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Director: David Litke, 050-535-1800, david_sojsc@yahoo.com 

 THIS WEEK AT THE CLUB…

*** Season 78,  Week 15 of 25 – Oct. 2, 2022  ***

Best wishes to all our members and friends for a חג שמח

(Our next session: Tuesday, Oct. 18)

(The hilites here pertain to the session of Sept. 28)

The session of September 28, held unusually on a Wednesday on account of Rosh Hashana, witnessed the welcome return to the club of David Golding, who was in London to see Liz Truss become prime minister on September 6, flew back to Israel on September 7, and just missed the Queen’s passing on September 8. TRUSS describes a secure band or tight bundle of straw, but it’s also a verb; and a TRUSSER is a machine used for binding.

Yaakov waxed philosophical about his losses, against Liran and Shirley, two games in which he was forging ahead and savoring the possibility of a win. But playing Scrabble can often feel like Snakes and Ladders, and downward he slid as each of his opponents bingoed out. Shrugging his shoulders, he put it down to “the luck of the draw.”

Shirley wasn’t so lucky in her game against Elana. On a very tight board, she saw only one bingo lane, ending in a G. So did her opponent, and both tried to keep it open. With a blank and IN on her rack Shirley was confident that some good accompanying letters would materialize – but nothing turned up. Realizing it was just a matter of time before her opponent took the spot, she shuffled her tiles desperately but was only able to come up with CHOIRING. It was near the end of the game, the scores were close, and a successful challenge would end her possibility of a win. So she didn’t take the chance, and lost by 5 points. A subsequent glance at the Word of the Week sheet rubbed salt into the wound when she saw CHOIRING – entered by Elana, who had played it in a different game!

No one likes losing, but there’s losing with a sense of gratification. Richard: “I was on my way to yet another ignominious defeat, this time at the hands of Steve. And then, in my last two plays, I went from 229 to 381 with SIRLOIN and VAULTING. I lost anyway, but walked out with my head held high!”

Madeline had IODIZED, but no place to play it. So she played ID, picked up another I and was able to play IODIZE on a triple, with the Z doubled. “It wasn’t a bingo – but I scored 83 points!”

Wendy’s rack was AILOSRT. “I saw two bingos, ORALIST and TAILORS – but not the third, RIALTOS [marketplaces].” Says Shylock to Antonio in “The Merchant of Venice”: Many a time and oft / In the Rialto you have rated me / About my moneys and my usances; / Still have I borne it with a patient shrug / For suff’rance is the badge of all our tribe…. 

 

(The stats and words here pertain to the session of Oct. 2)

WWW:  JonathanB, Yaakov, Hilda, Bernard, Steve

WOW:   MANDOLIN(JonathanB),  GAMESTER(Yaakov),  LINDANES(DavidS),  GOATIER(Bernard),  TRUSTILY(Jonathan), TRAINFUL(DavidL)

PHOW: SOILIER(May),  HOAGIEST/ALARIES(Joel)

High Win, High Loss, High Triple:

A:   552(DavidS), 402(Peta), 1355(Steve)

B1: 450(Shirley), 426(Nechama), 1190(Shirley)

100-pt plays: ALIGHTED-101 (Bernard)

Attendance: 28