Scrabble trivia

Scrabble is also known as Alfapet, Funworder, Skip-A-Cross, Spelofun and Palabras Cruzadas ("Crossed Words").

A Scrabble board is 15 spaces high and 15 spaces wide, for a total of 225 squares.

The game is sold in 121 countries in 29 different languages.

One hundred million sets have been sold worldwide.

Celebrities known for being Scrabble fans includ Sting, Keanu Reeves, Moby, John Travolta and Carol Burnett.

Scrabble sets are found in one out of every three American homes.

Scrabble was invented in 1938 by architect Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts created the game as a variation of another word game he invented, Lexiko.

Alfred Butts decided on the frequency and distribution of letters in Scrabble by analyzing the front page of the New York Times. He used a penknife to cut his first set of wooden Scrabble tiles.

The original name of Scrabble was "Criss-Crosswords."

There is just one Q in a Scrabble game.

The highest known score for a single word in competition Scrabble is 392. In 1982, Dr. Saladin Khoshnaw achieved this score for the word "caziques," which means "Indian chief."

Scrabble is a real word. It means "to scratch frantically."

Scrabble was a daytime game show (on NBC), hosted by Chuck Woolery, from July 1984 to March 1990. A second run of the show aired from January to June, 1993.

The game has 100 tiles.

In America and Canada, when a player who empties their rack on one play, it's called a "bingo." Elsewhere, it's called a "bonus." The player gets 50 additional points.

The highest possible score a player can get in Scrabble, on a first turn, is for the word MUZJIKS (128 points).

The highest possible score, theoretically, for a single play under American tournament Scrabble rules is 1,778 points for joining eight already-played tiles to form the word

OXYPHENBUTAZONE across three triple-word-score squares, while simultaneously extending seven specific already-played words to form new words.

What kind of wood is used to make Scrabble letters? Vermont Maple.

The first word played in the Scrabble rules demonstration game is "horn."

The highest score obtainable by playing a seven-letter word is QUARTZY (164 points) across a triple-word-score square with the Z on a double-letter-score square.

ETAERIO is the seven-letter word most likely to appear on a Scrabble rack.

There are 10 two-letter words spelled with vowels only: AA, AE, AI, AY, OE, OI, OY, YA, YE, YO.

Scrabble is a fixture in popular culture. It has been featured films and television programs including "Rosemary's Baby," 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show," "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons" and "Will & Grace," among many others.

The original Scrabble didn't include a board. It was played with just the tiles.

If all the Scrabble tiles ever produced were placed in a row, they would stretch for more than 50,000 miles.

There is a Braille version of Scrabble.

A local ordinance in Atwoodville, Connecticut, prohibits people from playing Scrabble while waiting for a politician to speak.

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Money isn't everything?

" When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. "
- Oscar Wilde, author (1854 - 1900)

21-year-old murderer in fuzzy animal slippers

Note that it says he was wearing those huge lion-faced fuzzy slippers while driving

Torres was driving on Turner Street Friday afternoon when he was pulled over by police and arrested. He was wearing a hooded sweartshirt with a skull-head pattern on it, pajama bottoms and fuzzy lion-faced slippers at the time. He was still wearing the get-up when he was arraigned after midnight at Lehigh County prison.

Allentown police had suspected William Torres of dealing drugs in the city. But an undercover narcotics investigation yielded much more, and resulted in Torres, 21, being charged early Saturday with two counts of homicide.

Police said Torres, whose last known address was 436 Turner St., Allentown, gunned down two men at Fourth and Allen streets last month. According to court documents, Torres admitted killing the men.

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-5murder.6246214jan26,0,6530536.story

Flying squirrel in my yard

I took these photos of this flying squirrel out front of the house a couple years ago. We have one (the same one?) that nests in what was a bluebird box every Fall. I understand they are nocturnal animals. She has chewed out the size of the hole so bluebirds are no longer interested. If you examine the eyes in the photo you can see they are rather large for nocturnal use. The reason she was out was I had been patching the box to keep it from falling off the tree. She must have nested early because it was still warm and the leaves had barely begun to turn.

Oh, it is a nesting female because in the second photo you can readily see the double row of engorged nipples.