Club Says Goodbye To Attic Angels, Hello to...

1st Lynda Finn, going 4-0 +279, held an "undefeated" party in celebration of our last night at Attic Angels, but it turns out she forgot to invite anyone but herself. The festivities began against Charles, who she beat 461-433. Details are scarce, but we do know that she managed to score that many points with only two not-very-high-scoring bingos, SNEERIER and STANDER. Things didn't get much easier in the second round as she was matched up against Bryan, but with her 380-342 victory she has now won (palindrome alert!!!!!) 4 out of her last 6 against him. In the third round, Gail got down ERASION (one of the most probable bingoes to draw, so it's a good one to know), but could do little else but watch as Lynda piled up 453 points. Lynda played RESENTS and NAILERS in that contest, and probably some other words too. Her final match was against Thomas, and it turned into a defensive showdown, with Lynda coming out on top, 359-299. Thomas' final rack of AEILRST sat homeless because of Lynda's board-closing acumen. Lynda's bingo of OUTSANG was particularly relevant as the club enjoyed the pleasing tones of the carolers wandering the halls.

2nd Aaron Bader came in second at 3-1 +470, his 467 points per game average the best of the night. It's easy to average that much when you score 586 points in the first game, which he did against Helen. He played BROWNED, LAICISED (v. LAICISE, to free from clerical control), WAXIEST, and ROSEBUDS. In the second round, he got outbingoed 2-1, with Gail playing ANTISERA and UPLIFTER, and him only playing EROSIONS. Despite that, he won, 441-316. How did such a thing happen? We may never know. Aaron suffered his sole loss of the night against Thomas in the third round, 385-442. Thomas bingoed with PERMEANT, ONANISTS (heh), and FREELOAD before Aaron finally got down one of his own, EQUATING. Detecting the strategy that bested him in the game, he went into the final round with a strategy of his own: don't let the opponent bingo. His plan went off without a hitch, as he won 454-368 and held Bryan bingoless.

3rd Charles Reinke went 3-1 +362, edging out his brother by 41 spread points to claim sole possession of third place. He fell to Lynda 433-461 in the opener, which ended up being his lowest point total of the evening. Against Richard in the next round, he won 483-327, playing LANNERS and UNBOOTED (adj. something to do with computers, not boots), while Richard got the phony GASLIKE* as well as PISTOLES. Charles followed that up with a solid 458-383 win against Bryan (this writeup makes it seem like Bryan never wins a game, sorry Bryan!). In the final round against Dave, he opened with a double-U bingo, UNCLOUD (v. to free from clouds, no idea how you're supposed to do that but whatever), the advantage of which snowballed into a 457-298 win. Dave did get down BETIMES and GIRDLES, but sometimes an opening bingo by one's opponent is just too demoralizing.

Richard played the word of the week, MENINGES, plural of MENINX, which are membranes in the brain.