A couple of days ago, I had some questions regarding the mighty tentacled beast of our oceans— the octopus. Actually, I was just curious as to what an octopus was, and I found the answer, which was a cephalopod mollusk in the order Octopoda.
Ogilvy & Mather are no amateurs when it comes to Scrabble. They may not play the game, but they sure know how to promote it. The prestigious advertising and marketing agency has created several video commercials for Mattel, not to mention over 60 amazing print adverts that are funny, hip and sometimes salaciously naughty.
Last year, Hasbro unveiled Scrabble Flash, an electronic version of the popular word game which consists of five SmartLink letter tiles that can communicate with one another using near field communication (NFC) to spell and score words. It's an interesting (and fun) way to build your Scrabble vocabulary for words ranging from two to five letters, but that's about it.
SCRABBLE: 14 points; GRAFFITI: 15 points; MARRIAGE: 11 points; YES: 6 points. When playing a game of Scrabble, those are the minimal amount of points for each of the given words (not including blank tiles). But for 28-year-old Jeff Gurwin, it's more than just 46 points on the board, it's a lifetime of happiness.
Remember the firestorm SCRABBLE Trickster caused nine months ago? SCRABBLE enthusiasts across the world were outraged when Mattel created a game that would allow proper nouns to be acceptable words of play. Essentially, it was a dumbed down, youth-friendly version of the classic game they've all come to love. Luckily, it was just a spinoff game—not a replacement. The same can't be said of the new edition of Collins Official SCRABBLE Words.
Designer Andrew Clifford Capener has made an alternative to the classic Scrabble board that celebrates the expression of typeface. It isn't in production yet, but Capener's set would offer tiles in a variety of different fonts:
If you think you're a Scrabble genius because you have all the two-letter words memorized, you're sorely wrong. To be a Scrabble genius, you have to know practically "every" word acceptable in Scrabble, so I'm guessing there's not too many Scrabble geniuses out there, because it's an impossible feat.
The end game is a very important aspect of playing Scrabble. If you have just a few letters left on your rack and there are none left in the draw bag, but you're currently losing the game, you still might have a chance to win if you play your cards (er… tiles) right. No matter if you're playing a casual game at home with a friend or competing against diehards in club or tournament games, the scoring process at the end provides the same results.
The big day may be over, but the weekend is still full of Thanksgiving spirit. And so is this week's puzzle. But let's keep it short this time, because we should all be taking this time to play a real game of Scrabble with friends and family. I was thinking of making a puzzle about edible birds in general, but practically every bird is edible, meaning there's a lot of avian-related words. Since the turkey is such a big part of Thanksgiving, let's just stick to that...
Everyone loves Scrabble, but not everyone knows how to play the game properly. Yes, there is a set up rules that come with each game, but who actually wants to read them? Isn't it better to learn from a more visual approach? This video will teach you the basics of gameplay.
An odd game of Scrabble between my two cats. I think they're dyslexic. And chaotic. "I think I found a word."
Just came across this image in Google, and thought it was cool. It's from what was apparently the first ever Human vs. Computer Showdown in Toronto back in 2006. Former world Scrabble Champion David Boys, of Montreal, was defeated by computer super brain "Quackle".
What are the odds of drawing the same seven letters, e.g. JANITOR, twice during a lifetime of playing Scrabble—in two separate games. Michael Thelen, who runs Zyzzyva, breaks down the numbers.
This Blender graphic shows my idea of an Egyptian style Scrabble board, inspired by the ancient board game Senet. It features the Nefertiti (Latin) font, so you don't have to read hieroglyphs to make words. The white hieroglyphs on the black granite tiles was inspired by inscriptions on Egyptian statuary of the same material.
Has anyone played Words With Friends? I'm curious to see how it compares to Scrabble.
Oooh...looks like Amazon's having a sale on their word games for Kindle. Of which Scrabble is one of them. If you've got a Kindle, you should not miss out on this!
Now this is a perfect gift for a SCRABBLE addict.
Who knew playing SCRABBLE could lead to something like this?!? Nearly four years after he was convicted of seven counts of Internet luring, a Winnipeg man's online activities have landed him back in court.
MGMT, more commonly and colloquially referred to as "Management," broke into the indie music scene with their 2008 debut album Oracular Spectacular. The most popular song on that album is "Electric Feel" — the original music video is often considered to be an acid trip. Some even think it's a depiction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities destroyed by God. Check out the original music video for "Electric Feel" below.
In an interview with the Telegraph on May 17th, Kate Hudson divulged that she is, in fact, a keen SCRABBLE player, despite her West Coast blonde stigma. The list of celebrities enthralled by SCRABBLE keeps getting bigger!
Slogan: "In Scrabble anything is possible. Grand National Tournament September 23, 2006." Beautiful young women are portrayed as rivals, hateful and violent. Ready to injure, kill to outweigh the other, a board game!
Joshua Glenn posted an article on Brainiac, where he researched anything related to Scrabble in American literature ranging from 1954-2003. Check it out.
If you thought playing Scrabble in your grandparents' kitsch and musty old house was your most dangerous gaming experience, you haven't heard of Extreme Scrabble yet.
If you're not into making your own Scrabble coasters out of Scrabble tiles, these are the next best thing (though a little more complicated). And better than having tons of tiles on the same coaster is just being one tile itself, so you can make words out of the coasters! Though these are undeniably cool, Pete Prodoehl of RasterWeb!, the mastermind behind these coasters, is calling this his beta versions. Why? Some minor problems with sanding, cork, and staining. I still think they look prett...
Let's face it, not every logophile is addicted to Scrabble. Without the use of a timer, Scrabble can be a pretty slow game. Even in clubs and tournaments where the standard time limit is 25 minutes per person for a two-player game. Now, take away time restrictions and add two other players and you've got a game that could take up to 2 hours! It all really depends on who the competition is.
QI and ZA. QI n pl. -S the vital force that in Chinese thought is inherent in all things
If you look up the word SAWBUCK in the SCRABBLE Dictionary, you'd see that it was a sawhorse, but there's another definition that we're all probably more familiar with:
From Fred Flare, a Scrabble refrigerator magnet set.
I love SCRABBLE, but sometimes it's hard to find an opponent who'll play a classic, tournament style game in person. Don't get me wrong—I play on the computer and iPhone all of the time, but it's just not the same as an in-person match. This leads me to stray every now and then, checking out new word-friendly games with a fast pace and interesting twist. And the most recent one was nothing like SCRABBLE, and I don't mean that in a bad way.
For as long as I've loved SCRABBLE, I can't believe I've never come across this before. "CRAZIEST" - A short story by Liz Dubelman about words
Original picture appears on the ONION.
Scrabble Cookies.
What happens when a struggling writer cannot finish the screenplay to her second film? She writes a book.
Cheating. It happens everywhere. From scientists faking human ears on mice, to Hollywood thirty-somethings cheating on their quadragenarian wives, to chess players accusing supercomputers of fraud. There's no game or profession out there that doesn't have a cheater or two, but the bigger nuisance is probably those people who accuse others of cheating.
