Louis and Lois: Scrabble Summer

2008-09-25T20:13:00.004-04:00

totals: unknown

oh, dear friends, what a strange and lovely journey it has been through the world of summertime scrabble games. here we bring you our last, best, most tragic game: THE EXECUTIVE GAME. what fools we were! lost in the high stakes of executive play, how could the ominous portents of our grim scrabble future--"SIN," "POX," and that most terrible bringer of doom, the "RAVEN"--go unnoticed? but fear not, reader! we have not lost hope that someday, somehow, our scrabble days can carry on.

"SUFIS"

2008-08-09T19:20:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 274
lo: 261

"LOINS," "GROUPERs," "EXOTICA" and "SUFIS" all gather together as the "ODOR" of victory fills the air again for lu.

"FAERIE"

2008-08-09T17:58:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 308
lo: 256

today's game was conducted under extreme circumstances as lo and lu had to endure both the overly-enthusiastic chattering of an amateur scientist, loudly discussing the finer points of her "nicotine experiment," and the headache inducing strains of a home-recorded grateful dead cover band, wistfully intoning their liberating banalities from three feet away. thankfully lu and lo were able to seek the shelter of the out-of-doors like two "FAERIEs" and escape such "SEAMY" spectacles.

"OREO"

2008-08-09T17:45:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 299
lo: 297

yes the "OREO" "DUCK" "JIGS" as lu wins for the third time. please note, however, his suspicious use of "PIQUET," which is "a trick-taking card game for two players, using a 32-card deck consisting of cards from the seven to the ace." you don't discover games that just laying on your "FUTON"!

#13 "ZAP"

2008-07-26T20:43:00.000-04:00

totals:

louis: 285
lois: 279

inspired by their second viewing of 'the dark knight,' this was to be an exciting and heroic batman-themed game. though neither lu nor lo played a single batman word, one might say that the game itself paralleled the movie's plot, as the two opponents (the noble and principled lu, with his "STEED", "VOTER" and first ever bingo, "FOAMING", against the dangerous and unhinged lo, with her "CLAQUE", "MOBS", and "YETI") fought a bitter and harrowing battle over the fate of humanity in this city.

#12 "ZITS"

2008-07-20T15:12:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 305
lo: 264

in this exciting match lu played a dazzlingly "NEON" bright, "FAB" game, both defeating lo and clearing the 300 mark for the first time. lo could not help but watch "ENRAPT" as lu proved himself the "FOUNDER" of scrabble. lo stood in the "QUEUE" waiting for her chance to "CHIDE" the intrepid hero and remind him of his status as a veritable "BOVINE" of the game, slowly meandering past 200, like a "YETI" looking for pray to grasp with his "PADS". but lu popped the "ZITS" of prejudice with his "AWE" inspiring win!

#11 "DONUT"

2008-07-19T16:09:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 221
lo: 279

lu's expertly played "GONDOLAS" and "VOWELS" are undoubtedly this game's best words. the best thing of all, though, is that reading straight across the rows, as if words that are lined up create a sentence, yields the cryptic (but ultimately quite true?) "DONUT ON US".

#10 "QOPH"

2008-07-19T15:49:00.000-04:00

totals:

louis: 245
lois: 323

some highlights: "CLIMBERS" (50-point bonus!), "FABLED", and "JARRING". lu, stooge that he is, deserves credit for the impressive "STOOGED", and lo deserves credit for the less impressive "ADMIX", a word she learned on a tour of a beer factory in russia. "QOPH", lo's desperate attempt to get rid of a late-game "Q", can mysteriously be found on almost any list of accepted scrabble q-without-u words, but is in almost no actual dictionaries.

#9 "SQUALENE"

2008-06-30T14:22:00.000-04:00

totals: UNKNOWN

this game's exact point totals have unfortunately been lost, but the lack of details should in no way take away from the fact that lu pulled a stunning victory over lo. the new and exciting word "SQUALENE" (an oily liquid hydrocarbon that occurs in shark liver oil and human sebum (!)) was crucial to his win, but it would be foolish to underestimate the importance of lu's many food-related words: "CUMIN", "SOY", "MISO", and so on. lo put up a good fight, but words like "DUO" and "LOIN" were simply no match for lu's arsenal of food- and shark liver oil-related words.

lu also defeated lo in another game weekend; however, as the game took place in a cafe far away in iowa city, we had no way of documenting the board.

#8 "TRUANCY"

2008-06-30T14:08:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 291
lo: 294

rogue! zesty! osprey! simian! truancy! with few exceptions (the tasteless play of "FART", and the use of the ubiquitous but questionable "EW", for example), the words in this game were quite satisfying. the scores were even more satisfying, with both lu and lo almost breaking the 300-point barrier. our apologies for the poor image quality.

#7 "QUARK"

2008-06-30T13:34:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 235
lo: 281

after a regrettable lapse in scrabble updates, we are getting back on track and bringing you three updates in one day! the lack of any truly notable plays (with the exception of lu's clever use of "QUARK") belies the tension of the above game, during which lu loudly and repeatedly cursed the "gods of scrabble" for their cruel treatment of him, which in turn caused lo to loudly and repeatedly curse lu for being such a whiner.

#6 "DETOX"

2008-06-18T11:31:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 248
lo: 261

this was a highly disappointing attempt at an "infinite jest" themed game. for this game, any words, names, or acronyms associated with the novel got ten points added to the total tally. the only words spelled were: "ORIN," "ETA," "DETOX," and "LOB." unsatisfying.

lo' discovered the fine word "EQUID" (a member of the horse family) and also spelled the word "ANVIL," heartbreakingly close to the infinite jest-related "AVRIL."

"Holiday Suprise"

2008-06-15T17:41:00.001-04:00

happy fathers day!!

sincerely,
your comrades in scrabble,
lu & lo

#5 "QUARE"

2008-06-15T17:25:00.001-04:00

totals:

lu: 272
lo: 261

a crushing defeat for lo (again made possible only by the questionable use of "EW")! lu was helped by the strange existence of the word "QUARE" (dialect of "queer"). it is important to note that when lo spelled "TIE" the scores were indeed tied (!) at 213. lu almost had a temper tantrum when lo stole a "R" for "LIVER", making his stunning plan to spell "TASER" impossible.

lu has yet to break the 300 point mark, but if he continues to use words like "FEU" (meaning unknown), he will surely reach that milestone before long.

#4 "BONK"

2008-06-15T15:19:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 228
lo: 242

recently it was discovered in the Scrabble rulebook that "good" players will score upwards of 300-400 points a game. needless to say we have a ways to go and "BONK" isn't going to get us there.

#3 "HIE"

2008-06-12T16:51:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 225
lo: 288

another win for lois. note the use of "QINTAR". also the use of the questionable, allegedly shakespearean verb "HIE". louis spent most of the game trying to spell "SUBURB" as well as "BYGONES", until lois stole the spot for what she claims is a form of albanian currency.

#2 "hors d'oeuvres"

2008-06-12T00:11:00.000-04:00

totals:

lu: 234 - 3 = 231
lo: 332 - 4 = 328

some tiles seem to have shifted on the right-hand side of the board since the end of the game. we realize that "THP" is not a word. lois rallied from her previous one-point loss earlier in the day for a bloody victory over louis that left him "spread over a cracker like hors d'oeuvres". louis blames his loss on the literal hors d'oeuvres (pigs-in-a-blanket) that were being noisily made in the kitchen during the match. the game was finished four letters early with minor point loss.

# 1 "EW"

2008-06-11T16:27:00.001-04:00

totals:

lu: 278
lo: 277

three new words were discovered in this game: dirl (trembling), thews (well developed muscles), vealy (immature). this is only the second time that louis has ever won against lo' (which may have been due to repeated use of the internet to check words).

there was a dispute on the very last turn. lois had just finished her letters and louis, with only one letter left (W), could not find an acceptable play. an argument ensued over the use of "EW" as a word (as in the sound of disgust, not the abbreviation for "enlisted woman"). louis searched five dictionaries to no avail, but with no other options, he succumbed to lois's insistence that "EW," as a common sound, can also be used as a word.

ps. it may be noted that a rather harsh slang term is used in this game. our sincere apologies for the crudeness.