ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ JEESH] 
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]

PROGRAM: [Java]

PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ JEESH]

PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]

Visual Thesaurus has just posted the crossword I make for them. For those with subscriptions, click here and enjoy.

This is probably a shocking revelation, but I don’t like Scrabble. I don’t like Scrabulous or Lexulous or whatever the hell it’s called on Facebook (stop asking me to play, thanks!). Frankly, I’m not much for most word board/parlor games save for the odd go-around of Profane Hangman.

It’s not that I can’t play these games. I can; I just happen to be really bad at them. Now that doesn’t mean I hate the games because I’m bad at them. Anybody who has ever seen me play Bridge knows at times I’m cover-your-eyes terrible. But I love Bridge.

So why is it? I mean, I’m always weaving words together, doesn’t it stand to reason I’d love Scrabble as well? Isn’t that using the same skill set? Well, yes and no.

When I’m making crosswords, I’m not limited to the random seven tiles I’m stuck with in Scrabble. It seems my rack always has four U’s. Also, when I don’t like a corner, I can rip it apart and start all over again which is verboten on the board game. Capitalized words and phrases are my bread and butter in puzzles and illegal on Scrabble. Top Scrabble players have memorized all the legal two letter words and they’ve memorized pages of obscure eight letter words. Put it this way: if I’m putting a two letter word in my puzzle there’d better be some turning-water-into-wine-esque reason for breaking that rule. And besides, if I have space for a 7-, 8- or 9-letter entry, I’m going to try and go for a phrase rather than some obscure entry.

Also there’s that thing about anagramming. Anyone who’s anyone at Scrabble can anagram anything just by looking at random letters. It takes me a good few minutes to notice that CAT can become ACT. (While we’re on the topic of anagramming, I gotta give a tip of the hat to fellow cruciverbalist Nancy Salomon who figured out that BRENDAN E. QUIGLEY anagrams into DRAG QUEEN BY-LINE. I guess Nancy knows I can fill out a dress like nobody’s business.)

Liz however loves Scrabble. We sort of stopped playing, but I suspect after we watched “Word Wars,” the wonderful documentary about competitive Scrabble she’ll want to take it up again. She’s a trip. Some of our first games were ruined because she wouldn’t let me play YO as it wasn’t in her Abridged Dictionary (!?) so she claimed it wasn’t a word (??!?!).

Anyway, enjoy this puzzle. New one on Monday. Also, for those who care to hear a Boston Typewriter Orchestra live radio performance we did this past Tuesday, click here and bang it loud.

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