March 2011 - The Last Word Newsletter

105 Pages·2011·5.96 MB·English

by  Cornelia Guest

W O R D G A M E N E W S
The Last Word
The Independent Tournament SCRABBLE® Newsletter
A Monthly Newsletter Issue 16 March 2011
Tournament Coverage 7-Bingo Game
The Young Lions: Conrad & Rafi
The Last Word is an independent publication for tournament SCRABBLE® players. It is not
affiliated with Hasbro, Mattel, the North American SCRABBLE® Players Association (NASPA),
the Word Game Players’ Organization (WGPO), or the National SCRABBLE® Association (NSA).
Our mission is to provide content of interest to all SCRABBLE® players, so please let us know if
there are topics you would like us to add. We welcome contributions: stories, artwork, etc.
For the time being, we are hoping to provide this Newsletter at no charge; however, since it is a
100% volunteer effort, we would appreciate any donations. Advertisers are encouraged, too. If
you would like to have The Last Word emailed to you, please send a request with your email
address to [email protected] and we will add you to our mailing list.
Editor in Chief: Cornelia Guest
The Last Word is a volunteer
Columnists: Joe Bihlmeyer, Jan Cardia, Judy Cole, Diane effort. We appreciate your
Firstman, Ryan Fischer, Stu Goldman, Jeff Kastner, James
donations.
Leong, Joan Mocine, Art Moore, Lester Schonbrun, Larry
Sherman, Chris Sinacola, Siri Tillekeratne, Linda Wancel (PayPal or snail mail--contact
[email protected])
Editors-at-large: Robin Pollock Daniel, Joe Edley, Stefan Fatsis,
Ted Gest
Contributors: Gerianne Abriano, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Tim
Bottorff, Roger Cullman, Lawren Freebody, Albert Hahn, Keith For advertising rates,
Hagel, Jason Idalski, Tony Kampf, Linda Kraar, Jerry Lerman, please email
Chris Lipe, Paul Mistrette, Carol Ravichandran, Larry Rand, Alan
[email protected]
Stern, Rafi Stern, Ed Saunders, Willie Swank-Pitzer, Jen Tilliss
Copyright © 2010 GuessWhat! Some data copyright ©1999-2010 NSA; copyright © 2010 NASPA; and copyright © 2005-2010 Seth Lipkin and Keith Smith.
SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.in the USA and Canada. Elsewhere it is the trademark of J.W. Spear & Sons, Ltd.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Table of Contents
From the Editor 4
Advertising Section: Equipment, Tournaments, Organizations, Books 5
Emails to the Editor 9
Meet Our Columnists: Jan Cardia 12
Tournament News 14
Greeting the New Year in Albany 14
Phoenix 2011 15
2011 Eastern Championship in Charlotte 18
February Fury by Jason Idalski 19
2nd Annual D.C. School SCRABBLE® Championship by Stefan Fatsis 20
New England School SCRABBLE® Series: Tournaments 5 & 6 by Cornelia Guest 22

Tournament Results 25
New Faces: Namoli Brennet 28
SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News edited by Judy Cole 31
Inaugural WGPO Word Cup 2011 41
Hot Flash! 42
The Young Lions of SCRABBLE®: Conrad Bassett-Bouchard and Rafi Stern 44
Word Star by Jeff Kastner 49
The Wordsmith by Chris Sinacola 52
Video Joe by Joe Bihlmeyer 55
Club News edited by Larry Sherman 56
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T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Teaneck (NJ) NASPA SCRABBLE® Club #251 by Paul Mistrette 56
The Lighter Side of SCRABBLE® by Lester Schonbrun and Joan Mocine 59
Know the Rules by Jan Cardia 72
Tony Kampf: The Mineral Man by Albert Hahn 61
Word Trivia Quiz by Siri Tillekeratne 62
Is the SCRABBLE® Letter Frequency Optimal? by Tony J. Rasch 64
The One Up! Contest by Timothy Cataldo 66
Diane’s DEFALTS by Diane Firstman 67
Linda’s Library by Linda Wancel 68
Scrab-doku by Jeff Kastner 71
Passages edited by Larry Sherman 74
The Collins-Only Threes by Chris Lipe 77
SCRABBLE® Resources 100
Tournament Calendar 103
Archives 105

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F R O M T H E E D I T O R
From the Editor
As winter winds down, I know I’m not the only Scrabbler ready for warm days and sunshine.
This past month has featured some remarkable tournaments--Atlantic City, Phoenix, and the
Eastern Championships in Charlotte; and March brings players to the Dallas Open and
Saratoga. School SCRABBLE® players are preparing in state and regional events for the
9th annual National School SCRABBLE® Championship in Orlando April 15-16. Those
wishing to jumpstart spring are also thinking ahead to April: on the East Coast the Boston
Area Tournament (BAT), and on the West Coast the first San Diego Open, organized by 21-
year-old Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, who was also the winner of the Phoenix Main Event.
Looking to summer, there will be two six-day events for Scrabblers: the National
SCRABBLE® Championship in Dallas August 6-11, and the recently announced WGPO
Word Cup in Reno July 1-6 (with a first-day Early Bird). Annette Tedesco will be offering five
days of SCRABBLE® at her fabulous Albany Tournament June 30-July 4, and I’ll be reviving
the popular Stamford events with a three-day tournament in Old Greenwich on July 22-24.
Many great options are available this summer for Scrabblers (see cross-tables.com)!
The San Diego Open already has 137 entries, a phenomenal number for a new tournament,
and a tribute to the organizational talents of Conrad Bassett-Bouchard. In this issue we
present profiles of Conrad and another “young lion”: Rafi Stern. These two players, both 21-
year-old college students, have already achieved the rare 2000+ rating.
This month we welcome three new columnists: Judy Cole, who has taken over editing the
“SCRABBLE® and Scrabblers in the News” column (as you’ll see, she’s done a remarkable
job!); and Lester Schonbrun and Joan Mocine, who will be sharing their wonderfully
humorous illustrated poems in “The Lighter Side of SCRABBLE®.”
Unfortunately, one of our favorite columnists, Katya Lezin, author of numerous fantastic
“Player Profiles,” has had to step down. The many demands on her time have made it hard
for her to continue donating her energy to these profiles. I thank Katya for her amazing work
for the past year plus, and I wish her the best.
This issue may look quite long. Don’t worry. Twenty-two pages are devoted to Chris Lipe’s
“Collins-Only Threes,” a collection of definitions that appeared as a series on cgp. Chris has
done a terrific job researching these threes, and whether you play Collins or not, you’ll find it
enjoyable reading.
Finally, there’ve been some amazing games at clubs this past month. Read about Judy
Levitt’s 18-bingo night at Los Angeles’s Club 44 (with 7 bingos in one game), and Travis
Carlson’s 671 game at the Tucson Club.
I want to share my thanks to the many readers who send in comments (and checks) in
support of The Last Word, and to our advertisers, who help keep us afloat. Your enthusiasm
makes it a pleasure to prepare the newsletter each month!
Cornelia Guest
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8
E M A I L S T O T H E E D I T O R
Emails to the Editor
Should you wish to comment on any of the Newsletter articles—or make suggestions or corrections
—please email Cornelia Guest at [email protected]. Snail mail is also welcome at 135
Codfish Hill Road, Bethel, CT 06801. Emails chosen for publication may be edited at the editor’s
discretion.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Hi, Cornelia.

Thank you for putting the game [Jerry Lerman’s 8-bingo game] prominently in the last issue of The
Last Word!
It was a miraculous game for me -- so much so that for the next several games in a row I couldn’t
even score 400! ; I waited a lot of years for something like this. (I started tournament play 33 years
ago.)
While I expect this record (or non-record) game will be eclipsed someday, I’ll savor it while I can.
Thanks again. Terrific newsletter you’re publishing!
Jerry Lerman

BTW -- Did you realize that the holder of the 7-bingo record, Nigel Peltier, was seated at the same
table ( there were 2 boards on each table) – observing the game as it progressed? I wonder what
was going through his head.

He told me that it wasn’t “This is a WGPO tournament, so big deal!”
_________________________________________________________________________
I have a short anecdote for you, Cornelia:
In the January 'MLK' 2011 Reno tournament, I met Jerry Lerman for the first time, as I was playing
"up" in the Serious Open division. I played him in Game 2 of the 19 game tourney, and I could have
won by playing one more tile from my last rack before Jerry went out on his turn. Thanks for the tip,
Jerry. Anyhow, that 8- bingo record game Jerry and Kenji played in the tournament was played on
my board later that first day, but sitting next to Jerry and Kenji was my son Nigel. He couldn't help
but watch out of the corner of his eye as the Most Bingos All-time Scrabble Record that Nigel had
previously held was broken. Nigel had 7 bingos just last July 2010 in Reno a table or two away in
the same room.
Plus, Nigel's in the record book for total combined (non-phony) game score: 1127 from his 402-725
loss to Laurie Cohen in Feb 2009 in Phoenix. Jerry & Kenji got awful close to that, with a combined
1121 (671-450).
~MARK PELTIER

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E M A I L S T O T H E E D I T O R
Everyone--
Much to my surprise when I looked at Larry Sherman's "Passages" column in the last issue of "The
Last Word,” I discovered that Joe Leonard had passed away December 4. This news was not in any
SCRABBLE® news source, and I'm wondering if the other longtime players who corresponded with
him had any knowledge of it.
The article mentioned the 5500 words added to the OSPD1 to make the OSPD2, all provided by
Joe, as well as the 2000 words missed that Joe found and sent, through me, to the NSA. It did not
mention Joe's bingo anagram list, unfortunately described inadequately in Word Freak.
Joe wrote every 7-letter word in the OSPD1 on a sheet of paper, and the letters of that word in
alphabetical order underneath it. Then the scissors came out, and he cut up the pairs so each was
by itself.
Next came the baggies. All the entries with AAA as the first three letters went into one baggie, and
those that began with AAB (that didn't have a third A) went in the next one. When a trio that yielded
many, many entries, such as ADE was in play, a fourth letter was added. When he was finished, Joe
had a small number of items in each baggie that he could examine to see which were anagrams.
This type of detailed procedure was typical of the way Joe worked. Interestingly, a list of bingo
anagrams put together by three people (including myself) had several omissions that were provided
by Joe's work.
Joe was not a SCRABBLE® player as the piece suggests. Yet his contributions to the game in the
form of lexicon additions and anagrams were monumental. The Last Word is to be commended for
finding out about his passing and sharing this obituary with us.
Stu Goldman
_________________________________________________________________________
To the Editor:
I read with interest Tony J. Rasch's recent piece "Is that Really a Word?" in the last issue. His Brow-
Raisers book is a great resource, and my tournament rating would no doubt benefit from spending
more time with it!
However, I need to correct a fundamental misunderstanding in his piece. The words in the OWL
(and OSPD) derive not only from the four source dictionaries used to update the word list in 2006,
but also from seven or eight earlier editions of college dictionaries. See
http://www.scrabbleplayers.org/w/Dictionary_Committee for a brief history This point may be what
Jim Pate was trying to explain in his email response to Tony’s original question.
So there aren't "1,262 that are no longer recognized by any of the source dictionaries," as Tony
claims. There may be 1,262 words (if that figure is accurate) that are not in the four dictionaries that
were used to cull new words for the 2006 update, but each of those 1,262 is listed in at least one of
the books that was used as a source dictionary at one time. And since even the oldest source
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