It is amazing how human inventiveness responds to the need to create activities with which to fill time. The pandemic has been an astonishing stimulus to the invention of new time-fillers. I invented a new one today which I can recommend.
My wife and I play Scrabble regularly, and this little exercise is based upon the Scrabble board. The board has fifteen squares on each side. Three of these (the corner ones and the middle one on each edge) will earn you triple points on the whole word. Then there two squares which double the score of the letter placed on them. If it were possible to form a word that covered one entire side of the board you would earn an amazing score, the triple word squares together multiplying your total score by nine. Using all your tiles in a single go would gain you a bonus of fifty points above your score.
The catch is, of course, that each player has only seven letters to play with at any one time, so it is never possible to cover an entire side with your own tiles. Of course, it is possible that parts of the row are already covered by the words already formed. These can be incorporated into your go, earning you that score, and subjecting it to any bonuses you gain. Now: here’s the interesting bit. Try to identify a fifteen-letter word. This has to contain within it several syllables which could already have been played as free-standing words, or single letters that could be simply the end of words played at right-angles to the column you are attempting to fill. Ideally, none of these should have already occupied the bonus squares in the line. What would the board look like just before your turn, offering you the opportunity for a maximum score? What might your rack consist of, enabling you to take advantage of the opportunities created by the situation? Let me know how you get on.
If that doesn’t keep you busy until the pandemic has been overcome, I don’t know what will. Incidentally, I thought up this problem today while working on the construction of my new picture-racks, which I was making by cannibalising some old display screens. I’m delighted with the result, but the process involved tedious and repetitious labour with the saw and the screwdriver. Painting was no fun either. It was great to find something that would enable my imagination to soar.
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