Blind Spot

I picked up an incredibly good rack with which to make the first play in my game against Lawson

A A I S S T with a blank

I know that quizzes are the least popular form of blog that I do, because almost everyone just scrolls down to the answer. However on this occasion I suggest you stop for a moment and decide what play you would have made.

The other week I blundered when I had a rack with two esses. Maybe I have a blind spot in this area.

In this case there were 8 different words. I thought of 2 of them, but decided I wasn’t sure of them and elected to play the two letter word AS. It is true that I got a bingo on my next turn, and I was lucky enough to eventually win the game, but the Scrabble Gods should have punished me for that play

You may note that I said Scrabble Gods …. plural. That was intentional because too many things happen in our game for it to be under the control of just one god!

Anyway, look at all these possible plays:

First of all there were two that I did think of, but decided not to risk

ARISTAS

A bristle-like structure on grass. I thought of this word because ARISTAE is one of the common words on the SATIRE stem, but some Latin words only take an E plural.

STADIAS

Another word I thought of, but then I thought.. No. STADIA must be the plural of STADIUM. It may be but it is also a graduated rod used in measuring distances

Those were the only two I thought of. Maybe I should have thought of some of the following possibilities as well. I knew some, but not all, of them. I just couldn’t unscramble the ones I knew.

ASTASIA

Inability to keep erect due to imperfect muscular co-ordination

CASITAS

The plural of CASITA, a small house

FATSIAS

The plural of FATSIA, an evergreen shrub of the ivy family

ISTANAS

The plural of ISTANA, a Malaysian royal palace

STASIMA

The plural of STASIMON, a choral ode in a Greek drama

TARSIAS

The plural of TARSIA, a decorative wood inlay developed in Italy

Happy Scrabbling Patrick