"It's worse than pitiful for a grown man to cheat at Scrabble."
"I don't have to cheat." J.D. MacNamara narrowed his eyes and focused them on his daughter."Zuckly is an adjective, meaning graceful. As in the ballerina executed a zuckly pirouette."
"That's a load of you-know-what," Jackie said, and scowled at him. "I let you get away withquoho, Daddy, but this is too much."
"Just because you're a writer now doesn't mean you know every word in the dictionary. Go ahead, look it up, but you lose fifty points if you find it."
Jackie's fingers hovered over the dictionary. She knew her father could lie beautifully, but she also knew he had an uncanny way of coming out on top. With a sigh of disgust, she dropped her hand. "I'll concede. I know how to be a zuckly player."
"That's my girl." Pleased with himself, he began to add points to his score.
Loving Jack
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By thebarrowboy (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Scrabble celebrates 70 years of word power
Scrabble is one of the world’s most popular and enduring board games and 2018 marks its 70th birthday.
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Jackie pushed her letters around. "You know, Daddy, I've just began to think about it, but you and Mother, you're so different."
"Hmmm?" He glanced up, distracted from the creative demands of inventing a new word.
"I mean, Mother is so elegant, so well groomed."
"What am I, a slob?"
"Not exactly." When he frowned, she spread out her letters on the board. "There, hyfoxal."
"What the hell is this?" J.D. waved a blunt finger at the word. "No such thing."
"It's from the Latin for sly or cleverly adept. As in 'My father is well-known for his hyfoxal business dealings."
In answer, J.D. used a brief four-letter word that would have had his wife clucking her tongue. "Look it up," Jackie invited. "If you want to lose fifty points. Daddy,"
Loving Jack
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