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Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Word Game Underground
Word Nerd Dispatches from the Word Game Underground Author:John D. Williams Jr A zany, one-of-a-kind memoir brings to life the obsessions, madness, and glory of the SCRABBLE® culture? from living-room players to world champions. Beginning his career on a lark as a freelance contributor to SCRABBLE® News, John D. Williams Jr. fell down a rabbit hole inhabited by gamers, geeks, and the grammar police. Having served as execut... more »ive director of the National SCRABBLE® Association for twenty-five years, Williams now takes readers inside the byzantine, dog-eat-dog world of top tournament players, creating a piquant (sevenletter word, 68 points!) work that is part pop-cultural history, part anthropological fieldwork. Whether reminiscing about past national champions (the highest recorded SCRABBLE® score is 830), helpfully providing a list of offensive words once banned from SCRABBLE®, opining on the number of vowelless words that are allowable (cmw for Welsh deep-walled basin, or nth for the ultimate degree), noting how long it takes a word to get into the SCRABBLE® dictionary, or why there remain more male than female champions, Williams has created a memorable work that will fascinate both amateurs and seasoned experts alike. 15 illustrations« less