Scrabble turns (still sober)

 

On occasion my darling wife and I take to Scrabble. Some of these episodes have involved the strict rules of the game, with proper challenges and the feverish memorizations of the serious amateur. One really should know all the legal 2-letter words, for instance, if one is going to be playing Scrabble. But my head is full of French these days, so we play a looser version of the game.

Speaking of French, one of our Scrabble episodes took place in Nice, where we played with a French Scrabble set. Yes, they have these- with different letter values and quantities of letters to fit the French frequencies. Obviously we are madly far from the ability to play with French words, but our play in Anglais was given a fun twist by the set. I feel like the "Y" was a deliciously valuable letter.

And if one wonders that we might have squandered the exploration of the city on Scrabble, au contraire, mon frere. We retreated from the streets fairly late in the evening to our Scrabble, I with a cognac and usually some fancy patisserie scooped up early or late for the occasion. All of this was after the interests of Nice had largely faded to its late night partying atmosphere, which was less than appealing.

And so, a couple years later, here we are playing Scrabble again, at home. Curiously I even have a cognac at my side, which I love to sniff, but have yet to take a sip of. It's so intense! And, of course, in the relaxed style of play we are currently working with, there are no time limits on anyone's turn.

Which, of course, is how I could write this.