Saturday, August 29, 2009

Skirtly

We played an amazing game of Scrabble last night. For Nick it began with a bang: his first word was a 7-letter one (sediment.) Tough way to start. But I started to recover on my next turn, with the word "vex" on a double (and the "ex" on its own double.) I thought I'd lose the game, but I maintained focus and doggedness, even though my letters were uncooperative. I had to sacrifice some of them with the word "kiwis" for which I pretty much only got face value. But my penultimate play was "buys" on a triple that also made "gay" into "gays", and I sewed it up.

Bi now, gay later. Sorry -- it was too easy.

Tough, tight game throughout. Nick was so disappointed that the word "skirtly" wasn't a word. Skirtly! I love it. He was crestfallen; skirtly could have turned the game around, had it only been a word. But the English language -- so porous, so rich, so diverse -- failed him. And he was stuck at the end with a Q but by then the damage was done.

I remember reading that true Scrabble players never blame their letters. I think I read that in Stefan Fatsis's book about competitive Scrabble. So I try to work with what I've got (or to mix metaphors to play the hand I'm dealt.) But sometimes the Scrabble gods seem so vengeful and deliberate that it's hard to maintain good cheer. But I keep trying.

2 comments:

  1. skirtly....an effeminate behavior. why webster doesn't have it yet is beyond me. The scrabble dictionary (our bible)doesn't have it yet either, but they also leave out IBID and many other words I need if I stand a chance to beat Wendy, aka the word lady and aka a few other pet names perhaps best left off this well read blog.

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  2. And Liv thinks that skirtly should mean the same as burly. Our only chance of getting the word into the lexicon is to decide what it means and start to use it. It's too good a coinage to be forgotten.

    -- word lady

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