WEBVTT - The Scribble on Scrabble 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.920 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.000 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:16.919 Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is Stuff you 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:24.560 should Know, good old fashioned pop culture games edition. Yeah 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.080 and yeah, here we are finally talking about scrabble. I've 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.560 been asking for you to do this with me for 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:34.560 at least a decade, and you kept refusing. I still 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.360 don't know why. Even Jerry chimed in and was like, 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.440 will you guys please do scrabble, and finally you relented. 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.720 I think just because you wanted me and Jerry to 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.080 stop bothering you about it. 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:47.239 No, it's probably it. A big thanks to Laura for 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:48.200 her help on this one. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:48.880 Mm hmm. 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:51.239 What was your nickname for her? 0:00:51.720 --> 0:00:52.479 Doctor Claw? 0:00:52.640 --> 0:00:57.760 Doctor Claw? Do you play scrabble? Are you a scrabbler? 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:58.920 I just kind of wanted to get that out of 0:00:58.960 --> 0:00:59.880 the way. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.680 You know, I wish I were. I'm not, And it's 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:04.840 not like I have an aversion to it or anything 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.119 like that. It's just not part of my world. I guess, 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:08.640 you know. 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.120 Yeah, same, I mean we own it, and I have 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.000 played scrabble here and there. If somebody's like, hey, let's 0:01:14.000 --> 0:01:17.560 play scrabble. I won't go like, no, sorry, I'm not 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.399 going to do it right, but you know, I'll play 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.399 very occasionally, but I've never been a regular scrabbler, nor 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:26.760 am I very good at it at all, especially if 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.399 I'm playing against somebody who you know, because there's a 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.240 lot more to it than just like knowing words. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:34.679 Well, I feel like based on stuff you should know history. 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.360 Our best episodes are ones where we explain games that 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:43.600 we don't actually play. Soccer, chess, yeah, I mean the 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:45.959 list just keeps going on. It feels like we're about 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:46.640 to add to it. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.840 Yeah, surfing, yes, surfing. I mean we should probably just 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:51.840 say that scrabble if you don't know, it's a board 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.680 game in which two to four players use letters little 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.400 tiles to spell out words on a board and a 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:00.520 crossword fashion. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:02.560 Wow, that was a good description. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.640 In other words, you know, the words have to intersect 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.919 each other. You can't just throw a random word out 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:13.000 there in the corner if you feel like it. They 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.600 have to touch and use a letter or I guess 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.400 a blank space for another word. 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:18.519 Yeah. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.880 And by the way, I just want to go ahead, 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:22.880 and because scrabble people are probably going to get mad 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:24.040 at us. But I'm going to go ahead and throw 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.040 a suggestive rule change. Okay, that there is a word scrabble, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.200 and that means to as a verb, to scratch or grope, 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.200 to try and collect something, or as a now in 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:39.760 the act of doing that. And I propose that if 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.800 you play that eight letter word, that not only do 0:02:42.840 --> 0:02:45.239 you get your bingo bonus for playing a seven letter word, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.120 I think you should if you play the word scrabble, 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:48.480 you should get an extra bonus on. 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.400 Top of it of how many points million. 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.960 Whatever's fair. That's where I just step back and say, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:55.040 you guys, handle it. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.600 Okay, you like to kick the hornet's nest and then 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:58.160 watch them go. 0:02:58.480 --> 0:02:59.600 I just think I don't know, if you play the 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:01.240 word scrab I will give it a little, just a 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:01.799 little bump. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:03.959 I agree. I think you're right right. 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:06.200 That's my only suggestion, my only note. 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.960 A little more about it. The scrabble board is fifteen 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:12.959 by fifteen squares twenty five two hundred and twenty five 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.320 total squares. And because it's fifteen by fifteen, you're limited 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.120 to no more than fifteen letter words. 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.680 Sure, and. 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.000 I guess just a quick summary of the rules so 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:28.160 when you play that first word, you have to play 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.440 it in the center square. That's where you start, and 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.280 you can build off of other people's words. You get 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.040 up to fifteen letter words by building onto other words, 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.920 because you could never spell more than a seven letter word, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:44.640 because at no point in time do you ever have 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:46.920 more than seven tiles. 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.560 Right, And as I said that seven tiles played it 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.560 once is called the bingo. You add up your score 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.320 at the end and tack on fifty points at that point, right, 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.440 or however many you get. Apparently experts can play like, 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.160 you know, three, four or five of those in a 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.200 game sometimes. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:05.880 Yeah, oh yeah, that's a great way to run up 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.440 scores from what I can tell. And then across the 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:14.400 board there's triple word scores, double word scores, double letter scores, 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.039 and triple letter scores. And basically when you lay a 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.600 tile over that, depending on whether it's a letter or 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.680 a word, you get bonus points for it. So when 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.279 you're like, like, if you play a bingo across like 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.080 a triple word score cooking, you got a bunch of points. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:32.599 You basically just dusted your opponent in that one move. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.040 Essentially, Yeah, I mean, if you're just sort of amateur 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.880 funzies scrabble people, one big bingo like that can seal 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:40.520 the game for you. 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.880 Yeah, I'm called sending a packing with tears in their eyes. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.080 I think in France, by the way, the bingo is 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:53.160 called a scrabble just other nuts and bolts. You know. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.279 The tiles come in a little their little wooden tiles, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.200 little wooden square tiles, and on the tile is a 0:04:57.279 --> 0:04:59.760 letter and then a point value sort of as a 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.920 sub script. And then you keep your letters on a 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:08.120 little wooden tile rack. And ideally your opponent does not 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:12.839 see those like you know, it's they're facing away from 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:16.479 you if you're opposite your opponent. And that's a big 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.800 part of like an expert, or at least an accomplished 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.760 or experienced scrabbleist is dummies like me and I guess you. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:26.560 If you and I played, we just sit down and 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.120 try and spilt fart every chance we got. If you're 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.279 an experienced scrabblist, you're almost like counting cards, like you 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.800 know how many letters are in the bag of like 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:38.640 how many of each letter in the bag, and you 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:40.359 see them being played, you know how many are on 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:42.599 your rack? You know how many are still in the pile, 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:46.040 so you're sort of trying to figure out mathematical possibilities 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.360 of what's still out there and what can be played, 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:49.880 Like that's the next level stuff. 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.120 Yeah, for sure. And it's not like evenly distributed. For example, 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.040 there's twelve e's, but there's only one J, K, Q, 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.920 X and Z, and then the other letters there is 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:06.000 kind of distributed in weird random ways, so that like 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.960 you could, I guess easily count that stuff. If you 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.760 play scrabble enough, you're just going to pick up on 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:14.039 how many are out there at any given point. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.960 Yeah, you've also got your blank tiles, which are worth 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:20.880 zero points, but that those really help out in making 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.520 words possible that you couldn't get ordinarily m hmm. And 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.360 then you've got your one pointers A E, I, L, N, O, 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.240 R S T and you. 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.960 And also just real quick, I did some poking around, Chuck, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.479 and I found that there's some mnemonic devices that like 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.800 tournament level players use to remember how many points a 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:43.960 particular letter gets. 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.160 You should say that after I list them all. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:48.800 Well, I was I was going to just do it 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:53.080 by by group, if that's okay with you. Sure, So 0:06:53.160 --> 0:07:00.280 the first group one point they use astronauts eat in limbo. No, right, 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:02.520 silly tiger umbrella. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:08.440 All right. The two pointers are DNG, Dave and Gary. Okay, 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.800 I would say dog gone. Three points are BCM and 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:14.080 p H. 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.160 That is be chewing and masticating pizza. 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.040 Does someone really suggests like, hey, use these and don't. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.000 Make up your own No, I'm making this up. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:26.920 I gotcha. This is all a bit. Okay, four points 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.640 we got fh VNW and why right? 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.840 So for Heaven's vake? Why you Okay? 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.240 I get it now. You should have told me this 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:44.800 is a bit. Five pointers, you get your k okay, okay, eight. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:48.000 Pointers jn X Jackson loves and. 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.960 X okay Jackson loves. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.120 Yeah, you just have to ignore the the l okay. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:07:59.760 Then your ten pointer Josh, what are you gonna end 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:00.000 up with? 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.960 Q and Z quarts and quartz? 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:06.960 That's great? I think I got it. 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:07.800 You got it? 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:09.600 Yeah, give me a quiz in the end. I'll put 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:10.960 this away and then you can just quizz me. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.000 Yeah. Once you learn that, you'll never forget it. 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:20.600 There is a statistics professor at Carnegie Mellon Andrew Thomas, 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.080 who says, if you go first, you have an advantage 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:27.560 of fourteen points. If you have that blank tile. Ever 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.160 in the game, that's an advantage of thirty points if 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.320 you're good at scrabble, not like me. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.040 Right, there's also like, if you have S tiles, there's 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.319 a ten point advantage. And the reason why I was 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:40.520 like that doesn't make any sense because S, as you 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:44.800 remember from your mnemonic device, is only a one point tile. 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.280 You should throw that on the end though, right, Yeah, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.000 that's the thing. So like if you add if you, 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:52.360 like I said, you can add on to other words 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:54.680 that are already on the board, even once another player 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.920 wrote out and whatever word score they got for that word, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:01.600 if you add an S, you get that same word 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.440 score plus one point for the ass. So that's a 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.280 really easy way to rack up some quick points and 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.320 totally I think also probably annoy other players. 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.640 I wonder about that. I'd like to hear from from scrabblers. 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:17.000 I mean, if it's fair game, it's fair game. 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.080 Yes, and there's but there's plenty of rules that are 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.319 fair game that are also like you're a jackass. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.480 Yeah, that's a good point. Let me see here, what 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.679 else do we have? We have X and Z give 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:31.080 you a three to five point advantage even though they're 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:33.440 you know, tougher to use, and the Q is a 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:37.679 five point disadvantage because I mean, I was about to say, 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:39.280 you always have to have that U. But I'm sure 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.040 there are weird scrabble words that don't have a QU. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.600 There's two that I know of. 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:47.360 One is key qi. Yeah, I think I heard of 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:47.960 uy or. 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.720 No, sorry, that's chi life force. I think, okay, and 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.480 you get eleven points for that one, and then I 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.560 can't remember. There's one more that's like a Q word 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.560 that doesn't not require a U. Oh. 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:04.760 No, Qi is in here because that's the highest scoring 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:08.520 two letter word along with za. Is that what you said? 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:13.280 Yeah, and I looked up za za Yeah, and it's 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.120 slang for pizza. I'm not certain that that usage is allowed. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:22.400 But it's also an archaic word for a B flat notation. Yeah. 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.400 I wonder if because I did the same thing you 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:26.600 did every time they gave it a Laura found an 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:28.959 example of a word that's unusual or high scoring. I 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.600 always looked it up because I was curious. I wonder 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.120 if that's part of the love of scrabble, is actually 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:36.079 learning what these words mean or they're like I really 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:37.680 don't care. I just care how much it's worth. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:41.360 Well, from what I can tell, scrabble players don't care 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.040 what a word means. They don't think of them like that. 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.880 And I mean they'll come up later with those controversial words. 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.560 Oh sure, yeah, point, Yeah, it's just us. We're curious types. 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:51.600 Grabble players are not. 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.240 That's that's true. The highest scoring three letter word is 0:10:55.320 --> 0:11:00.880 Zach's nineteen pointer, and zek is sixteen is a four 0:11:00.960 --> 0:11:02.600 letter word worth the most at twenty two. 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:04.840 That means like a test of sorts. 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.040 Okay, and then zippy what does that mean? 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:09.160 The pinhead? 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:10.560 Zippy the pinhead? What's that? 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:16.080 Oh, it's a really weird eighties comic strip, you know, 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.920 the clown with the Zippy the pinhead. 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:20.200 No, I don't know it. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.320 You should look it up. It's it's weird. It's a 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:24.280 weird comic strip. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:25.480 Okay, I don't know it. 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:26.520 But it couldn't be that. 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.800 Sorry, I have to correct myself before all of the 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.640 scrabble players email in. It couldn't be Zippy the pinhead 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:34.760 because Zippy the pinhead would be a proper noun. 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.880 Ah. Okay, good point. Things you can't use proper nouns. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:41.000 No, you can't. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:42.160 Might as well go ahead and say. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.520 That they're really serious about that stuff too. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.440 No, I bet. See, I'm a house rules guy, so 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.080 I can you know, as long as everyone's on board, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.280 I think you can. You can have your own house 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.320 rules first. Oh, I agree, don't bring that into a tournament. 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.200 No, get that mess out of here, is what they'll 0:11:58.200 --> 0:11:58.960 tell you. Yeah. 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:00.880 But like if I were to play with Ruby, she'd 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.120 and I'd probably say like, hey, we can use propernouns 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:05.000 because she'll want to put our dog's name or something, 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.679 or maybe I would, right. I did look up the 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:17.120 highest scoring bingo, and that is musjiks m u z 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:20.680 j i k s, which is a Russian peasant. Wow, 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.200 well that's probably it's probably Moujiku's or something. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.400 Yeah, I like it both ways, though musjis. Look at 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.680 all the muzzjiks toiling in the fields. 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:31.560 Yeah, I like that. 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.480 So I was confused because there's a lot of like 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.720 one of the rules is no proper nouns, no words 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.720 that end an apostrophe or require an apostrophe. Yeah, and 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.960 then also no foreign words. But clearly some foreign words 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.200 are allowed in because they're so common in English that 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.240 they've just basically been adopted into the language. I get that, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:58.200 but a musjis is not a common word in English, 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.520 so it must mean that that does appear in some 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:07.000 English dictionary somewhere, because that's kind of the great ruler arbiter. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.600 But I just don't see how it could be. That's 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:10.480 just weird to me. 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.480 Well, what's weird is your college band I know for 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:15.280 a fact was Jake Clark and the Muschicks. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.640 Yes, but we were trying to be exotic, you know. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:21.800 And we should also say that scrabble, I think, is 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.640 now up to thirty languages all over the world, and 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:29.040 apparently that can be problematic, like in France you can 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.080 add an e and an S to many many words, 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.040 so it can kind of get out of hand with 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.599 the score totals. There. And our beloved Germany, and I 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:39.960 never really thought about this, but German words are long, 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:43.560 so there's not a lot of I mean, they're sure. Sure, 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.679 there are obviously words shorter than seven words in Germany, 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:48.840 but a lot less than a lot of other languages. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:50.880 Yeah, it's true, So it must. 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.280 Just be Bingo City or whatever Bingo city is in German. 0:13:53.960 --> 0:14:00.520 There's also Bingo. I don't know what city, Bingo b Shot, 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:06.520 maybe Bingo Stock. Sure, there's a so in some other 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:11.079 countries too. In foreign language versions of Scrabble, there are 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:14.360 some adjustments with the tiles, like some have more than 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:15.560 one hundred tiles. 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.000 Oh right, because of weird little letters. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.240 Yeah, there's like double L and double R. In the 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.200 Spanish language version. There's also the N with the till 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.560 day over it that that's also a tile. Yeah, I 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:32.520 think that's worth eight points. Nice, Yeah, but you have 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.240 to to remember that that's eight points. You have to say. Nice. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.960 Right. Should we take a break? I like how this 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:39.400 is headed. 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:41.040 Yeah, all right, we'll be right back. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.600 I want to learn about a terror sort of college dactyl, 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:46.960 how to take an that's a little. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.440 Word up, Jerry. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.720 All right, we're back. And if you're gonna talk about scrabble, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:15.000 you got to talk about Alfred Mosher Butts because he 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:18.800 is the gentleman who invented this game. This is in 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:22.000 nineteen thirty eight. He was an unemployed architect at the 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.200 time and just into games. He's from Poughkeepsie. But I 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.600 believe the game was actually invented Actually I know this 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.720 for a fact in Jackson Heights Queen's because at eighty 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.520 first Street and thirty fifth Avenue, I believe is a 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:39.600 scrabble style street sign. I think it's. I think it's 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.280 thirty fifth Avenue has below each of the letters just 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:45.800 the little number value subscript, which is kind of just 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:47.560 a little nice, fun, cute nod. 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:50.560 Are you sure it's just that that community in particular 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:52.000 isn't big scrabble fans. 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:53.040 Yeah, I'm positive. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.360 Okay, So he. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.600 Did you say he was an unemployed architect. 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:01.000 Yeah, at the time, and he was just into gaming 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.320 and wanted to invent a game that was part chance, 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:04.000 part skill. 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.760 Yeah. So he did not have a great success with 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.000 it out of the gate. He initially tried to call 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:13.960 it Lexico and criss crosswords, and he took it around 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.680 to game manufacturers and they were like, nah, I'm not 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:19.600 really feeling this. Yeah, And that was the way it 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:22.280 went for a good decade before a man named James 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.000 Bruno bought the rights. He saw something in it that 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.240 I guess other people didn't. He renamed it Scrabble. He 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.440 changed the gameplay a little bit. One of the biggest 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.760 changes he made was that the way that Moser Butts 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.360 had come up with is that you just thought the 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:42.440 word in like a kind of a mental version of 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.720 the board, and the other player hopefully was able to 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.080 pick up on the word you were thinking. And so 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.480 Bruneau was like, maybe we should just replace with an 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.320 actual board and tiles, and that really kind of helped 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.200 move things along a bunch. 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.280 Yeah, you know, I looked up this James Brunet, and 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.280 you know, we get a lot of great information a 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.560 lot of times from New York Times obituaries. And he 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.000 was a friend of Butts, and so they used to 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:12.439 play scrabble together on occasion, like their homemade version. And 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.120 once this guy took it over, he and his wife 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.000 Helen like operated out of their house and he was 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.000 like a certain point, like all that was in our 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.520 house was boxes of tiles and racks and boards, and 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:28.120 we could move around. So they had to. They moved 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:33.840 to an abandoned schoolhouse and then eventually a converted wood 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.440 working shop, and they had thirty five employees working two shifts, 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:43.159 producing six thousand scrabble sets sets a week by fifty 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.360 three by nineteen fifty three, So. 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:50.520 Within five years of him buying the rights, that is correct, sir, okay, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:55.920 So that the year before that. I've seen it told 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:58.679 as a legend or a widely told story. Laura put it. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.359 I don't know why no one's like, yeah, that's what happened. 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:07.720 But supposedly the president of Macy's came across the game, 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.080 I'm not sure how played it, liked it, ordered a 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.439 bunch to stock up. Of course, that meant gimbals immediately 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.920 followed suit, and so the game took off from there. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:23.040 So this would have been nineteen fifty two when that 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:24.320 supposedly happened. 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:25.320 Yeah, that makes sense. 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.040 Yeah, and Bruno was like, we can't possibly keep up 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.000 with this demand, like this is just skyrocketed, which is great. 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:34.240 But they turned to a company, a game maker called 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:38.320 Selcho and Writer, and they took over making the game, 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.920 and they did so for decades. They were the people 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.120 who made Scrabble for a really long time. And within 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:50.680 two years, two years of that great Macy's president story happening, 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.679 four and a half million copies were sold. Like it 0:18:53.960 --> 0:19:00.679 just hit America, like you know, a giant packet of 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.360 pop rocks and diet coke formentos. 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.440 Yeah, or like a ton n e of bricks, which 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.200 is worth more than ton nice Jeff so that's selling 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:14.879 pretty good. I think they've sold. They estimate about one 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:17.840 hundred and fifty million total sets as of you know, 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.240 kind of now, even though it's hard to get a 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:25.240 real firm number on that. But they bought that trademark 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.359 Selchow and writer I want to say Richter there, but 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.400 it is Writer bought that trademark from them. In seventy two, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:36.680 Bruno got a million and a half bucks, which would 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:38.840 be about twelve million today. And this, by the way, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:42.040 was like he was looking for something to do in retirement. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.800 So wow, he really scored. That's a triple letter retirement gig, 0:19:46.840 --> 0:19:51.160 I would say, or triple word even. And then the inventor, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:53.240 mister Butts, got two hundred and sixty five grand wi 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.600 should be about two million bucks. Plus he got a 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.200 very small royalty that he seemed to be pretty happy with. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.080 Yeah, he sounds like a great This is one of 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.680 the more heartwarming quotes I've come across in a while. 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:08.720 He was interviewed in nineteen eighty four about his invention, 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.000 and he said people are always asking me if I'm rich. 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:14.600 I used to get two to three cents for each 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.680 game sold. One third went to taxes. I gave one 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.000 third away and the other third enabled me to have 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.560 an enjoyable life. Great, and if there's such thing as heaven, 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:27.680 I believe that mister Butts is there right now. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.439 I think so too. He would have been in his 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:31.320 eighties then too, because I think he died in the 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:32.920 early nineties. In his nineties. 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:39.520 Okay, well, there you go. He had a great life, apparently. 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:39.920 I love it. 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.760