…with Gary Moss

Archive for November, 2011

Gary’s
Highest Scrabble Rating: 248th
Highest Scrabble Rating: 1702
282 Tournaments Played
14 Tournament Wins

As an educator (BS in Education; MA in Ed. Guid & Couns.), caught up in the competitive scrabble world, I have always had one eye focused on those players with the highest WIN percentages, wondering “just how do they do that?”

But then I noticed that there are people in every discipline that move up to be a member of the ‘two-percenters’. This group includes the surgeon you’d prefer to have operating on you, the broker you’d like to have managing your portfolio, and the chef you wish you had preparing your meals.

I have always aspired to be a teacher at that same high level and since joining the scrabble world I have aspired to being that kind of scrabble player too.

Over the years I developed and marketed many tools to help myself and help others to improve their skills required to become a formidable scrabble mavin.

Each one of my tools for learning is great and greater.

Having a tool box in your closet, with the best tools, does not mean that you know how to change a hinge when the door breaks or that you can change a washer when there is a leak at the bathroom sink.

Hence: The LOTEM System

I have developed The LOTEM System to lead people like you and me from here to there.

If you are tired of losing the scrabble games at your family gatherings, if you are ready to start winning at scrabble more often, against friends and neighbors, you’ll appreciate and prosper from The LOTEM System.

The LOTEM System is a process that will move you up in the ranks. I am willing share this process with you.

Just for expressing you interest I will send you a free 2-Letter-Word List on a PDF file. This information alone will put you heads and shoulders above most casual scrabble players.

Send me your email request and begin your amazing scrabble journey.
Include you Name and Phone Number to your ‘free list’. If you wish to talk with me right away, call 949-510-1673.

EMail Me

Scrabble offers a special brand of fun with words and strategies and memory challenges. But along with all the fun of the game comes the interaction with other people who share one’s excitement with the elements of the language.

Below is a post that I received from one of my fellow language fans. Enjoy.

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to
present the present.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove, dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let’s face it, English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down; you fill in a form by filling it out; an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’ ?

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this: There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is’UP’

It’s easy to understand UP meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so……..it is time to shut UP!
~Anonymous

At the time when I entered the world of competitive scrabble, Jean Carol was one of the highest ranking women players in the NSA. Myself, with a much lower rating, I rarely, if ever, had an opportunity to play against Jean in a sanctioned game.

But that doesn’t mean that she and I were strangers to each other. Jean was a people person. Her circle was open to all and that set her apart from many of the other experts who didn’t give the time of day to players rated under 1600.

Jean always had a warm greeting and conversation to share when we’d cross paths at tournaments in Cleves or Dayton or Gatlinburg. She also attended a few of the tournaments which I directed in Michigan, in the early 1990s.

The only time when I was able to beat Jean Carol was in the early 1990s. I produced and directed a two day scrabble tournament at a campground at Proud Lake, in Walled Lake, Michigan. Players came from near and far. Jean came along with the contingency from southern Ohio.

In order to provide a break in the grueling scrabble competition and get people up and about, I scheduled time off, after lunch on Saturday as free time. Some people went hiking and smelled the roses; some folks went back to their scrabble boards for a pick-up game or two; and a group of us ventured out of the park to a nearby bowling alley as a diversion.

Who’d have thought that Jean Carol was an avid bowler? Jean, Paul Epstein and I, along with a few others abandoned our lexicons in favor of splits and spares and strikes. When the game was over, I had scored 194, a higher score than Jean’s 189.

For a while thereafter I shared that truth with others. But all I divulged was that I had beaten Jean Carol. I never told them that I had beaten her at bowling.

Miss you Jean.

Tis the season to play SCRABBLE. But as far as I’m concerned, it is always the right time to play some scrabble.

Consider this as your personal invitation to join in on the fun. You will need to come to Orange County, California, the location of the event will be at Laguna Woods Village in Laguna Woods, on Sunday, December 18, beginning at 9:30AM.

Oh yeah, I have room for only 50 players, so if you are serious about attending you must RSVP soon.

For all the detail about event, CLICK HERE.

There are ‘scrabble teachers’ and then there are ‘SCRABBLE TEACHERS’. There are ‘students of scrabble’ and there are ‘STUDENTS OF SCRABBLE’. As a past president once put it so clearly, “It all depends on what ‘IS’ is.”

Some teachers are bold and authoritarian. They push their students’ noses to the grindstone and demand that all students follow their syllabus (‘the RIGHT WAY’).

I use to be that kind of teacher. I used those methods when I shared the joys of scrabble with my children. (None of my children have much to do with scrabble these days.)

I have come to learn that people do things for their own reasons, not mine. Furthermore, I now understand our intention determines our successes, be it with playing scrabble, balancing our check book, or dressing for success.

When a prospective scrabble student approaches me as says, “I want to ‘TRY’ to learn the legal 2-Letter-Words,” I already know that there is a slim chance that he/she will reach that goal.

The word ‘TRY’ is a sellout, it is an escape hatch, it is an excuse. The word ‘TRY’ tells me that the person lacks commitment.

Success usually occurs when a person says, “I want to learn how to play winning scrabble. Where do I begin?”

This player has an ‘I CAN’ attitude and is open to taking direction.

As a teacher, I have learned that every person has their own style of learning. Therefore, a teacher who is sensitive to the pupil’s style will be able to help students find success. These teachers use velvet hammers and padded crowbars when forcing issues. These teachers only tell enough to set the pupil on the road to discovery. People learn things the best when it is a result of their own revelations.

If you are an ‘I CAN’ person and want to become an even better scrabble player. . . If you are an ‘I CAN’ person and want to improve your memory skills. . . Then dive into SCRABBLE 101. CLICK HERE

DO IT WITH COMMITMENT. . . YOU’LL LIKE IT!

The only time when I was not early was on the day I was born. Ever since that day I’ve possessed a trait that is one from my mom’s gene pool (a Freedman thing), being early, the first one to arrive, the one waiting for the doors to be unlocked in order to enter.

Better early than late, right?

We early people spend a lot of time waiting. We receive regularly scheduled lessons in patience vs. impatience. Early people are great at counting; we count the minutes remaining until the events begin; we count the chairs in the auditorium, the tiles on the floor, and the number of parking spaces in the parking lot. Some early people are more prepared than others. They anticipate. They are always schlepping along a bag of things to occupy themselves during long waiting periods. They carry books, writing journals, iPads, laptops, and sudoku puzzles. They carry along snacks not limited to gum and candy; I’ve witnessed more than one early bird who always has a spare meal in their satchel. Some early birds are exceptionally thoughtful and carry enough food so they can share with an army.

Early birds who happen to be scrabble mavins will usually carry a Franklin or a copy of Zyzzyva on a handheld device. Others will sit wherever, quietly, and work at hooking visible signs around the room. (‘express’ to ‘expresso’) Some will find a word of seven or more letters long and fashion a complete list of sub-anagrams from that word.

Most early birds are very creative people.

This morning I went to work, showing up and opening a good 20 minutes early, as per my usual. Twenty minutes later a co-worker showed up to open and informed me that today was my day off. I was an entire day early.

But the worst for me was the time I showed up for a wedding of a friend and found some workers painting the benches in the garden where the wedding was scheduled to take place. (I was an entire week early.)

As you might imagine, I have created an unending stack of scrabble-related-materials to amuse myself and sharpen my scrabble skills as I wait and wait and wait. Many of these study aids are for sale at my online store, WORD GIFTS. CLICK HERE

Has anyone every told you that you have the ability to do anything that you choose to do? Has anyone every told you that you have the ability to become anything that you choose to become?

Well, it may be true. But, our hopes and dreams for our outcomes is usually dependent upon more than just wishing and praying. Normally there is a lot of doing and planning and learning that takes place along the way.

Even becoming the best tire changer in the world doesn’t just happen. Did you know that different model cars store the tire changing apparatus in different locations within the car? Did you know that there are some tools that loosen the lug nuts requiring less strength than others? Do you know what a lug nut is? Most people simply call AAA and never get their hands dirty.

The overconfident, casual player, frequently believes that they know more than enough to play a good game of scrabble.

Meanwhile the MAVIN understands the complexity of the game. Each one of those knobs, dials and buttons represents a different skill that is used to win the game. (One is for ‘hooks’ and one is for ‘extensions’; another is for tracking and one is for anagrams; yet another is for hot spots while one is for vowel dumps.) The mavin is always thinking about the possibilities for the next play, while playing this play.

The Casual Player is merely playing the words that are obvious. (Like the politicians who make popular choices without regard for long term consequences.)

Doing anything well requires forethought, dedication, and commitment. Or one can simply find happiness strumming every song in the Key of C.

To learn how to play scrabble comparable to playing a symphony, CLICK HERE.