Crossword-Games-Pro Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

For an example of using this exception, see here.

Q5.3: Why can't I randomly reminisce and pontificate like that Zax guy?
A5.3:

Because that particular combination of drugs is no longer available in North America.

Q6: Dya hear the one about the improvement of English spelling?
A6:

Yep. Many times as a matter of fact. For those of you who have not, here it is:

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Q7: How do I unsubscribe from this group gracefully?
A7: (JG, Graeme Thomas)

Occasionally, a CGP member is overwhelmed by the volume / underwhelmed by the subject matter of CGP, and feels that this is something of which they would like no longer to be a part.

There are several ways of getting off a yahoogrups list. The easiest is to send mail to ((listname)-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com). In this case, that's crossword-games-pro-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. The subject and contents of the message are ignored. You can also set the "digest" and "nomail" options by appropriate email messages.

The other easy way is to log on to the site http://www.yahoogroups.com, by typing your email address and password into the relevant boxes, and clicking on the "log in" button. If you don't yet have a yahoogroups password, you can get it by trying to log in with your email address and a blank password; the screen that follows has a "send me my password by email" button.

The incorrect way to unsubscribe is to send a message to the CGP bouncer saying you wish to unsubscribe. This merely forwards your private email to 700 people who are powerless to help you. If you want to append a message to the lot of us saying how contemptful of us you are after being a member of our family for a short duration, this would be the way to do so, but quite frankly, I don't see what satisfaction that that action will ultimately bring you. If you are a tournament player (ostensibly the admission pass to the list), we will see you around, and then what are you gonna say?

Q8: What is the etymology of FUCK?
A8:

Here's an opinion.
For more information on fuck and its usages, see The F Word, by Jesse Sheidlower, Random House, 1995, ISBN 0-679-76427-5. This is perhaps the most complete treatment of the word available.

In any event, CGP is not the appropriate venue for etymology debates, and this one has done several laps already.

Q9: Did you hear about the Clinton plan to airlift vowels into Bosnia?
A9:

Why yes we did. For those of you have yet to, here it is:

Before an emergency joint session of Congress yesterday, President Clinton announced U.S. plans to deploy over 75,000 vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia. The deployment, the largest of its kind in American history, will provide the region with the critically needed letters A, E, I, O and U, and is hoped to render countless Bosnian names more pronounceable. "For six years, we have stood by while names like Ygrjvslhv and Tzlynhr and Glrm have been horribly butchered by millions around the world," Clinton said. "Today, the United States must finally stand up and say, 'Enough.' It is time the people of Bosnia finally had some vowels in their incomprehensible words. The U.S. is proud to lead the crusade in this noble endeavor."

The deployment, dubbed Operation Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set for early next week, with the Adriatic port cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes, each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of "E's," will fly from Andrews Air Force base across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters over the cities. Citizens of Grzny and Sjlbvdnzv eagerly await the arrival of the vowels. "My God, I do not think we can last another day, Trszg Grzdnjlkn, 44, said. "I have six children and none of them has a name that is understandable to me or anyone else. Mr. Clinton, please send my poor, wretched family just one 'E.' Please." Said Sjlbvdnzv resident Grg Hmphrs, 67: "With just a few key letters, I could be George Humphries. That is my dream."

If the initial airlift is successful, Clinton said the United States will go ahead with full-scale vowel deployment, with C-130s airdropping thousands more letters over every area of Bosnia. Other nations are expected to pitch in as well, including 10,000 British "A's" and 6,500 Canadian "U's." Japan, rich in A's and O's, was asked to participate in the relief effort, but declined. "With these valuable letters, the people of war-ravaged Bosnia will be able to make some terrific new words," Clinton said. "It should be very exciting for them, and surely much easier for us to read their maps."

Linguists praise the U.S.'s decision to send the vowels. For decades they have struggled with the hard consonants and difficult pronunciation of most Slavic words. "Vowels are crucial to the construction of all language," Baylor University linguist Noam Frankel said. "Without them, it would be difficult to utter a single word, much less organize a coherent sentence. Please, don't get me started on the moon-man language they use in those Eastern European countries." According to Frankel, once the Bosnians have vowels, they will be able to construct such valuable sentences as: "The potatoes are ready"; "I believe it will rain"; and "All my children are dead from the war."

The American airdrop represents the largest deployment of any letter to a foreign country since 1984. During the summer of that year, the U.S. shipped 92,000 consonants to Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaououa, Eaoiiuae and Aao with vital, life-giving supplies of L's S's and T's. The consonant-relief effort failed, however, when vast quantities of the letters were intercepted and hoarded by violent, gun-toting warlords.

This story is copyright 1995 by The Onion.

Q10: Why isn't _____ a word?
A10:

The Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary was compiled from five major North American dictionaries. To read about it in the Scrabble FAQ, click here. The OSPD is by and large driven by the source dictionaries with a minimum of human intervention. To provide some member-driven human intervention, the National Scrabble Association has organized a Dictionary Committee to address future updates to the dictionary. To read about the recent changes, click here. If your favorite word is not in the OSPD it could well be because:

Q11: What is the longest Scrabble-acceptable word that can be typed solely with the left hand?
A11:

What is SWEATERDRESSES, Alex.

Q12: What is the longest Scrabble-acceptable word with no repeat letters?
A12:

DERMATOGLYPHICS
UNCOPYRIGHTABLE

Q13: What is the longest Scrabble-acceptable word typed with alternating hands?
A13:

SKEPTICISMS

All of the above words come from Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary, the official North American Scrabble word source for root words 9 letters or longer.

Q14: Why isn't my country getting more representation at the World Scrabble Championships?
A14:

A number of factors go into the allocation of places at the World Scrabble Championship. These include playing strength of top players, appearance of fairness, past results and publicity considerations. Like basketball, North America invented the game and has been developing strong players for a long time. Out of the top 100 players in the world, probably 40 to 50 reside in North America. I cannot speak for Britain or Australia, but I'll hazard that they comprise the majority of the other top 100 playes. The corporate powers that own the trademark will never organize a World Championship that has such an "uneven" distribution of players. Because of round-off error, a lot of countries that might merit less than one participant in a "fair" allocation take up "extra" spots with their one contestant. In a finite population, these spots are by and large being sacrificed by the larger, stronger countries. Unless you're from the US, Canada, Great Britain, or Australia, you'll have a tough time making a case that your country got an unfair allotment. If you think you're stronger than Cohen, Epstein, Kaufman, Lerman, Lund, Morris, Polatnick, Wiegand, or Weinstein ... some of the North Americans who didn't make it (apologies to whomever I omitted) ... then perhaps you have a point.

Q15: What is SOWPODS?
A15:

SOWPODS is the union of two acronyms OSPD and OSW, and is the set of words that contains all of the words in either of those two dictionaries. OSPD is the dictionary used by North American Scrabble players. OSW is the word source for British Scrabble players and is derived from The Chambers Dictionary. This set of words was used at the first World Championships so that no players would "lose" words when playing opponents with a different home dictionary. Since then, it has become the accepted source for international play. Many countries now use this combined lex for all their play. There is currently debate in some countries (such as the US) that don't use SOWPODS on if or when to convert. To read some of the opinions on this, check out the material in the CGP archive . There is also a separate mailing list for discussing SOWPODS issues exclusively. To subscribe to this list, email here. They also have archives of old posts at yahoogroups.com as well.

Q16: Aren't us (fill in geographical area)-ers underrated?
A16:

Perhaps. As the Scrabble rating system currently stands, players rated much higher than their opponents are unable to perform to the necessary expectation to maintain their rating. This produces the following phenomenon:

Note: "small town" and "big city" are based on scrabble tournaments rather than population. They could well be equivalent to Houston and Reno respectively. There is one prominent expert from Houston who consistently does quite well at nationalish events but is bled to death while winning 75%+ of her local tournaments. If you are the only big cheese in town, there is a chance that you could be locked in the above-outlined rating struggle. If you are from New York City, this is probably not the case.

Q17: What is the credit system?
A17:

The credit system is an alternative way of calculating tournament standings. It is based on a premise that when a weaker player gets "lucky," the result is an upset, but when the stronger player gets "lucky," the result is merely a larger margin of victory. As such, it weights margin of victory into "credit" distribution. It is possible that a player with a number of large victories may finish higher than a player with more wins but more squeakers as well. These tournaments are designated "credit system" tournaments ahead of time, and those players that don't like this method are under no obligation to play in them.

Q18: Does Maven/the Scrabble CD-ROM cheat?
A18:

No.

For a longer answer, see my essay here.

Q19: What is NI3?
A19:

* This answer has been retired and dedicated to the memory of Lee Cooper. *

Q20: What do those *'s, #'s and $'s mean in people's posts?
A20:

Those notations are a courtesy for Scrabble players:

$ means the word is only acceptable in the North American OSPD.
# means the word is only acceptable in the British OSW.
* means the word is NOT acceptable for play in English Scrabble anywhere.

This is done so that players don't inadvertently "learn" words that cost them a turn in a later Scrabble game.

Jaygee$ thinks that this is kinda# bitchen*.

Q21: Where can I find _____ ?
A21:

Is _____ a Scrabble-related publication, list, game-playing equipment or software? Check the Scrabble FAQ. It covers every product to date known available for enhancing the Scrabblegoing experience. If you have some new item not yet mentioned, be sure to let Steven know to pimp it for you, and drop us a line on cgp.

Q22: What is the rule concerning _____ ?
A22:

The rules in their entirety can be found here. If having checked the rules, you find what you think is still an unclear situation, by all means ask CGP. In the interests of clarity, it is a good idea to quote in your post the particular rule with which you are having difficulty.

Q23: Is it a good idea to cc across lists?
A23: (Sherrie Saint John + JG)

There are two main mailing lists. One is cg and the other is cgp. As cgp is restricted to members of official Scrabble organizations, cg is kind of a "farm system" for getting nonmembers' feet wet with a view of the organized Scrabble scene. As such it should be cultivated carefully to encourage nonmembers to make the jump to the organized Scrabble community.

Please do not just cc: both lists if the posting isn't relevant to both lists (petty arguments, personal attacks, game analyses, etc.). And do cc: when it is (puzzles, contests, games, etc.). We need to cultivate cg members, encourage them to join the NSA, and move into a more interesting version of the game we love.

Q24: What's the policy on commercial posts?
A24: (Sherrie Saint John)

Commerce on the lists has now been curtailed. All merchandisers are welcome to post ONE message per month about their products. That is it. Any other posts during that month must not mention any products AT ALL. This includes signature files about products, etc. After the first product message of the month, the only acceptable mentions will be:

	name
	company
	url

Q25: What is the "spirit of the lists?"
A25: (Sherrie Saint John)

Just as we are all expected to adhere to the "spirit of the game," we need to adhere to the "spirit of these lists."
That means:

And lastly, every single time we post we need to be sure that what we are saying is necessary to send to 700 other people. We will all send a fluff message or so every so often, but we can't do this every day or the lists will degenerate into nothingness.

Please think about whether what you say needs to be heard by EVERYONE.
Please think about the possibility of a personal response. The loudest most insistent voice is not always the most enjoyed.

Q26: How do I make address changes?
A26: (Sherrie Saint John)

Members can make all their own address changes by visiting http://sasj.com/cgp or at the yahoogroups web site.

If the two options above aren't possible, please:

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