Scatter Brained

C H A P T E R   2

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46
S C A T T E R B R A I N E D
1933. But it didn’t take off  un-
til 1949 (by then, Lexico had 
become Scrabble), when the 
president of Macy’s depart-
ment store played it, loved it, 
and ordered it for his store just 
in time for Christmas.
✖  ✖  ✖
On December 15, 1979, Cana-
dian newspaper reporters 
Scott Abbott and Chris Haney 
were playing a game of Scrab-
ble when they decided to cre-
ate a game of their own: Trivial 
Pursuit. Th
 at’s right. “All-
American Edition” aside, Triv-
ial Pursuit is the work of 
Canadians! (Of course, if you want to buy American, allow us 
to discreetly plug 
mental
 
_fl oss: 
Th
  e Trivia Game
.
)
✖  ✖  ✖
One of the world’s best professional Scrabble players is for-
mer National and World Champion “GI” Joel Sherman. Sher-
man earned his nickname not because of his militaristic 
playing style but because his gastrointestinal tract often 
gives him trouble during stressful matches.
✖  ✖  ✖
Th
 e word 
scrabble
 (meaning: to grope frantically) is playable 
in Scrabble.
Bingo!
The holy grail of Scrabble play-
ers is the bingo—using all seven 
tiles on a single play gets you 
50 points and respect from even 
the best players. The highest 
scoring bingo you’re likely to 
ever see in Scrabble is the 81-
point 
quizzify
 (the second 
Z
 
would be a blank). But Scrabble 
nerds have fi gured out a mas-
sively hypothetical and contrived 
situation wherein the word 
oxy-
phenbutazone
 could be played 
for a stunning 1,778 points.

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47
The Shorties
The fi rst step for any serious Scrabble player is to learn the play-
able two- and three-letter words. We don’t have the space to get 
into the 977 three-letter words, but knowing the 96 two- lettereds 
will help you play more words (and make more points) at a time 
and get rid of spare tiles at the end of a game—and impress 
your friends. Some examples:
Do, re, mi
 and all their friends make the cut. So does 
ut,
 which 
was once widely sung as the fi rst note in the scale. 
Do
 re-
placed it in the early 20th century.
Et,
 surprisingly enough, is a legitimate past-tense form of 
eat.