Welcome to the Jerusalem Scrabble Club

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

 THIS WEEK AT THE CLUB…

*** Season 77,  Week  07 of 25 – December 28, 2021  ***

“Take care of yourself so you’re taking care of everyone else,” urged David at the start of Tuesday’s session, reminding players to pay strict attention to keeping their mouths and noses covered. With Omicron infections surging, “we will follow developments closely through the weeks ahead.” The last thing any of us wants is another club closure – but members’ health comes first.

Madeline’s timely challenge this week was finding the best “Happy New Year” words. In Division A, Dahlia won for PLEASURE (70 points); Division B’s winner was Elaine, for STORIES (74). Mini-prizes will be awarded.

DavidS racked up a hefty 627 points in the second game. His five bingos were POUTING, ANNELIDS, RELANDS, SERAGLIO and WRICKED, with which he bingoed out for 97 points. Numbers 2, 3 and 5 were all challenged (2: segmented worms; 3: exactly what it suggests; 5: suffering a painful muscle spasm). He also registered his division’s high win, high loss, and high triple.

Richard tells a cautionary tale. “In my last game with Madeline, I was lucky to eke out a victory after blowing a comfortable lead. Halfway through the game, I was ahead by about 150 points. Then I saw an opportunity for another bingo – if only I could pull a useful letter or two. So I started playing off one letter at a time. Big mistake. Madeline stormed back, ripping off very large scores one after another. In the end, I won – narrowly.” Richard’s conclusions:  “1. No lead is safe. 2. Never angle for the right tile. It’s a recipe for disaster.” Hilites comments: Occasionally, just occasionally, you will pull the desired tile after ditching the bad one. With a bingo-prone rack, you might attempt it one time. But try it successively and you’ll likely find the Scrabble fairy napping.

Dahlia decided to help out her brother in the States, who was suffering the pain of a missing E and S. So she took those tiles from our plentiful stock of incomplete sets and gave them to a friend going to NY to mail. The envelope arrived in Manhattan the next day – with the corner torn off and the tiles missing. Dahlia’s brother pegs the culprit as a US postal service mouse looking for a meal, while she says it’s more likely a Scrabbler with AINTR in desperate need of an E and S to complete that “dream” rack. “Just as plausible, no…?”

WWW:   JudyM, Dahlia, Rena, Joel, Chani

WOW:  CATARACT(DavidS),  SOCIETAL(Dahlia),  SAMURAI(Richard),  SPIRAEAS(Chani),  SPINOUT(Bernard),  UNSADDLE(Elana)  

PHOW:  SIDERAL(Steve), ANNOTERS(Brenda)

High Win, High Loss, High Triple:

A:    627(DavidS), 410(DavidS), 1530(DavidS)

B1:  435(May), 416(Alice), 1191(Yaakov)

100-pt plays:  SIXTEEN, 108(Jonathan)

Attendance: 33