Words with Adversaries

One of the ways I have stayed connected with my family this past month has been through on-line games.  I’ve found so much enjoyment in messaging with Hudson, My Linh, my nephew Josh and my Mother-In-Law Maxine while we’ve been playing Words with Friends or DrawSomething.  I rarely found time to engage this way in the past, but now with weeks spent alone in hotel rooms, this has become one of my favorite past times.

I must confess to being rather competitive though, at times to a fault; and Words with Friends can easily bring this ominous side of my character to the surface.  I try to demonstrate sportsmanship and encouragement, but I acknowledge being irked at times with the ludicrous words admitted in Words with Friends.  There was a time in the not too distant past when two people settled in across a Scrabble board armed only with their intellect and the vernacular they had attained in life.  The rules were simple, at least in the games I remember playing, and the most basic rule was that the words you spelled were not only actual English words, but words you knew and were familiar with. 

On the rare occasion when your adversary would play a word of questionable authenticity, you would simply ask them to use the word in a sentence or perhaps to define it.  Worse-came-to-worse you could always check the dictionary to see if it was, in fact, an actual English word.  Still, anyone who has ever perused a lexicon will honestly concede that there is an ocean of words that we never use, have never encountered, and really are not familiar with.  Point being that when you sit face to face, mano-a-mano, across a board with little wooden tiles, you both know that you can’t guess at words, or stumble upon them, and you certainly can’t search through the dictionary to find them.  And even if you happened to know somehow that ZA is slang for pizza and you were able to use it in a sentence and find it in the dictionary, you wouldn’t really be able to play it for 68 points with a clear conscience and a straight face because deep down you would know that the only reason you were aware of its being a word was that someone, somewhere had stumbled across it at some point in a game of Scrabble and had made you aware of it.

I guess that is part of the game now though, and I suppose I have started to come to terms with it.  For a while, I tried to stay to the high road in Words with Friends, but eventually my competitive nature eroded my purist tendencies.  The one remnant of valor I’ve retained is that I still have not made the first non-word play with a new adversary.  The minute you drop QI on me though, it’s GAME ON. 

So far, my kids have not made up any words – at least not any two letter words involving Q, J or Z.  In fact, both Hudson and My Linh are getting better and better at the game.  My Linh even held a 35-24 lead over our friend Dave Lindmark at one point. (Sidebar – if you ever need an ego-check, challenge a retired English teacher).  A week ago, I had a nice lead on My Linh, so I set her up with an E next to a triple word square and she promptly responded with a 58 point word.  Live and learn.  I’ve played cards with My Linh long enough to have known better.  She is cute and charming, but don’t let that pretty face fool you.  Inside the sweet exterior is a determined competitor.

I have to say though, that I don’t really enjoy playing non-words.  There is so much more satisfaction in playing JINXED, or BUXOM, or NECROMANTIC that I really prefer to hold out for those opportunities.  But hey, I’m not proud.  So if you figure out what KOS means, please let me know… I just played it on my nephew for 41 points.