Today is my wife’s birthday. With this special day for her, and with the recent announcement of new words to the Scrabble dictionary, I thought I would share a story you might find entertaining.
Jolene and I were married on Sept. 30, 1995. That’s 27 years ago, for those of you who can’t do the math in your head quickly. I don’t know the exact date when I proposed to her, but I do know how I did it. And, yes, it had to do with the board game Scrabble.
Scrabble’s original form was invented in 1933. That’s 89 years ago, if you are still working on the math. Jolene and I played it frequently in our younger years. Yes, we were that exciting.
When I decided she was the one for me, I did what most guys do and bought a ring. That was the easy part. Now how was I going to propose? I was supposed to be a creative guy, so I couldn’t just get on a knee and ask her. I had to do something fun but unexpected. So I asked Jolene if she wanted to play a game of Scrabble, and I slipped the ring in the bag of letters we were to pick tiles from. I anxiously waited for her to pull it out. And waited. And waited.
Somehow, she never picked that slippery little ring until the absolute last tile was pulled from the bag. I have not been known for my patience, but I held steady that night. And the best news? When I finally got down on my knee and asked her to marry me, she said yes. Whew.
Now back to that Scrabble dictionary. Yes, a Scrabble dictionary. If you are like me, you didn’t know one existed. You just argued whether “slushee” was a real word or not. And, if you couldn’t agree, you pulled out the Merriam-Webster to settle the debate.
Well, debate no more, as the seventh edition of “The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary” will be out this month. The book was last updated in 2018 through a partnership with, you guessed it, Merriam-Webster. This is no ordinary dictionary, mind you. This book has more than 100,000 words ranging from two to eight letters with more than 500 new words including stan, sitch, convo, zedonk, dox, fauxhawk, embiggen, atted, deadname, fintech, allyship, babymoon, subtweet, bae, inspo, vibed, welp, thingie, roid, skeezy and hygge. Those of you who seek the high-scoring words should know that zonkey, zoomer and zaatar are now also fair game.
If you were wondering what to get me for Christmas, now you know — and you also know how Jolene and I will be celebrating her birthday. Yes, we are still that exciting.
Have a thoughtful Thursday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com |
