…with Gary Moss

Archive for July, 2011

I am always encouraged and enthusiastic when I meet people who share my interest in competitive scrabble. Sure, I can always find a game against a computer like Mavin or Quackle or on Facebook. But I find the most fun when I play against another person face to face.

Did you know that scrabble clubs exist across the US and Canada and all around the planet? You can find a list of the NASPA sanctioned clubs by CLICKING HERE.

When I find a ‘NEWBIE’ I coddle them for a while, trying not to scare or overwhelm them with all the rules and word lists. Most people who have played scrabble and stumble into a club to find better competition than they have at home, have no idea about the systems that ‘MAVINS’ employ to improve their level of expertise.

Once I become clear that the newbie has a sincere desire to learn I share this link. If the information doesn’t scare them away there is a reasonable chance that they will stick.

There is a wide range of age and backgrounds of potential competitive players: white collar; blue collar; no collar. Would you believe a 6-year-old playing against and beating adults? His name is Cooper Komatzu (now a few years older. The oldest player with whom I played was Mary Parry (103).

Did you know that there is an active and thriving school scrabble community? They claim to have hundreds of schools enrolled across America. The initiative is headed by the NSA (National Scrabble Association).

Did you know that you can learn the skills to become a threatening force in the competitive scrabble world online? I have coached individuals via my online class, SCRABBLE 101.

Check out this article taken from the NASPA Newsletter, JULY 2011

It all depends.

If you are one of the 25,000+ scrabble players across North America who has invested endless hours of your life learning archaic words that appear in the OWL2, for use during competitions in clubs and tournaments, then SCRABBLE is much more than a GAME.

If you don’t care that there are 101 legal 2-Letter-Words in the OWL2 and couldn’t care less what the OWL2 is, then for you scrabble is merely a game and a distraction.

I can recall when I was in my twenties, beginning my serious work life when I had a friend, Irwin Wolfe, who was a very serious bridge player. For the love of me, I couldn’t understand the way he devoted himself to that game. Bridge was an obsession for my friend Itzzy (Irwin). Bridge stole his focus at his job, he allowed it to ruin his marriage, and it consumed his entire being. Imagine allowing a game to become so important to you.

As consumed as my friend was by his passion for Bridge, I was equally consumed by my business. That’s what it takes to become very good at anything.

Now, years later, I often step back and look at myself and my ‘scrabble life’. I am no different in regard to scrabble as my friend was devoted to bridge. I understand completely.

Just a game? Or more? It all depends.

The club scrabble scene has enough room for a wide range of players. From the novice and mere curiosity seekers to the experts and dyed-in-the-wool etymologists, all are welcome to come, play, and contribute. We make good times for one another just by showing up. We each bring our unique sets of words to the scrabble community. I can recall, while living and playing in Detroit, Michigan (a hop and a jump over the Detroit River into Windsor, Ontario, Canada) the many new words that I learned while playing scrabble with my Canadian friends. We are all students and we are all teachers to one another. What a joy!

Not just anyone can become a ‘good’ scrabble player. Not everyone is willing to do what it takes!

The grasshopper wasn’t willing to work and save like the industrious ant, then paid the price. The first little piggy built his house out of straw, saving a lot of money and time, but ended up having to deal with the ‘bad breath’ of The Big Bad Wolf.

Renee has been playing competitive scrabble for almost 20 years. Yet she has not been willing to study and learn ‘The Stems’. Last night at club she had ‘AUNTIES’ on her rack with nowhere to play it. She looked and she looked at the board to no avail. If she had studied the ‘SATINE STEM’, she might have remembered that ‘AUNTIES’ can also make ‘SINUATE’. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what the word means. Just knowing that is a legal word is enough. (‘SINUATE’ would have earned Renee about 70+ points and there were two places to play words beginning with an ‘S’. Instead, Renee played ‘AUNT’ for 12 points and broke up a bingo rack.)

It is not just Renee. I watch so many other ‘casual players’ do this same kind of thing time and again, week after week. I have no power to change the way people play the game. BUT YOU DO! We all do the things that we do (and the things that we don’t do) for our own reasons.

Like so many other things in life, ‘SUCCESS’ happens as a result of working a ‘little harder’, but mainly ‘a lot smarter.’

Opening the OWL2 (official scrabble word list / dictionary) can be overwhelming when one thinks about committing those 155,000+ words to memory. But that’s not where one should begin.

The very first questions that one should ask himself/herself are:
1) Do I enjoy word play and learning?
2) Will I devote some-to-a-lot of time to learn the basics and strive for excellence?
3) What is an efficient plan to learn the things I need to know?

If you answered ‘YES’ to questions 1) and 2) then you will want to consider becoming a student in SCRABBLE 101.

Manley Hunter can still hear the screaming in his head.

Two days after surviving an attack by a bear attack that mauled four of a group of seven teens hiking in the Talkeetna Mountains, Hunter said the sounds are still fresh.

“Whenever I tell this, I usually outline the screaming that I could hear from my friends and the growls from the bear, which were loud and deep,” he said. “The screamings were just helpless screaming, and I can still hear it in my head.”

Hope Girlyman can still hear the screaming in her head.

Two days after being run over in an attack by a maven that included (7) seven bingos: halides; devices; dousing; safroles; coveting; bizonal; and debonaire, “All I could manage to get on the board were quale and quark,” Hunter said. “The horrors are still fresh.”

“Whenever I tell this, I usually relive the screaming that I could hear in my head. It was like being mauled by a grizzly bear, there was no where to run,” she said. “The silent screamings were just helpless screamings, and I can still hear it in my head.”

My advice to any player being beaten up like the one just described is to become ill, right on the board. MAVEN THAT!

People often ask me, “What is the main thing one has to know in order to become a better than ‘good’ scrabble player?”

Wow! What a loaded question!

There are so many different skills that make up the best of the best scrabble players. I usually tell those people about 1, 2, 3, or more of the key skills, knowing that I have left out a whole lot of other important pieces.

This last weekend I had the opportunity to attend and participate in a 16 game scrabble tournament in San Luis Obispo. It was a novelty event where players from Northern California battled the players from Southern California. Most of the elite players from both North & South were there.

I see myself as being at the bottom of the expert pile, even though my current scrabble rating is less than something to brag about. But there was a time when I soared at the ozone level at tournaments.

I relearned a lesson for myself this past weekend that is worth sharing with those of you wannabes.

#1) As Wayne Dyer would say, “When you believe it, you will see it.” An I CAN attitude is the place from where you MUST begin. Without it, you may as well save your money and stay home.

#2) Having an I CAN Attitude does not mean that you will win every game or even a single game. It means that you know that you have the opportunity to win; it means that you bring a calmness to the table which allows you to play your best game; it means that you learn from your mistakes and the greatness of your opponents. You come away satisfied that you did the best you could.

(I did all those things in San Luis Obispo. I came prepared and played my best, without distractions.)

The number 1 thing that serious scrabble players MUST have is a better than average vocabulary and knowledge of words. Scrabble players are not required to know the meanings of the words which they play. All words played must be among the 155,000+ words list on the Official Word List. The more words that you know, the luckier you’ll become.

The number 2 thing that serious scrabble players MUST understand is how and where to place words onto the board in order to earn maximum scores. This includes how to connect your word to other words already on the board.

The number 3 thing that serious scrabble player know are HOOKS and EXTENSIONS. A hook is when a player extends a word on the board by a single letter (at the beginning or end of an existing word on the board). EX: changing ‘HELP to HELPS’ or changing ‘NATION to ENATION’. An extension is the addition of a group of letters to a word that is already on the board. EX: changing ‘LAW to OUTLAW’ or changing ‘FIX to FIXING’.

In order to demonstrate what I mean by expert-level of play, I am sharing this piece of a game played by Jerry Lerman, ranked #51 in the country.

The word enation was on the board pictured below. At some point during the game one of the players played ‘voted,’ hooking the ‘v’ to ‘enation,’ making ‘venation’. Much later in the game, since there were 4 empty spaces in front of ‘venation,’ Jerry thought ‘the extension of ‘reju’ would create ‘rejuvenation’. He managed to acquire the necessary tiles and earned a nifty ’69 points’ for the play.

Visualization skills is one of Jerry’s strengths. Kudos to Jerry.

YOU can begin learning how to play scrabble at the next level. Enroll yourself into my online scrabble class, SCRABBLE 101. (YES YOU CAN!) CLICK HERE

It was the first game for me in the scrabble tournament in San Luis Obispo this weekend. After the 8th turn in the game I noticed a problem. The score that I had written for myself on my score sheet was different, and greater, than the number I saw written on my opponent’s score sheet. (Official Scrabble Rules call for both players to maintain a record of both players scores to avoid misunderstandings.) At this point I spoke up and asked my opponent if we might stop the clock and sort out the problem. She agreed. According to my record I believed that I should have had an additional 29 point.

One thing that I always tell my scrabble students to do is:

write down the words when you play them right next to each score.

If and when this kind of discrepancy occurs, having the words that have been played written next to each turn’s score is the key to recounting the TRUE SCORE.

I’ll admit that I am sometimes very lax in following my own advice on this practice. This incident was one time when I would have benefited greatly by following my own advice.

My opponent was very patient and cooperative with me. But we could not agree if-or-where there was an error. At one point, being unable to find the glitch, I was ready to give up. I still had the option to continue to play the game and call for a review and a recount at the game’s end. But then we would have to sift through 17 turns each to find the error. I decided that it would be more prudent to repair the error right then.

My opponent called for the tournament director. After explaining the problem to the director, he reviewed our score sheets.

Meanwhile, the players on both sides of us were annoy by out chatting and the length of time it was taking for us to resolve the matter. As the director was sorting things out, both my opponent and I were injecting our theories, and that just made things more confusing for all.

Finally I suggested to the director that we begin on a fresh piece of paper and reconstruct the game from the beginning. And that’s what he did. My opponent had most of the words written, which helped immensely. Some of her notes were not clear. That made the job more difficult. After more than 5 minutes we discovered that my opponent had failed to record one of my words. That accounted for the discrepancy. From that point forward I never missed recording a score and writing the word beside the number of points.

You could benefit by having my score sheet booklets. Check them out: CLICK HERE

While growing up I was a cub scout in Pack #328 and later a boy scout in Troop #537. The scout motto WAS and IS STILL: BE PREPARED. I must have really listened and taken the message to heart. Thinking back, I guess a lot of my life has been influenced by that motto. I’m not saying that I have always been prepared to handle all the difficult emotional trials that life has served up, and I have been accused of sometimes being a bit ambivalent. Actually, from my perspective I see those ambivalent periods as times when I was weighing difficult choices.

Extreme ambivalence can lead to becoming frozen and unable to make a decision. But a little pause and consideration of alternatives is not a bad thing; it can be a very good thing.

As a scrabble director I spend a lot of time sitting out from playing when the number of players at club is an odd number. I walk around behind players engrossed in their own games and watch in silence. Oooh the things is witness. (It is almost always easier to see great plays on someone else’s rack from the vantage point of an observer.) BUT one of the errors that I witness most often is that players are so anxious to make a good score on THIS TURN that they don’t consider WHAT’s NEXT.

In my online scrabble class, SCRABBLE 101, I teach a number of very important steps that are frequently overlooked by most scrabble players. I’ve learned these techniques from the elite 200 experts at the top of the scrabble ladder.

1) After you find a good play, before you place it onto the board, pause and look for an even better play before making your final choice.

**2) When you are considering THIS PLAY, before you place it onto the board, think ahead and imagine the options that THIS PLAY will offer you for your NEXT PLAY.

Some players tell me that it is too much like work to play that way. That is why most of those players rarely move up in the ranks.

If you choose to become a ‘better’ scrabble player, you MUST DO the things that the better scrabble players do to achieve their winning ways.

At times learning the ‘secrets’ of the experts puts a damper on the pleasure for the player who simply plays common usage words. He/she learns that the ability to become a good player really isn’t about any secrets at all; it is all about time and study. BE PREPARED!

The more one knows the luckier one become.

An Aside:
On Monday of this week it was announced on the evening news that BORDERS BOOKSTORES were closing. CLUB #350 has enjoyed playing at BORDERS in Costa Mesa, California for more than 11 years.
Scrabble players who frequent that venue were more than upset about the closure and some feared for an interruption in their scrabble playing schedules.

I WAS PREPARED!

By Wednesday I had made plans for our final session at BORDERS (tonight as I write), the disbursement of our tables that we own and played on over the years, and most importantly, a new venue beginning next Thursday so we don’t miss a beat. We’ll be play in Costa Mesa at Denny’s Restaurant on 17th Street.
But that’s just who I am.
You can accomplish those kinds of shifts in your life.

It is all about YOU knowing and believing that YOU CAN.

Change is not necessarily ‘BAD’. Change is not necessarily ‘GOOD’. Change is just an everyday condition in our world.

It is with sadness that we say good-bye to BORDERS. BORDERS BOOKSTORES has been one of the homes of Scrabble CLub #350 since 1997, in California. From 1997 – 1999 we played at Newport Blvd & 19th Street (now Mother’s Market). In 1999 we moved to 3333 Bear Street in the Crystal Court, across from South Coast Plaza. While staff and managers came and went, Scrabble Club #350 was a constant, every Thursday evening (except Thanksgivings), for more than 11 years. My sincere thank you goes out to all of the staff at BORDERS who made us feel welcome.

Be certain that the closing of BORDERS DOES NOT signal any end to competitive scrabble at CLUB #350. It does mean that we will now move to a new location on Thursdays. Whereas we have been playing from 4:55PM – 8:30PM to blend into BORDERS 9:00PM closing schedule, we will change our start time to 6PM at our new home to accommodate the many scrabble enthusiasts who have work schedules. We expect to receive even greater numbers of players at Club #350, going forward.

For updates in this new adventure and regular RESULTS of our club stats, send me an email and request being added to our mailing lists ( jftsoi.moss@gmail.com ). Scrabble players outside of our community can benefit too by seeing the high scoring words played each session and listed. Pick your favorite Club #350 player follow their progress. When in our community, come play with us. All players, novice to expert, are welcome.

Below, see the players who have earned the honor of becoming our CLUB CHAMPION over our years at BORDERS.

Every now and then something happens in the course of our lives that has us stop and take pause. For me, today is one of those days. My daughter Stacy is 38 years old today. How did that happen? When did that happen? It was only yesterday when she was in a stroller, surrounded by here sister and brother, 3 kids with less than three years in age between them. Those were some crazy days. It seems like yesterday when she was in the West Bloomfield High School Marching Band as a flag twirler. It was because of Stacy’s ‘dyslexia’ that I sprung into action and founded a private school to meet her special needs and the special needs of other kids. Now, in spite of her dyslexia she has become a successful and sought after artist and muralist.

Time flies by in the blink of an eye.

CLICK HERE and take a peek at my photos of some of our good scrabble friends, present and past, who have shared special times at CLUB #350. Each picture of a person whom you know will trigger a host of memories. Time from our past lives on in our memories.

That’s the answer!

Remember the Maine!
Remember the Titanic!
Never forget the 6,000,000!

As for scrabble:
Remember your struggle before you knew the 2 Letter Words?
Remember the great play that you made that stimulated you to play again?
Remember your first win over a better player?
I will always remember playing Chuck Armstrong. Who do you remember?

And now, here’s the important lesson in all of this: Turn off the TV. Get up off your chair, break away from your compute, get out of the door, and go make some memories with the precious little time you have remaining. Use your time for yourself; share your time with and for others. Use yourself up.
..
.
Happy Birthday sweet Stacy. I just love this happy photo of Stacy with one of the puppets she made and then gave away for a fund raising event. Stacy’s artistic talents are a joy and bring pleasure to so many others.

The current spewing of ugly words and name calling between members of NASPA and WGPO is a mirror image of that which occurred between Cain and Able, that which took place during the US Civil War, and that which took place during forced school bussing in the 1960s and 1970s.

The many people who just don’t like change are both public and vocal in their displays. All this simply adds fuel to the fire which is already ablaze.

Maybe we do these behaviors (name calling and character assassinations) because we have very short memories of past pain and atrocities. And maybe we have no choice but to act and speak like outrageous assholes. Just like the forests require destructive fires to regenerate the birth of new forests, the destructive words and actions of mortal humans is necessary to transition from one social interaction to another.

I do know that the parties on both sides seem to believe that they are in the ‘RIGHT’. They are all unwilling (or unable) to step aside and see the destructiveness of their personal actions to the very thing that they all love most, the organized world of competitive SCRABBLE. (They are like many couples who are seeking a divorce. If I can’t have it my way, then I will distroy it so that he/she can’t have it either.)

An aside.
I live in a condo. My building is like a small apartment building: 3 floors; 7 condos on each floor.
Recently we discovered that my unit is infested with bed-bugs. Go on to learn that many, or all, of my neighbors are plagued with the same conditions.
Exterminators generally agree that the best way to rid the entire complex of the plague of bed-bugs is to tent the 21 units and fumigate. If residents were to fumigate their condos individually the pests would run from one safe location to the next, avoiding complete eradication. And, there might be some units that may choose not to fumigate at all. So, that would not be an effective solution.
The association rules provides provisions for mandatory tenting for conditions like termites. (That is because the integrity of the property is compromised by termites.) The association rules DO NOT have mandatory tenting for conditions that threaten health. I guess people don’t count as much as structures.
I once again learned that people are generally self-centered. A number of residents have already treated their own units, finding some relief, without regard for the greater community. In my opinion, the pestilence just ran from one unit to adjacent units which were untreated, compounding the unlivable conditions in the untreated units. The only ones getting rich off of this are the exterminators who are party to the frequent migration of bed-bugs from one unit to the other and back again.

I guess my answer is to give up on scrabble, take up solitaire and move into a detached dwelling.

~ disgruntled and itchy