National Scrabble Day
National Scrabble Day 4/13/22
What fun! This blog was originally published on National Scrabble Day! Scrabble is enjoyable in so many ways: the feel of the tiles; the challenge of getting the highest word score; organizing my tiles into an actual word; connecting that word to the current board; brain engagement; healthy competition; and much more. The first time I played Scrabble was on vacation with my family. A rainy day spent wandering around the hotel, and in the lobby I saw a couple of kids playing a game. They noticed my watching them play, and invited me to join in. They explained the rules and we changed a dreary rainy day into an engaging, mind stretching, and friendly game of Scrabble. I was hooked! My friend, Kathy, shared her solitaire version. Kathy would turn all the tiles face up and then play scrabble solitaire by following all the placement rules with winning being when she used all the tiles.
As I mused on my Scrabble story, it got me wondering about Scrabble’s origin. Scrabble was designed by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1939. He used crossword and anagram puzzles as his inspiration and named his original game Criss Cross. How did he decide how many of each letter and their values? Mr. Butts studied the New York Times newspaper to see how often letters appeared. James Brunot bought the rights, redesigned it and renamed it Scrabble. Scrabble has been translated into many languages and has been expanded to include versions for children and various themes.
Great games inspire new games. Here are a few you may (or may not) have heard of: Qwirkle, a color based game; Quiddler, a card game; Upwards, a tile game; and Boggle, a dice game. Fun fact, the new internet sensation Wordle was recently purchased by the New York Times.
Let’s all celebrate word games especially Scrabble, on every National Scrabble Day!
See you at the tables!
Bernadette
Owner, Game Friendzy
Want to learn more? Here are links to more information:
https://americacomesalive.com/
https://nationaltoday.com/
Rejuvenate Through Play
We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. ~George Bernard Shaw Take a break, play a game, help relieve your stress and anxiety. In our hustle and bustle world we need a way to re-energize.
Kids Bridge Fun & Sm...
My parents and their friends regularly played card games at night after we children had supposedly gone to sleep. Little did they know that my sister and I would sneak to the top of the stairs and peek through the