The most useless vowel

I played Scrabble as a child and teen and then not much as an adult until Words with Friends came along. One of my "competitors" has the disturbing habit of making seven-letter words, sometimes twice in one game! Other than that--because I'm not very good at that--we play on a fairly level field, oftentimes winning every other game.

If you play WwF, you know the frustration of getting seven of the same thing, be that vowels or consonants. I'd rather have the latter because 1) there's more variety and 2) lots of times they can combine front and back and all you need is a willing and lonely vowel in order to receive four new letters in your digital tray.

But it's when you have seven vowels that the challenge comes in. And, after playing this game for over three years (more?), I have my least-favorite and least-useful vowel all picked out: the i.

The letters a and e are easy. The o isn't too difficult and the u is always useful with a q. But the i? What a little troublemaker.

And then I got to thinking: maybe the I is a troublemaker as well. While the old saw "there's no i in team" can come across as trite and risk the sayer a dirty look, the I is all the time getting itself in trouble, being too selfish, too prideful, too loud.

Be it capitalized or no, there's not any cure, I suppose, but constant vigilance--and looking for new places and ways in which to set a more useful and understanding iI.

Throw it up there--see if it sticks

Words with Friends. If you don't know what it is, then you must not have a good friend who talked you into playing, like I do. It's basically Scrabble with a twist or two. It's fun and addictive and can bring your competitive juices out of hiding. Especially if you get beat 4 times in a row like I did. I have, however, evened out the scoreboard.

There are several ways to do that, even out the scores. One is to realize that there are more legitimate two- and three-letter words than you had any idea existed. All it takes is your friendly (?) opponent springing one of them on you for you to find the website. Qi, anyone? Try Phrontistery. Mark it.

The next way is to realize that the way the game works, no illegal words can be played. So if you're stuck with seven letters of dubious use, you can keep pushing an assortment of them onto your board until you find a combo the game will allow. Who knew pelf was word? Not me. Not until I tried it this morning. And it stuck.

It's like that old saying of how to test the doneness of spaghetti: toss a strand on the wall and if it sticks, it's done. Well, if the game allows it to stick, you've got your points.

And, mercifully, new letters.

Scrabbling... and a note from Southwest Airlines

Not being able to pass up a bargain Scrabble game at a garage sale, I'm in possession of several. Rather than keep them in the closet ("Mega-Scrabble, anyone? Let's put three sets together!"), I decided to make a family crossword puzzle for the wall, maybe in the kitchen.

The problem comes in the dearth of appropriate letters. Those letters which cause sighs of regret when fetched in the game, like a K, take on real significance when several members of the family have names which need them: Kay, Sisk, Jack. As to the Ys--family, Casey, Kay, Mary, Emily--well, in short order, I needed more!

The probability of coming across cheap games is small, so I turned to that steady supplier of Americana, eBay. Sure enough, tiles abound. And not just sets of 100. No, I am currently the winner of 384, with free shipping. I just hope the set minus the 16 isn't minus the ones I need. But then, I didn't ask for an inventory, so my fault.

As to the luggage incident with Southwest which I blogged about on Tuesday, I received a very nice email from them, thanking me for my consideration in writing. No, Southwest, thank you for having an employee who cared.