A few months ago a friend lent me a fantastic book called Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players by Stefan Fatsis. The author does a fantastic job of describing the intoxication of the game as he becomes more and more deeply involved in the competitive Scrabble world. The history of the game and the current debates over dictionaries are fascinating even to the amateur player. Highly recommended reading to anyone who plays Scrabble and it will actually change the way you play your rack. Anyhow, enough coffee-housing.¹
Also of interest to the Scrabble aficionado, there's a weblog called PuzzleBlog that has word and number games. A neat adaptation of the weblogging format. So, here's a challenge for you, what's the highest score you can get from the following rack?
¹ Speaking unnecessarily (i.e., social banter) during an organized Scrabble game. Coffee-housing is frowned on at organized Scrabble clubs and is against the rules at Scrabble tournaments. [definition from Tuscon Scrabble]
Comments
Nick Burka - December 4, 2003 3:16 pm
Best I can do in 5 minutes is HYDRAS. No bingo, but the best you can get without.
Steven Marshall - December 4, 2003 4:06 pm
Inspired by Nick's "hydras", I'll enter with "hydraes" - the alternative spelling of Nick's entry.
And yes, dictionary.com has an entry for hydraes
Is that the one you were expecting Daniel?
Cyn - December 4, 2003 4:09 pm
HYDRASE
meaning:
An enzyme that catalyzes the addition or removal of water from a substrate.
Daniel Burka - December 4, 2003 4:43 pm
Nice work guys. I was wondering if anyone would discover the bingo in there. Here's 50 extra blogging points to both Cynthia and Steven!
Nick Burka - December 4, 2003 5:11 pm
Steven, I actually tried that too, but the definition seems to suggest that HYDRAS and HYDRAE are already plural, so I don't think an "S" can be appended.
Daniel Burka - December 4, 2003 5:21 pm
The Hasbro site has a handy online Scrabble dictionary to settle disputes. According to their dictionary, HYDRAES is not a word but HYDRASE is. Cynthia takes home the gold.
Steven Marshall - December 4, 2003 6:57 pm
My bad - I misread the dictionary.com page!
Cyn - December 4, 2003 11:10 pm
How exorbitantly perspicacious of me.
Melda - December 5, 2003 1:03 am
sorry, i'm a little late to the party. i was just finishing off a scrabble game on games.com.
hey, everyone's got their routines right?
its important to note here that this book of mine was actually a christmas gift from daniel last year. how he is going to top it this year? i have no idea.
... and let it be said that a little coffee housing never hurt anyone!
ps - GIJoel, if you're reading this, my money was always on you pal.
Alan - December 5, 2003 9:29 am
I was going to sy "hey" but that is only because I suck at scrabble.
filmgoerjuan - December 8, 2003 12:31 pm
HYDRAES is a perfectly cromulent word ;)