Scrabble.

Sometimes, I get really excited about things that other people don't find as exciting as I do. That's okay. I'm sort of an excitable person.

For example- I recently checked out the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremonies from the library. A one, Ms. Audrey Dilling asked me if I was browsing the DVD selection of the library, or if I had the opening ceremonies in mind when I went to the Multnomah County Library website. It was the latter. I had heard amazing things about the opening ceremonies - the scale, the magnitude, the precision. And so, I was pleased when I found that I could watch it on my own time- a good 6 months after the fact.

If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend it, even if you're not feeling the world-wide togetherness that perhaps you felt last summer when the Olympics occured.

Life without television is a wonderful thing- especially if you have internet and a dvd player- then you can more or less watch what you want, when you want. There are drawbacks, though. Occupying ones time takes a little more effort that switching on the tube. I've sort-of recently decided to expand my collection of quality board-games. I already have Backgammon, which is great. But who wants to play backgammon every day- I need more options- chess, cribbage, and Scrabble are at the top of my list of games I aspire to own. I might add that I'm fairly horrible at chess and cribbage- also, I don't remember ever finishing a game of Scrabble. The thing about all of these games, is that I admire the patience and strategy that it takes to play these games. Strategy is something that I do not posess... Yet?

Last week I decided it was time to get a Scrabble board. I figured ordering one from Amazon.com was an excellent way to go about such a thing. That was, until I read a review of the newest edition of Scrabble:

I love Scrabble and bought this item to replace an older set. I'd give it five stars, and it probably should still get five since the game is the same, but.... Here are my aesthetic 'issues' with this newer release of the flat board and wood tile version:
1) the playing area is not centered in the folding board; very displeasing

2) the tiles are made of lighter wood (pine instead of oak? I don't know my woods, but this one is light)

3) the tile trays are less rounded and more squared-off in profile (yes, this is very picky)

This game has previously been produced by both Milton-Bradley and Shelchow & Righter, and both did a better job than Hasbro with this one. Consider the small travel version with a plastic grid and small, thick wood tiles -- even for home use, that's how disappointing this one is.

I've never really liked Hasbro anyway. It was after reading this review, that I took my business elsewhere, to ebay, specifically. I bid on, and won, a never-been-opened 1989 Milton-Bradley Scrabble Board. The board is beautifully matte and centered, the wood tiles substantial (for how tiny they are) and the tile trays give the tiles a very nice angle. The box itself was sealed and pictures a perfectly nuclear family straight from the 80's on the back. For under the cost of what a new, crappier Scrabble board would have set me back, I got better quality. I could only be happier if I had won last night's Scrabble Battle.

Final Score: 177-184, Nic.