[UA] Fatsis' Word Freak

[Jason Schneiderman]

on 3/22/03 2:28 PM, Greg Stolze at holycrow at mindspring.com wrote:

> Okay, I wish I'd read "Word Freak" before writing up "A Grammarian Gate"
> for "Break. Today."

Isn't it great? I'm an amateur player, and I still loved it. (Plus, I know
Sal Piro from the Rocky scene in New York, so there's some identification
there.)

> And (as the book makes
> vividly clear) high level Scrabble bears about as much resemblance to
> living room play as trying to hit a 100+ mph fastball in the bigs does to
> playing catch with your ten-year-old.

I got that when they discussed "bluffing." Who bluffs in Scrabble? And one
of my favorite anecdotes covered the players who played in English but
*spoke* no English -- they only knew that certain tiles in certain
combinations were valid choices and some were not. Might as well have been
tiles with Hermetic sigils and kabbalist values for all they cared.

Jason 'Scanned Heroin Jams' Schneiderman


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