Finally, and also on the linguistic beat: As a Scrabble player of old, my attention was arrested by this story in the Daily Mail, July 5th, headline: Scrabble community discusses banning racial slurs from the game as part of crackdown on hate speech.
The Blessed Martyr George Floyd — peace be upon him! — shows up in the third paragraph of the story. Quote:
Following worldwide anti-racism protests in the wake of the death of American George Floyd, officials who govern Scrabble tournaments in Britain are reportedly discussing whether to ban offensive terms from their competitions.
— Campaign For Common Sense (@CommSenseUK) July 7, 2020
I rarely get the chance to play Scrabble nowadays. I do recall, though, that certain particularly deft moves in the game will get you bonus points. Using all seven of the letters in your rack on one move will get you a 50-point bonus, for example.
Should I ever again be invited to play Scrabble, I shall accept only on condition that 25 bonus points be awarded for any words that are racially or sexually taboo.
