions to comfort ourselves, lest we go mad trying to wrap our minds around questions for which there are no answers. The ‘great religions’ of the world have provided convenient, satisfying answers to millions of people who were willing to buy into ‘The Word’. Faith and Beliefs have led those millions to the conclusion that their god and their scriptures and their clergy were the true believers, and the rest of us are damned to hell.

Do you ever wonder if animals can communicate with each other? Do you think that the animals that do communicate believe that they were made in god’s image, and that we are the animals?

Actually, I don’t permit myself to become overwhelmed by these questions for too long a period. I abhor the self-righteousness of others who judge me to be inferior because I do not buy into their personal belief system, which tells them that I am some pagan, damned to hell. The is no room to argue, debate, or even discuss such questions with any ‘true believer’; they know, in their minds, that they are ‘right’.

THE PURPOSE OF SCRABBLE:
And that is why I play scrabble. Everyone is welcome. Everyone can be as novice or as expert as they choose. While playing, I am so focused on playing my best game that I couldn’t care less about the 4 billion years of the past. Sometimes I wonder: (If there is a god, why didn’t she bring Alfred Butts on the scene thousands of years ago? Why wait so long? Why now?) When ‘true believers’ play the naughty words I wonder if they think that may influence whether they will get into heaven or not? (And if they don’t think that, why?)

Scrabble players all play the game with the same set of rules. Every game begins with the same board and the same distribution within the 100 tiles. Each player gets the identical amount of time. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Jew, Muslim or other. All are welcome.

And if the world does end in December of 2012 as predicted by the Mayans, with all their wisdom, what difference does all this make anyway?

Am I cynical about religions? You betcha. I feel the same way about political parties. Both claim to want to help the people; but what they really mean is, to help their own people and followers.

And maybe I am the worst kind of hypocrite. Don’t those stupid bridge and backgammon players know that SCRABBLE is the One True Game. They’ll all go to hell. . . . if there is one.

It doesn’t cost anything extra to believe that you CAN than to believe that you CAN’T. Belief can be like the courage or incentive to take the next step. Belief can be like the WD40 to lubricate your ability to take that next action.

I attended a scrabble club last week in Laguna Woods, California. There were more than 30 players present on that day. Many of the players will attest that they have played three games a week for years. I spent part of my time there walking the room, peering over shoulders at tiles on rack, and hanging around long enough to see the words being played.

I always assume that club players want to be the best that they can be. I want to believe that the people who make the effort to get up in the morning and put themselves together come out for something more than just the store-bought cookies served on the sharing table.

I play scrabble in search of high scoring bingos, double-doubles, triple-triples, and 600+ scores in a single game. I play scrabble stretching my memory in search of brilliant hooks and extensions that reach to premium hot spots. I play scrabble in order to player the least familiar anagram from a set of tiles.

Many of the players at the club in Laguna Woods don’t believe that there can be a better play on their rack once they identify a word. TIP #17 in my online class, Scrabble 101, tells student of the game to 1) find a good play, and then 2) find a better play. Once a player finds a word and feels satisfied they stop looking; missing a better play.
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I play scrabble hoping to play some obscure words that earn a challenge from my opponents. Some players have a rack like ‘ A-C-E-I-N-S-T ‘ (above) and are satisfied playing ‘stain’ or ‘canes’, not me . . .I believe something much better is there.

One of the best basic tools for developing your scrabble prowess is WHIZ CARDS. There are many sets. But every players should commit the TOP 3 SETS to memory. CLICK HERE

Ask 10 scrabble players and you’ll get 10 different answers. Again, it all depends what ‘is’, is.

I’m sure that all scrabble players would agree that one rack that fills the qualifications of being ‘perfect’ is A-E-I-N-R-S-T . There are 9 bingos in that rack. You should know all 9 even if you don’t know what some of the words mean. However, all of these tiles are one pointers and won’t score as much as other sets. Don’t pass up playing one of the bingos; almost always play your bingo when you can. (In my online class, SCRABBLE 101, I teach my students when to pass up playing a bingo.)

How about those high scoring opening plays like ‘QUETZAL’ for 120 points? Is that the perfect play? I wouldn’t pass that word by either. However, it has been talked about and written about so it would not likely draw a challenge from your opponent.

People ask me, “How do you remember all of those strange looking and sounding words?”

The answer is pretty obvious. The things that we remember are the things that are usually common and familiar to us. We remember the phone numbers of the people who are important in our lives; even if we don’t remember the exact number, we know the code to press into our cell phones to get them on the line.

When it comes to ‘those strange words’, the trick is to do something to make them familiar and important to us. If they are never important, we will never learn them.

Several years ago an opponent played ‘ngwee’ against me. It piqued my interest. I especially liked the unusual 2-Letter beginning. My curiosity led me to create a list that I call ‘Strange Beginnings’. I really enjoyed learning words like ‘ngultrum’, ‘pfennig’, and ‘sgraffiti’. I can’t tell you how many of my opponents have sat back in their chairs, yelling, “HOLD!” I love it. I like to stump my opponents and make them stop to ponder a word. Which, if any, of these are words in the OWL2?
___CRWTH ___SFUMATO ___XYSTI

If I can get you to challenge a legal word – or – if I can get a phoney past you because it sounds so reasonable, I consider those as perfect plays. Which, if any, of these words are from the OWL2? ___ALLOTED ___CELLOIST ___RAQUETS

Can you find the word in the rack at the top of this blog? (Hint: The strange beginning is BH.)

What about the other rack. I’m not making this up! (Hint: It begins with a T.)

I find the unusual words both interesting and relatively easy to remember. If your memory works the same way, you may well enjoy having a copy of my Strange Beginnings List. You can get it from me NOW or you can create it for yourself or you can learn the words, one at a time when some opponent plays them against you.
To ORDER NOW, CLICK HERE.

People, especially teens, who love their music have it blaring into their ears day and night. I may have been one of those teens but I don’t honestly recall. Studies show that sound can easily distract thinking. And yet our society feels a need to overstimulate our auditory sensors.

Restaurants must follow some notion that music makes people hungry or spend more money. And the music selection in most places is either ‘bad’ or ‘worse’. The first thing that I do at Club #350 at ARBYs is to approach the manager and ask him to turn the music OFF. He usually complies. But at BORDERS the music never stops. Depending on the whim and musical preference of the manager, the NOISE (music) can be god-awful.

When I am playing well, getting great tiles and scoring high scores the music doesn’t seem to bother me at all.

When I haven’t seen an ess or a blank and I am trailing by 50+ points the music seems to be screeching in my head.

Be prepared. Bring ear plugs with you to clubs and tournaments if you are sensitive to noise.

The worst kind of noise is that made by inconsiderate club members. When people finish their game and others are still in battle next to you, the proper thing to do if you wish to have a conversation is to move away from those still playing. Go into the other room. Speak softly.

Have you ever experienced a big SHhhhhhhhh? There are some players who player slower and are usually still playing when most of the others have finished. Some of these players have developed a loud, wet SHhhhh to let others know to step away. But it is my experience that the players with the biggest SHhhhh are the biggest offenders when they finish early.

According to a study at Virginia Tech on ‘STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING CONCENTRATION AND MEMORY’, the top two factors are:
• Distraction Free (i.e. music)
• Conditions (i.e. chair, desk, temperature, and lighting) are conducive to studying

Surprise!

Enroll yourself into my online scrabble class, SCRABBLE 101, and carve out a quiet and comfortable spot in your home as your classroom. CLICK HERE

Today is Flag Day, June 14. It’s a great day for America. Scrabble has a lot in common with the flag, Betsy Ross, & the colors of the flag.

Just think these coincidences:

The two principal colors on the scrabble board are ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’. And the guy who invented the game, Alfred Mosher Butts, was ‘White’. Amazing! Alfred Butts, possessing great wisdom and being politically correct before the term was even coined, used ‘BLACK’ for the lettering on the ‘COLORED’ squares.

The 13 stars on Betsy’s flag represented the 13 colonies which would later become states and even later each state would have 2 senators, a total of 26 in all, which is equal to the the number of different letters of the alphabet. What a coincidence!

George Washington has 3 Gs in his name, the exact same number of Gs in a complete set of scrabble tiles.

John Adams, Aaron Burr, and Betsy Ross all have 9 letters in their nams. Getting them to leave a party at the end of an evening of merriment was as difficult as getting rid of the 9 I tiles from your rack in a game of scrabble.

The flag has a standard that holds it erect. The game of scrabble has more than 30 pages of standards and rules that hold its players accountable.

There is a proper way to display the flag; the is a proper way to play scrabble.

The word ‘FLAG’ has 4 letters and begins with the letter ‘F’ which has a value of ’4 points’ on its face.

Over the years, many stars have been added to The FLAG; over the years many star scrabble players have emerged in the game.

The representations of the colors of the flag are:
Red = The blood shed in the battle for Independence and bravery.
White = Peace and Honesty
Blue = Perserverance, Justice, truth, and loyalty

For the scrabble player, the colors have similar meanings.
Red and Pink = Double and Triple the reward for action.
Shades of Blue = loyalty to scrabble and no other game.

I feel so lucky to be an American. If I had been born somewhere else I may have missed out on scrabble and been saddled with Go or Chess or Backgammon. I love the flag and all it represents; and that my final word.

CHECK OUT MY STORE. 10% off on all items today in honor of Flag Day. CLICK HERE

When you win NOTHING HURTS.

Then there are is large set of players who whine incessantly when they are trailing in the score, have racks of letters that don’t work well with each other, or they’re just not feeling positive.

Please, simply compete; do not envy and whine. Whining doesn’t make the combination of tiles on your rack improve. Whining doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get blanks or esses on your next dip into the tile bag.

All whining does, is annoy the heck out of your opponent. IS THAT YOUR STRATEGY? Are you thinking that if you annoy your opponent he/she will lose their focus and make an error in your favor? Maybe. But meanwhile you sound like a baby.

I have learned some important life lessons while playing scrabble that apply to the rest of life:

The quality of the tile combinations on my racks have an uncanny correlation to the weather in Michigan. If you are hoping for a change, simply wait a minute.

Don’t fall in love with your tiles. They are certain to change in a Michigan minute.

There is no such thing as a bad rack. Did you know that if your draw 7 tiles randomly from a full set of tiles, you will have a bingo in your draw about 10% of the time. The problem isn’t the tiles; you just don’t know the words in the dictionary.

Most people know only about 5% of the words in the dictionary. With a little guided study you can stand head and shoulders above the average.

There is always someone who is better than you. There is always someone who has more than you. There is always someone who knows more than you.

When we stand still, satisfied and righteous with what we know, the world keeps on learning and passes us by.

When you break your study regimen, thinking that you’ll resume it tomorrow or next week, tomorrow seldom comes.

Quit your whining and study another list. A great place to begin is with my BOOKMARK SERIES. CLICK HERE.

You may remember me pointing out that the average person on the street has knowledge of about only 5% of the words in the dictionary. That is exactly why most newspapers write copy at a 5th – 6th Grade reading level. These days, with the availability of TV Broadcasting everything under the sun, there is no longer a need to read at all.

One of the (no longer newest) phenomena is the text message. With masses of younger people using this medium we do find this set writing and reading regularly, but it is a language of their own, filled with colloquial jargon. Maybe someday, some of those hieroglyphics will make it into Websters. And the same 1,000 words which they use are repeated over and over again about ‘meet-ups’ and ‘reality shows’ and ‘Lindsay Lohan’, all the really important things in life, duh.

One BAD THING that happened, that may end up being a GOOD THING is the BP oil disaster in the gulf. Ordinary, concerned citizens and school children all over the country have been thinking hard about ways to fix the problem and the cleanup. Many of these people have taken actions, developing ideas and passing them on to those in positions of responsibility. Maybe one or more of these plans will supply the answer.

Problems and challenges have their way of stimulation actions. But that is not the only reason to stretch your mind. Learning new things can be fun and exciting. Learning can open new doors and possibilities that will make your life more interest and fulfilling.

Don’t stop doing the thing that you love to do. However, set aside some time each day to read about something that you do not know. Some of these reading will leave you uninspired; some of these readings will peak your interest; everything you read will broaden your knowledge and make you a more interesting person.

When playing scrabble, integrate the words that you learned during your reading. Play those words, even when they do not score premium points. I assure you that you will feel personal satisfaction in playing those words, even if they do not help you win the game.

Most competitive scrabble players don’t give a hoot about the meanings of the words that they play on the board. Stretch your mind by learning what some of those words mean.

One of the sets of words that peaked my interest a few years ago was a set that I call ‘Strange Beginnings’. I guess that they are not strange at all if you come from the culture that uses them. But, as a ‘bread and butter American’, I found them to be unusual to me. Words like ‘mbira’, ‘dhuti’, and ‘gjetost’ are on that list. In most circles they will earn you a challenge. And it is a lot of fun trying to use them when you’re out with friends ( “Will you please pass the gjetost?” )

Thank goodness that all mankind is and has not been influenced by the point of view ‘ Don’t Try; Can’t Fail ‘. We’d still be living in the Dark Ages. Columbus would still be sitting on the shore in Genoa, Jonas Salk wouldn’t have saved so many from the ravages of polio, the Rubik’s Cube may have never been invented by Emo Rubik.

Unfortunately, there are far too many people roaming the planet who have learned the lesson ‘ Don’t Try; Can’t Fail ‘ so well that they rarely, if ever take a chance. And as a result they have no idea what they are capable of doing and how much they are missing.

Maybe it’s a good thing. If everyone was an Edison or a Michael Angelo that could be overwhelming. But maybe we’d already have a cure for Cancer and Aids; maybe we’d already be colonizing the moon, where there are no tar balls.

There are a whole lot of people who adopt an attitude of ‘ Don’t Try; Can’t Fail ‘ when it come to playing scrabble at clubs. When they read my recent account of Kevin Rickhoff extending ‘scent’ to ‘tumescent’ they were so frightened and felt so small that they picked up their marbles and left.

Thank goodness that there are others who cheered and thought to themselves ‘ I want to be like Kevin ‘.

And the truth is, we can all be more ‘kevinlike’.

If you try, you might fail, but you may achieve greatness. ~ Gary Moss

There is nothing wrong with failure. Failing is part of the learning process. It’s our attitude about failure that needs an adjustment. The only time when ‘failure’ is a BAD THING is if it crushes your spirit and stops you from getting back up and trying again. But if and when that occurs, be clear, you always still have the power to beat failure. Your attitude and perserverance are two tools that will pave your road to success.

I learned the most about the game of scrabble during my first few years of competitive play at a club in Livonia, Michigan under the directorship of Jerome Boyd and then Florence Laatz. Every Tuesday evening I’d take a beating from Chuck Armstrong, Rod Nivison, Paul Epstein, Karol Foss and others. Every failure taught me more. Every losing game offered lessons on how to win. Every challenge lost taught me a word that was new to me.

I’ll never forget ‘obviate’; I learned that one from Chuck. I’ll never forget ‘strigil’; I learned that from Stu. Just like one remembers their first kiss, their first automobile and graduation, certain scrabble events can become significant memories too.

But you’ll never win if you never try first.

When in southern California come try us out at CLUB #350 and The 1st Sunday Tournament. If you live in the colder north, make your Winter Vacation a scrabble vacation with us.

Which of these pups most reflects who you are? You can be either. You can actually be both. You can choose to be the one that is most appropriate for the time and place.

If you have played at scrabble tournaments, and I dare say at any other competitive event, you have met people who have many faces. When you are chatting over dinner they are the most affable dinner partner. They’ll raise a glass and sincerely toast you. When you are seated across the scrabble board from them in a sanctioned scrabble game they may even wish you “good luck” before the tiles are drawn. But once the clock is punched they become the fiercest opponent that you’ve ever encountered. (And that’s the way we should expect it to be in a competition.)

Many people are drawn to the scrabble club scene because they love the game in the environment where they played it. Most of these people learned and played scrabble with family and neighbors and college roommates.

And then one day while surfing the net they did a Google search for ‘scrabble’ and they learned that there was an entire ‘scrabble universe’ out there. After scanning all the scrabble web sites and learning about clubs and tournaments our ‘newbie’ finds my club or one similar to it in Anytown, USA.

The anticipation of attending a club of players who are ‘like-minded’ is delicious. The day finally comes around and our newbie is warmly welcomed by the club director and others. The club director most likely does things similarly to what I do. I hand the newbie a 2-Letter-Word-List and gently tell them about the specific things that are different between club play and most home games. I show them the OWL2, the score sheet, and the time clock. If there is time before the club play begins I play a few turns with him/her and try to help them feel comfortable. I always explain about challenges and prepare them for seeing words that they have never encountered before. I tell them about my long draught before I won my first club game.

I don’t know whether most newbies even hear or care about the things that I share with them. Maybe most are so anticipating the games that I am tuned out. I do tell them to wear their toughest skin. I tell them not to be discourage. I tell them that there is a learning curve, even for the best home players. I tell them that if they stick with us that they will move up in the ranks.

Most newbies are very nice and polite. They even say that they’ll come back again. But my guess is, when they stepped out of the door on the way home, they must have been hit by some streetcar; they rarely ever return again.

Most have no idea that they possess the power and all they have to do is to choose to unleash it. Most of the regular attendees are not much different as people than newbies. In fact, we were all newbies at one time. The difference is that we chose to hang around and build our scrabble skills.

You can become one of our regulars too. No matter where you live, you can most likely find a local club or online opponents. To improve your scrabble skills and word power, I offer a number of tools and even an online class, SCRABBLE 101.

Unleash Your Power Within!