CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Within the quarter-century that I’ve been taking part in and writing about Scrabble—a sport by which greatness requires that uncommon matrix of organic reward, yeoman preparation, preternatural imaginative and prescient, marathon endurance, and blind luck—I’ve by no means witnessed something as surprising and painful as the tip of the 2026 North American championship right here in July. The second was proper up there with any agony-of-defeat ending in any sport: After 3,700 video games, hundreds of strikes, and tens of millions of factors scored by greater than 200 gamers, the title was determined by a phrase that wasn’t a phrase in any respect.
On one facet of the board: No. 1 seed Mack Meller of Lexington, Ky., a 26-year-old onetime youngster prodigy and present Scrabble grandmaster, content material creator, trainer, and puzzle constructor. On the opposite: No. 5 seed Orry Swift of Winnie, Texas, a 39-year-old accounting professor and five-tool gamer—he’s been a high participant in World of Warcraft and Magic: The Gathering; he’s about midway by means of a quest to play and evaluation each Tremendous Nintendo sport (about 880 in all); and, underneath his username Sheex, he not too long ago accomplished a charity speedrun of Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen. “Coming off a excessive like that into making the finals at Scrabble nationals was crazytown,” he informed me.
Swift entered his first Scrabble match in 2004 and has been among the many highest-rated gamers for greater than 15 years. Meller started taking part in competitively at age 10. He grew to become the youngest participant to attain an skilled ranking, at 11, and cracked the High 10 at 13. On the Scrabble Gamers Championship, held over 5 days in a soccer field-sized convention-center ballroom right here, they topped a area of 51 gamers within the high North American-lexicon division (out of 242 total) with similar 20-8 information to qualify for a best-of-five finals and a shot on the $10,000 first prize. (A further 38 gamers competed utilizing an international-English thesaurus; it’s sophisticated.)
It was Meller’s third straight finals look (he gained in 2024 and misplaced final yr) and Swift’s second (he misplaced in 2022). In a recap video on his standard YouTube channel, former champ Will Anderson labeled the showdown “among the best and most compelling matches we’ve seen but in Scrabble.” I’ll put it one other approach: There’s a motive the subtitle of my guide about aggressive Scrabble contains the phrases heartbreak, triumph, and genius.
I interviewed Meller and Swift about what went down. Our written dialog has been edited for size and readability.
Fatsis: Mack takes Recreation 1 of the finals, 383-326, and opens Recreation 2 with the pleasant three-B, rack-clearing “bingo” ABUbbLE (lowercase denotes a clean) en path to a 528-321 blowout. Benefit, Mack.
Swift: After dropping the primary two, I used to be fairly down. It simply didn’t appear to be I might ever draw any good letters within the finals. I went out for lunch with three different high gamers—Jason Li, Carl Johnson, and Rafi Stern—and so they talked me by means of it. I feel it helped to have folks on the desk who’ve deserved a championship however haven’t fairly pulled it off. I all of a sudden didn’t thoughts the result, win or lose.
Fatsis: Mack, we ate collectively and also you appeared fairly chill, even encouraging the counter employees at Snack Wellness Cafe to tune into the match livestream for the afternoon video games. However the tiles don’t care about momentum.
Meller: I used to be making an attempt extraordinarily arduous to not really feel overconfident. Having come again from down 0-2 to win in 2024, I knew the match was removed from over. Such as you stated, Stefan, how I drew in Video games 1 and a pair of would don’t have any bearing on how the tiles shook out within the afternoon, and I knew Orry was greater than able to making the comeback.
Fatsis: Orry, after the break, the tile gods smile down on you. You “bag” Mack twice in a row, that’s, draw synergistic tiles permitting high-scoring performs flip after flip. In Recreation 3, you drop 4 bingos—EVERTING, OVERTAKE, OUTSERT, and ANNEALS—plus a 61-point ZEDA, a Yiddish-derived phrase that means grandfather, for a 536-364 win. And in Recreation 4, you put up an excellent greater win, 584-367, slapping down 5 bingos—INVENTS, INVADER, GAMBLER, PICTURED, and FLECTION (an alt spelling of flexion).
You’re undoubtedly having a very good time. At one level you almost draw the Scrabble meme OLEICAT—from a video by Will Anderson by which ChatGPT insists that OLEICAT is a sound phrase—and line it up for the rack digicam.
In accordance with the analyzer Macondo, Orry, in Recreation 3 you throw an ideal sport, posting an Common Mistake Index of 0.0. (Scrabble, like each different sport, has an array of acronymic analytics.) Mack is shut behind at 0.6. I’m a low skilled, and my MiAV is round 3.5 per sport. Your numbers mirror your ability and, in Mack’s case right here, the truth that in Scrabble you’ll be able to play almost flawlessly and nonetheless get whomped.
Swift: However I virtually play the nonword VERGENT, falling right into a entice the place one thing scores a kazillion factors so that you discuss your self into it. And I might have let Mack play OVERTAKER, which additionally isn’t a phrase, as a result of he’s Mack and I’ve simply drained 40 p.c of my phrase data by taking part in on the livestream. I undoubtedly get nervous when the cameras are rolling.
Fatsis: Like patrons at Centre Courtroom at Wimbledon in England, the 100 of us gamers and employees in a close-by room on the Alliant Power PowerHouse Conference Heart hooked up to the DoubleTree Resort in Cedar Rapids—and lots of extra watching on-line—are psyched the match goes the gap. And it doesn’t disappoint. Recreation 5 will go down as an all-timer, for each its nonstop motion and bonkers ending.
After Orry’s opening play of EX for 18 factors, 4 straight bingos hit the board in fast succession: PAGEANT for 76 (Mack), RELIERS for 85 (Orry), PRESIDIO for 94 (Mack), and WINDABLE for 82 (Orry). To offer a way of how shortly your brains are processing, earlier than Mack even straightens his new tiles—an R and S are sideways, a D and P the other way up—he picks them up and lays down PRESIDIO, overlaying two double-word-score squares. Unbelievable.
You’ve performed 4 bingos within the first 5 strikes, the rating is 185-170, and also you’ve every used lower than two of the allotted 25 minutes in your clocks. I find it irresistible when a sport goes off the rails.
Swift: That is a kind of openers the place you actually need to go second. With my opening rack of EEEIRSX, EXERCISE by means of a C or HEXEREIS from an H might generate an enormous lead, whereas EX often offers again extra factors than it scores. Fortunately, I draw a bingo instantly. I’m making an attempt to play quick on turns which have an apparent play. On the WINDABLE flip, after hitting my clock, my coronary heart skips a beat. Is WINDABLE really a phrase? Did I simply miss WINDSLAB someplace for extra factors?
Fatsis: Like each high skilled, you’ve drilled greater than 25,000 seven-letter phrases and 31,000 eight-letter phrases again and again for years. But it surely’s one factor to resolve a flashcard anagram and one other to discover a phrase over the board underneath time stress, not to mention with lots of of individuals watching and commenting.
Mack, holding a rack of ACGNTV and a clean, you’ve bought a fifth straight playable bingo, VaCATING by means of the second I in PRESIDIO for 63 factors. As an alternative you play VAT atop the primary two letters of WINDABLE for 35, conserving C, G, N, and the clean. Why?
Meller: Persevering with the bingo practice with VaCATING is tempting, however I’ve to acknowledge the hazard of the hotspot Orry’s final bingo created. He’ll rating 50-plus factors there fairly often, so I determine to take 35 for VAT, blocking the spot and saving the clean to provide myself nice possibilities at bingoing with a seven-letter phrase ending in G underneath PE in the midst of the board, or an eight by means of the open vowels in PRESIDIO. If I didn’t have a clean, I’d slam down the bingo and hope for the perfect. However with clean in hand, generally you’ll be able to forgo weak bingos in favor of a robust non-bingo.
Fatsis: Laptop simulations again up your determination, and actually Orry would have performed INVOKE for 62 factors on high. As an alternative, he has to settle for a similar phrase for 42 two rows under. Orry, in your subsequent flip you’ve three locations for HOTLY—by means of the O in INVOKE; to the left of PRESIDIO, concurrently forming HI, OD, TI, and LO; and subsequent to EX, making HEX. Every rating effectively however are strategically completely different. You select the one which retains the board essentially the most “open”—leaving entry to potential horizontal bingos by means of or hooking PRESIDIO and creating a brand new vertical lane parallel to the Y in HOTLY.
Swift: I wasn’t assured in my capacity to maintain the board shut down. I felt just like the “depart” of L, O, and T on my rack and the positioning of HOTLY was going to provide me a greater probability to race. Because it seems, that is simply objectively unsuitable and begins a skid of nervousness for me. I someway don’t even see HOLY right down to the precise of the O in PRESIDIO for 11 further factors, the plain hotspot. I even have an inkling that PRESIDIOS isn’t a phrase. I ultimately notice that it’s PRESIDIA that doesn’t take the S. My mind is beginning to filter out issues it shouldn’t.
Fatsis: Mack, you don’t draw any vowels and also you’re compelled to play three consonants twice in a row, making GANG for simply 16 factors and DJIN for 12. You additionally burn a while in your clock. Persistence is essential if you’re nursing a clean. Nonetheless, are you getting annoyed?
Meller: The second all-consonant draw is a bit irritating, particularly once I pull the annoying-to-use J, so I’ve to remind myself that the tile pool is now trending vowel-heavy. The possibilities of pulling extra consonants are low, so slightly than exchanging tiles out of frustration, I make a disciplined determination to play DJIN by means of the second I in PRESIDIO. This has the additional benefit of defending the S hook on PRESIDIO for me, because it makes it arduous for Orry to overlap on both facet of the phrase in a approach that blocks the hook. With each of the final S’s and a clean in hand, having this spot to bingo feels important.
Fatsis: Orry, you’ve bought the alternative drawback: too many vowels. You dump a pair, additionally for lower than 20 factors, and lead, 271-233. We’re midway by means of the sport. What are you inferring from Mack’s consonant dumps?
Swift: After GANG, I don’t actually have a way that he has the clean or a killer depart. It’s the type of play you make with a bunch of different one-point consonants in your rack. After DJIN, although, alarm bells are going off. This isn’t only a Dangerous Luck Brian rack. I’ve him on S, clean, consonant, consonant, which seems to be right. Nonetheless, I’m considering now that his almost certainly bingo is in the midst of the board, making PES/AXE or one thing of that ilk. I determine if I can hold AELRT on my rack, I can bingo by means of no matter he performs. Leaning on my prior assumption of PRESIDIOS not being good, I don’t actually revisit the phrase data error right here and pay for it.
Fatsis: Our bingo-less stretch of six turns—you guys are such slackers—lastly ends when Mack pulls two vowels, plus a W, and performs ChOWSES for 92 factors, pluralizing PRESIDIO. Clearly, this isn’t a standard phrase—it’s an alternate spelling of CHOUSE, which suggests to swindle and dates to no less than 1654. (“You shall chouse him of Horses, Cloaths, and Mony,” John Dryden wrote.) However commonness is irrelevant in Scrabble. CHOWSES is the 22,550th most-probable seven-letter phrase primarily based on the probability it’ll be pulled from a full bag of 100 tiles. So it’s low-prob, as we are saying. Mack, did you hesitate on the phrase in any respect?
Meller: I noticed ChOWSES instantly, which is often a very good signal that I’m not making it up, however given the significance of the state of affairs I did cease greater than common to reassure myself it was legitimate. I remembered that CHOWSED is 100% good as a result of I do know that CHOWSED and COWSHED are an anagram pair. That was sufficient to get me to play it with out losing an excessive amount of further time.
Fatsis: Orry bingos again with INFLATER—the sport’s sixth rack-clearing play—and retakes the lead, 334-325. Nail-biting time. Mack performs off duplicate letters with FARM for 33 factors, concurrently forming FAX, AG, and MA. Orry, you pull the 10-point Z—virtually at all times a welcome sight late in a sport—and have DITZ by means of the T in INFLATER for a whopping 72. I might have dropped it in a nanosecond. However you pause to evaluate—you depend the tiles left within the bag, you line up different attainable strikes in your rack. What are you considering?
Swift: INFLATER? Or is it simply INFLATOR? INFLATOR/FLATIRON. The lexicon is solely leaving my mind at this level, and the nerves are setting in. DITZ offers me pause for 2 causes: It’s horrifying to maintain 4 vowels going into the ultimate stretch, particularly when Mack has simply drawn seven recent tiles and the second clean is lurking—the D will probably be a fruitful bingo lane. I take into account ZINE down by means of the N in INVOKE for 22 fewer factors, conserving the way more snug DEEO, which in concept I can nonetheless bingo with. Finally I determine that ZINE may give a boatload proper again on the triple lane, and DITZ is simply too many factors to move up.
Fatsis: Mack, you decide the Q however can’t rating effectively with it regardless of holding a U, and also you’re trailing by virtually 50 factors. We see you arrange MONO by means of one of many N’s within the upper-left quadrant for 22 factors. The pc suggests dumping the Q on the precise facet with TOQUE for 16. On the livestream, although, 2023 champ and lead commentator Josh Sokol says, “Is it time for Mack to be extra determined?”
Meller: The extra I take into consideration my place, the extra I don’t prefer it. Fifty factors may not appear to be an enormous deficit, however with tiles and bingo lanes quickly disappearing, and with none good spots for my Q-U, I not really feel being affected person is an choice. TOQUE scores weakly, after which if Orry blocks the D in DITZ, I’ve nowhere to bingo and I simply don’t see myself making up the deficit. MONO has the identical drawback: If Orry blocks the D, I’m left with little probability for a comeback, and he’s going to watch out to not open a giant Q spot.
Fatsis: You determine to play MOO under ChOWSES, making EM and SO and “forking the board,” that’s, opening two doubtlessly high-scoring lanes, one on the underside row and one on the rightmost column. Gutsy!
Meller: MOO appears to be like a bit loopy, and clearly there are some circumstances the place Orry slams the door shut with a 100-point bingo there. However if you’re already in a nasty place, you’ll be able to’t reside in concern—I don’t need to die a gradual loss of life on a closed board with out giving myself an opportunity. After MOO, my depart of AEQU all of a sudden turns into far more potent, with a robust risk of 50-point performs like QUARE or QUATE, both on the underside making EME or on the precise making MOOR or MOOT.
Additionally, from my perspective, bingos like ACQUIRE or BAROQUE on the underside aren’t out of the query, and if Orry blocks there I’ve some attracts at large bingos to the D of DITZ, resembling ACQUIRED and QUARRIED. I’m not loving my possibilities after MOO, however that’s the exact motive I really feel the necessity to make the play.
Fatsis: Orry, you draw two vowels—now you’ve six, gulp—but in addition the clean. Mack’s new openings are risky. Do you attempt to block one or each? Do you trade a few of your vowels? Do you attempt to play by means of this mess?
Swift: Earlier than Mack’s play, I used to be lifeless set on taking part in VEE from the V in INVOKE, making an attempt to attain decently and keep a lead in case we don’t play to a bingo end. After Mack’s play, my thought course of goes a bit too quick and I ignore some prospects. I instantly take into account EmEU for 23 underneath Mack’s MOO, making EME, SOM, and OE and shutting all the things he simply opened. Burning the clean for 23 shouldn’t be interesting, and I might have slammed it down if the D wasn’t there, however I’ve to depart each bingo lanes open in case he will get one down first. Hoisted by my very own petard. I don’t see any worthwhile blocks, so I default again to my prior play, failing to acknowledge the worth of exchanging now that there are two bingo lanes. Undoubtedly a mistake right here.
Fatsis: Mack, you’re trailing 424-374 and also you’re underneath time stress now. You draw two I’s and a T, and have QUITE or QUATE at both of the openings you’ve created for 51 factors and a one-point lead. As an alternative, you play QUAI for 36 ending above the D in DJIN. The play appears wildly counterintuitive; you’re passing up numerous factors. Unbeknownst to you, Orry has drawn two consonants, and his rack is EEHOTU and the second and final clean. QUAI stops Orry from taking part in HEREUnTO by means of the R in INFLATER, which might have been GG. “As if he has eyes within the entrance of Orry Swift’s head,” Josh Sokol says on the stream. Did you see it as a risk?
Meller: QUAI had completely zero to do with blocking HEREUnTO. There have been nonetheless 10 tiles left within the bag, and far stronger bingo threats utilizing the underside or the D of DITZ, so making an attempt to house in on a selected bingo Orry would possibly have by means of the R could be infeasible and, frankly, illogical. Blocking can also be the very last thing on my thoughts; quite the opposite, my place continues to be poor, so I really need to depart extra threats open. The truth that I block HEREUnTO is only one of many coincidental fortunate breaks I bought this match.
Fatsis: So what does lead you to QUAI?
Meller: The most important issue is my learn on Orry’s vary after VEE. First, Orry performed off two E’s in a pool with solely two extra left. E’s are by far the perfect vowels in Scrabble, and there’s no approach Orry performs two of them for simply 18 factors with out no less than one and fairly presumably each in his depart. Second, regardless of having a good lead, Orry doesn’t block the hotspots on the underside proper that I simply created with MOO. This leads me to consider he doesn’t have a great way to take action, which suggests he possible has tons of vowels. However his rack can’t be so unhealthy that he’d trade over taking part in VEE, and he should’ve had sufficient confidence in its future to battle fireplace with fireplace by leaving the underside open.
Fatsis: Nonetheless, QUITE for 51 factors is rather a lot to move up.
Meller: It could get me principally even on the scoreboard, however I’m behind in each different side. After QUITE, I’d be left with two vowels—drawing right into a vowel-heavy bag, that’s horrible. Plus, Orry has tempo, that means it’s his flip subsequent, an enormous benefit in a detailed late-game place. I really feel like I’ve to gun for a bingo. The most important benefit of QUAI in that respect is that it retains my E and my T. I’ll want the E for any probability to bingo with the D in DITZ. And the T is a superb consonant for bingoing. In some methods, the logic of QUAI is identical because the logic of MOO: The extra intuitive, passive play doesn’t really feel prefer it has sensible profitable possibilities, so hold the volatility as excessive as attainable and hope for the perfect.
Fatsis: Orry, you’re now forward by simply 14. This place is terrifically sophisticated. Do you knock out the underside triple-word lane? Do you play off one or two extra vowels and hope to bingo after that? Do you block the open D in DITZ? My mind would have exploded.
Swift: Plenty of issues are going by means of my thoughts right here, the foremost of which is: Am I lacking an apparent seven-letter phrase? HEREUnTO is unfortunately gone. I instantly see TOUcHEE however am fairly positive I’ve needed this to be good earlier than, and it was not. I choose the non-bingo TOUcHE as a candidate play on the underside. Then I take a look at the pool for attainable bingos from Mack. I instantly see DIATRIBE, DIABETIC, and BRUCITE, so then I cease trying. That’s sufficient. There’s bingos in each spots.
Fatsis: Which means you’ll be able to’t block one for a couple of factors and depart the opposite open for Mack. If he bingos and also you don’t have wherever to counter-bingo, it’s over.
Swift: Evidently beginning with a D is extra possible than ending with a D for him. Ending with a D or hitting a seven for myself appears believable. I might doubtlessly block bingos beginning with a D and fish, preserving each lanes—right down to the D and underneath EM—with a play like ER alongside the R in INFLATER for 4 factors. I take into account this for a bit however have to see how usually I hit a bingo from the bag. I am going by means of all of the tiles unseen to me. A tough estimate is bingoing someplace between 30 and 40 p.c with a one-tile fish. Nonetheless, no matter bingo I hit has the potential of being blocked, and Mack might outrun me. He might play a four-letter phrase making MOOT or MOOR and simply take the lead if I don’t rating.
Fatsis: Let me interrupt to say that the power to conduct this type of multilayered positional evaluation in a matter of seconds is what separates high gamers from the remainder of us patzers shuffling tiles within the decrease divisions. Again within the Thirties, Alfred Butts had no thought how advanced the household sport he invented would become.
Swift: After eager about all of this, I then see the potential of fishing the E to make OE and NEEM within the decrease proper. This appears to do all the things I need: It scores factors (16), units up my clean to make use of as an S, and retains a good depart. Nonetheless, I notice that it really makes it more durable for me to bingo on the following flip—as a result of the newly created NEEM solely takes an S, whereas EM takes the E, O, and U, too. Again to the drafting board. Sadly, I don’t take into account fishing the E to make EXES/AGE. Extra vital, I don’t take into account fishing multiple tile with one thing like DUE from the D in PRESIDIOS. I feel if this had crossed my mind, I might have performed it.
Fatsis: Yeah, primarily based on the unseen tiles, Macondo, the pc engine, offers you an 86 p.c probability of bingoing after taking part in off the E and U, and a 63 p.c probability after dumping simply the E.
Swift: In any case of this consideration, I lastly see HErEOUT. I’m fairly uncertain, however my mind has been taking part in methods on me all through this sport. WINDABLE? INFLATER? PRESIDIOS? These had been all phrases. It’s simply the nerves. THEREOUT is sweet. Sure! HEREOUT takes a T, in fact it does! Cue the unhappy trombone.
Fatsis: HEREOUT shouldn’t be a sound phrase. You may drop the T from the entrance of each seven-letter phrase beginning with THERE—THEREAT, THEREBY, THEREIN, THEREOF, THEREON, THERETO—however you’ll be able to’t do the identical with the eight-letter THEREOUT. Even for the perfect, the dictionary might be complicated, and the influence of that confusion unforgiving.
Whereas Orry is deliberating, Mack, your replenished tiles are ABEIIRT. You place the brand new ones in your rack and don’t contact them—ITEI on the left and ABR on the precise. I think about you’ve immediately noticed DIATRIBE from that D in DITZ.
Meller: Yeah, I see DIATRIBE instantly, and the most important problem is making an attempt to not give any type of inform to Orry that I’ve a bingo. That’s why I hold the tiles aside: Placing all of them collectively can generally point out you’ve bought a bingo lined up.
I do know if the D stays open, I’ve to bingo with DIATRIBE it doesn’t matter what. I’m really hoping he bingos on the underside as a result of that will empty the bag after which I’ll play DIATRIBE, ending the sport and perhaps eking out a detailed win. If he fishes off one or two tiles, I’ll should play it and pray he doesn’t draw a walk-off bingo—a terrifying prospect given my learn on him having the clean.
If he bingos with the D, I’m lifeless and that’s that. If he blocks the D for a small rating, I’m ready to play on the underside proper, blocking each the underside row and rightmost column. We’d then go right into a tense endgame, and the result would rely on what we every draw on our subsequent turns.
Fatsis: After six minutes of deliberation, Orry, you make your transfer. “He is taking part in HEREOUT! This isn’t a phrase!” a shocked Josh Sokol says. “If he performs this, he’ll lose the sport on the spot!”
HErEOUT scores 89 factors, placing you up 513-410, and also you draw the final six tiles from the bag. Mack is assured the phrase isn’t acceptable. However he doesn’t problem, which might end in your eradicating the play and dropping your flip. That’s as a result of Mack realizes that he wins whether or not or not it’s good. DIATRIBE scores 86 and, per match Scrabble guidelines, Mack will get double the mixed worth of the tiles on Orry’s rack, CORUUY, which is 22 factors. Eighty-six plus 22 is 108. Remaining rating: Mack 518, Orry 513.
While you notice what’s taking place, Orry, even earlier than Mack makes the play, you pull your T-shirt over your head. The livestream commentators are surprised—”so brutal,” says my 24-year-old daughter, Chloe, who’s on the mic after ending 14th in Division 1. Within the convention-center viewing room, there are gasps and ohmigods.
Orry, we talked a pair days after the match and also you informed me you’ll by no means watch Recreation 5. So thanks on your willingness to relive the second right here.
Swift: Having seen DIATRIBE as one of many first issues on that lengthy flip, I knew it was attainable. I knew if I burned the clean on the underside row, I’d principally be banking on him lacking a counter-bingo. I do the maths and conceal from actuality. Clearly, on reflection, I ought to have fished off one or two tiles as a substitute of rolling the cube on a phrase I wasn’t positive of and risking an prompt loss. Not a lot else to say.
Fatsis: It was a gutting approach for such a superb match to finish—a “phony” adopted by a walk-off. Mack, on the overhead digicam, we hear you say, “I’m sorry, man. I used to be actually fortunate.” Leaving the taking part in room, you’re each in tears and also you gesture to the remainder of us to again away and provides Orry house. Mack, you’re among the best to ever play the sport—now simply the sixth participant with a number of North American championships—however your compassion in your individual second of triumph turned a Scrabble sport into one thing greater, an instance of sportsmanship, grace, and humanity.
Meller: My preliminary feelings had been reduction and shock. However as somebody who understands the hundreds of hours wanted to succeed in this stage of Scrabble and the frustration of falling brief on large phases, my ideas shortly turned to my buddy on the opposite facet of the desk. I’d like to provide main props to Orry for the category he confirmed afterward towards me and others. It couldn’t have been straightforward.
Swift: There was a small ax-throwing station within the employees room on the conference middle, which turned out to be very therapeutic. Mack was a gentleman and spent a lot of the remainder of the night with me, shopping for me drinks at dinner, too. Pickle beer, Mack? Seems it wasn’t as nice as both of us thought it might be. I really had a blast that evening.
Fatsis: By 11:00, you had been again within the lodge, Scrabbling with me and a few younger gamers. As Jim Bouton wrote in Ball 4, “You spend a very good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the long run it seems that it was the opposite approach round on a regular basis.” It doesn’t matter what, there’s at all times seven extra tiles ready to be drawn from the bag.
