My girlfriend is a Scrabble savant. During our most recent game, the progression of which is charted above, I’ll admit to feeling pretty self-assured after those first three rounds. Then she dropped the hammer with “sequoia” and combined its seven-letter-word bonus with a double-word score to put up a whopping 80 points in her fourth move. Apparently, when it comes to word games, my method is the safe layup—Laura goes for the backhand reverse jam.
Which is why, with the rout already on, I responded with a respectable 32-point “tine,” and then resigned myself to the ruthless bludgeoning that eventually concludes every game we play together. And you know what? I’m more than okay with that. After all, things would probably be worse if we were playing Boggle instead.
