Thomas Reinke Reads Sun Tzu's "The Art of War", Applies its Teachings to Scrabble

1st Thomas Reinke enjoyed a dominant 4-1 +558 performance in preparation for this weekend's Wisconsin Dells tournament.  Every game he played eclipsed the 400-point mark.  In a showdown vs. Mary Becker, Thomas P'ed all over the board with three bingos starting with P: POTTEENS, PROCHEIN (adj. Nearest in time; next), and the nine-letter PARALYSES off of PA.  Mary found EQUALISE, but Thomas cleaned her clocks, 547-321.  The T-twin also pulled of a stunning one-turn, 130-point comeback against Richard Lauder, playing the word CITIZEN for 132 to go out and win 404-381.  Quick quiz: find the anagram of CITIZEN.  Answer at the bottom.  I'll know if you peek.

2nd Charles Reinke had a slightly less dominant 3-1 +505 record to place second in the expert division.  Lynda Finn grinded out a closely-fought win for Charles' only loss of the night, 406-417.  Charles did find the clever MATZOONS (n. matzoon, an Armenian yogurt-like food, also madzoon), but Lynda's three bingos of INSTATE, GERENTS, and TIERCED provided enough scoring to clinch the win.  For the second week in a row, Charles climbed and conquered the perilous crags of Mount 600, scoring exactly that amount in a drubbing of Helen Flores.  Charles' painless ascent can be attributed to his playing of four bingos in a row: ERODABLE, LINGERS, EXCITES, and UNAGILE.  In Scrabble circles, this is known as a bingo-bango-bongo-holy **** (insert swear of choice).

3rd Richard Lauder is back in the swing of things, finishing with an impressive 3-1 +77.  Stealthily lying in wait behind shelves of books, he sprung upon his opponents with unexpected vigor, then carefully dismantled them with precision, playing at least two bingos in each contest.  Peter Schmiedicke was just one of his victims, with Richard enlisting the help of words such as TONTINE, MANNITE, and TOILSOME to prevail 425-378.  Peter played CITADELS and GAUDIES, but his bingo-finding acumen was for nought.

Enough cool bingos were played that they get their own paragraph.  Mary Becker had only two bingos, but they both contained a Q: EQUALISE and EQUINES.  Bryan Benwitz played the uncommon FOVEOLA, which has many derivatives: FOVEA, FOVEOLE, FOVEOLET, and even FOVEIFORM.  Richard played the sticky-S ANALECTS (also ANALECTA).  Peter Schmiedicke found the A-heavy ATAXIAS (also ATAXY/ATAXIES). The word of the week was chosen out of these many deserving candidates to be Charles' DIOICOUS (an adjective used of plants to indicate that they have either a male or female sexual organ, but not both, also spelled DIOECIOUS or DIECIOUS).

Sue Goldstein Takes Joy in The Simple Things: Newspapers, Cookies, and Total Scrabble Annihilation

1st Sue Goldstein emerged victorious in a three-round bout with June Scott, 2-1 +85.  She used the bingo of FLORALS to score 368 for her highest game of the night. 

(Quiz answer: ZINCITE.  The more you know.)