A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever

It is easy to be on both sides of that line at various stages of the evening

Last week was no different. There was a stupid play that still annoys me a week later and one play I was really pleased with.

The really stupid play was against Liz when holding the wonderful letters EIMRSS? There were 26 words I could have played and I saw some of them. However I went for what I thought was the best play tactically as well as a score that was at least equal to any other possibility.

The problem with that was that Liz challenged off MISSERS. It never occurred to me that it might not be allowed. You don’t really study words that have a triplication of the letter S. Although I played a bingo at my next opportunity the missed turn was very likely the reason I lost the game

The play I was happy with was against Andrew. From somewhere I dredged up the word RHYTA to get a good score. Not sure where I had seen this before and I was certainly nervous when Andrew challenged but this one was good.

It is human nature to dwell more on something clever than something stupid so I thought an interesting blog might be the words that fit the pattern - - Y - A

It isn’t a very likely looking combo. Perhaps it is surprising that there are as many as 9 words that you can play. Every single one of them is interesting and some of them I didn’t know and now hope to play sometime in the future:

ADYTA

The only plural of ADYTUM - the inner sanctuary of a temple

ASYLA

An alternative to the normal plural of ASYLUM

BOYLA

An Australian aborigine witch doctor

ETYMA

One of the plurals of ETYMON – the origin of a word. A word or morpheme from which the later word has been derived

PHYLA

The only plural of PHYLUM or PHYLON – a taxonomical division. It can be extended further with an R for PHYLAR which is something that is related to a phylum. It can also be extended with an E for PHYLAE which looks weird as though it was the plural of a plural, but instead it is the only plural of PHYLE – a word of Greek origin for a tribe or a clan. Another nice word in this group is PHYLIC

RHYTA

One of the plurals of RHYTON – A Greek drinking cup

TAYRA

A large South American weasel. Also spelled TAIRA

TRYMA

A nutlike fruit such as a walnut. Also TRYMATA

WHYDA

African bird that is related to finches. Also WHIDAH and WHYDAH

What sort of plays will you remember from this Monday?

Patrick