Games

During my trip to Texas, I spent one evening with an old friend from high school. I have kept in touch over the years with four friends from my high school days: three girlfriends from my sophomore and junior years at Robert E. Lee in San Antonio (do they have Ulysses S. Grant high schools in the North?), and Bobby, from Arlington Heights in Ft. Worth, where I attended my senior year. Bobby – who is tall, rangy, and looks like the mature Sean Connery — is a great reader and has kept me informed about books over the years, reading things and commenting succinctly about them way before I got around to them. He has always delighted in words, and often when I have visited him, on my occasional trips to Texas, we have spent an evening or afternoon playing Scrabble. Which is what we did this time, but with a difference.

My friend had a variation on Scrabble, called Upwords, which I'd never heard of, but was certainly willing to try, especially when accompanied by my favorite drink, bourbon and coke, and some cookies. In Upwords you not only build words across and down, you build them up. In other words, you can form new words by putting the little letter tiles on top of letters that are already on the board.

I was not very good at this. Frankly, although I enjoy the game – and despite being a writer, someone who is constantly working with words – I'm not really very good at even basic Scrabble, rarely able to come up with long words, large-scoring words. I just don't seem to be able to look at what is already on the board, and see other possibilities. I don't know what kind of skill that ability represents.

I think about chess. That game calls for strategic skill, the ability to think ahead, considering various possible moves and the likely repercussions. I am no good at this kind of game, either. Is the same, or a related, skill involved in being able to see other possible words on a board? Or is it more of a visual thing? Is it about the brain's ability to make connections, fill in gaps? I am definitely going to have to investigate this...

Well, we had fun, as we always do. We were joined by Robert's mother, a delightful woman in her eighties who still plays tennis. We all had just the right amount of alcohol, and cookies. Spending time with good friends is a great pleasure for most of us, and one I am able to indulge in far too rarely. This was one of the good things that happened on what was otherwise a pretty dreadful trip.