A CLAIM THAT “SCRABBLE IS A LOUSY GAME”. The headline for an article in the Wall Street Journal (October 6-7. 2018) by Jonathan Kay is “SCRABBLE IS A LOUSY GAME”, spelled out in Scrabble tiles. What Kay doesn’t like about Scrabble is that for success at the highest levels a player must memorize thousands of words without necessarily knowing the meaning of them. He gives the example of a high level player in English who memorized a French dictionary and won French language championships. “But [Gay says] he still can’t order coffee in Paris.” Kay says: Memorizing lists isn’t fun. It’s work.”
Kay’s judgment is: “Scrabble, to put it bluntly, is a lousy game.The only reason people play it, I suspect, is blind habit.”