VICTORIOUS!

I am undefeated at Scrabble. That's a major source of pride, but also fear, for me. Being undefeated means I am always being challenged, and at any moment I am aware that my years-long streak of non-stop Scrabble wins will come to humbling end. But then I play, and I win. Sometimes by a lot, and sometimes by a few precious points. I've played mature Ph.D.s and spunky youth alike, though, and so far I have always come out on top.

But last night my friend Mike asked me to play with him. We were having a pretty good game, both of us pulling out impressive words here and there. I was in the lead, but he was pretty close.

And then it happened. The board opened up and like Moses parting the Red Sea, I saw it...two triple word scores. And all seven of my tiles spelled a word that fit just perfectly in that little row. I asked Mike "Should I be obnoxious?" and with his blessing I put it down. "REGRINDS". From one triple-word to the next, end to end, it was worth 140 points. 90 for the word, and an extra 50 for using all the letters.

I have never scored more with one word before. I've only used all seven letters once in my life before (I spelled the word "BEAUTIES" - I remember these things) but this was magical. I have a photograph of it, I'll post it at a later date.

Oh geeze. I just know I'm going to get challenged within a few days and after saying all this I will be rightly and soundly defeated. It's coming, I just know it.