[Misc] Don’t dabble with my Scrabble.

[raymondo]

Played a family game of scrabble one Christmas. Our then new Spanish daughter-in-law with a limited English vocabulary carefully laid the c-word. No idea how many points, but a bit of a shock!

A few years ago, end of autumn term at an Italian course for beginners, given by a lovely Italian lady (early 30s ... that's her age not the date!). She brought in copies of an Italian board game translated into English, a bit like snakes and ladders ?, we had to shout out the numbers and some words on the board in Italian, and move from square to square (I forget the mechanics).
The words included: f*ck, c**t, p**ck, the Pope, the usual stuff etc....
The young ladies on the course just stared open mouthed at the board. Me and another chap of mature age...were rolling about laughing and said "Franca, this could be considered a bit rude in a college language course" to which she replied " Oh you English, it's the same reaction every year, lighten up... it's Christmas!!".
Sorry, too long

 

[chickens]

Are you being serious? So who is behind this plan and why is it not being discussed and agreed democratically first? Yes, I’m an old bloke. But I feel we’re constantly being reprimanded and 'corrected' for some unspecified misdemeanour that I don’t have any opportunity to respond to first.

I’m not of the opinion that there’s some evil overlord sat behind a bank of screens stroking their white cat and chuckling at the malleability of human society.

However, I do feel that in the 1980s there was no doubt that the prevailing social theories and marketing strategies pushed individualism, it was all about expressing your individuality by your buying choices. (just you and an exclusive few million others)

My guess is that the theories taught at our universities have evolved and become more complex, and that theories relating to health, sociology and psychology have been incorporated into them.

I just think we’re being continually nudged toward (and sometimes less subtly forced) toward what is seen at some level as better choices.

Examples include smoking, high salt/sugar foods, alcohol, from a health perspective.

From a societal perspective it’s harder to quantify, but I believe it starts as early as primary school and is down to how our children are taught. There appears to be less focus on singling individuals out for praise and encouraging individual skills, and far more focus on encouraging and praising collaboration. If there are any teachers on here who’ve been teaching for a while, then I’d be interested in what they say on the subject, but comparing my youngest’s school with my eldest’s (a gap of seven years) the difference in focus seemed pronounced, and both seemed light years away from my own school experience decades ago, where collaboration was not encouraged and it was about what I as an individual had learnt/could achieve.

(Sorry everyone, these posts are bloody long)

 

[Justice]

Does everything have to watered down and made safe for the soft handed wimps of the new world?


“The makers of Scrabble found that younger people, Gen Z people, don't quite like the competitive nature of Scrabble," he said. "They want a game where you can simply enjoy language, words, being together and having fun creating words."


Jesus f***ing wept.

Scrabble: Mattel launches new version of game which is 'less competitive'

Mattel says the new board is designed to be accessible for those who find word games intimidating.

www.bbc.co.uk

You need to have a word

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I’m not of the opinion that there’s some evil overlord sat behind a bank of screens stroking their white cat and chuckling at the malleability of human society.

That's because you're part of the conspiracy.

 

[METALMICKY]

It’s the bigger picture. We are fostering a nation of un-resilient milksops.

A pedant writes " unresilient ' not in the dictionary so zero points

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

A pedant writes " unresilient ' not in the dictionary so zero points

Anybody who's truly resilient doesn't need no dictionary to back up their sentences.

 

[South Stand Bonfire]

If scrabble introduced apostrophes into the tiles then Generation Z would have a field day playing it.

 

[Zeberdi]

I was brought up on scrabble - started playing as an adult with a close mate I met 20 years after leaving home who was playing several times a week. But hey ho - they were the new generation of adult scrabble players who used a plastic sheet covered in 2 letter words etc as ‘guidance’. I hated a scrabble board that was blocked in with two letter words anyway, but 2 letter words no one has ever heard of or uses outside scrabble, pah! I was having none of that and confiscated the word card during our games and no two letter words that you didn’t know the meaning of wouldn’t use in every day parlance

When my friend put down ‘Zo’ and I asked him what it meant - they said with a dead pan face, it was a sort of Himalayan yak. ‘A Himalayan Yak!’, I remonstrated - “since when have you used Himalayan Yak in a sentence?”. ”Oh“ they said, “just the other day, I was saying to someone that Himalayan Yaks are from the Himalayas”. Bosh!

Needless to say, I gradually learnt, Zo, Da, Qi etc and started using all the 2 letter words when it suited me (usually to enable laying down a much longer word.)

Years later, we developed a game of scrabble we would play all through lockdown over Facetime - my friend in Brighton with their board, me in Norfolk with mine, taking it in turns to go, each adding up both scores on our own notepads. Exactly the same rules. It worked perfectly- needless to say, my scores were much higher because my friend couldn’t block my own board with 2 or 3 letter words (which used to drive me crazy.) I could also work 3 or 4 moves in advance, setting my self up for triple word scores that my opponent couldn’t use

DR - it’s a great game, no need to dumb it down

 

[Zeberdi]

I always look forward to using contrafibularities, anaspeptic, phrasmotic, pericombobulation, interfrastically, pendigestartery, interludicule, velocitous and extramuralisation

With 7 letters? - genius .

 

[Petunia]

Both mine have MScs and me and I flunked my A levels, but I’d murder them both at Scrabble or any other word game. Like many their age their age their spelling (and grammar and general vocabulary) is AWFUL (I had loads of ambitious go-getting (entitled) MBA-qualified newish entrants in my old work team, there written reports could not of been worse

I see what you did there

 

[Easy 10]

I adore Scrabble. I've been playing it online for years.

But one of the highlights was when me and my sister teamed up against my mum and dad on a cross-channel ferry one day, on a Scrabble game on my phone. My dad pretty much went APESHIT when the computerised version point-blank refused to accept the word "SAXON" (A DW, with the X on a TL). The score would have been immense.

I then plopped a little QI (with the Q on a TL) banking around 40-odd. This did not go down well. Not helped by me and my sister absolutely rolling around. They refuse to play us to this day.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I’ve just seen a Gen Z girl have an absolute meltdown because she got on the wrong train. She got on the train from Hove to Brighton instead of the one to Victoria a couple of minutes later.

She was completely unable to understand that she couldn’t get back to Hove in time for the train she missed, which her friend was on. While the conductor calmly explained there were loads of other trains from Brighton to London she just called her friend, a conversation that solely consisted of her yelling “oh my God” and “what the hell”. It was a literal playing out of @Commander ’s point.

That said, obviously not all Gen Z are the same. Both my kids get themselves everywhere on public transport. The boy managed to get himself to the Amex with his mate despite them getting the wrong train and having to go back to Brighton from Hassocks. He copes admirably with our somewhat fluid travel arrangements to away games and even helped navigate me round Amsterdam.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I’ve just seen a Gen Z girl have an absolute meltdown because she got on the wrong train. She got on the train from Hove to Brighton instead of the one to Victoria a couple of minutes later.

She was completely unable to understand that she couldn’t get back to Hove in time for the train she missed, which her friend was on. While the conductor calmly explained there were loads of other trains from Brighton to London she just called her friend, a conversation that solely consisted of her yelling “oh my God” and “what the hell”. It was a literal playing out of @Commander ’s point.

That said, obviously not all Gen Z are the same. Both my kids get themselves everywhere on public transport. The boy managed to get himself to the Amex with his mate despite them getting the wrong train and having to go back to Brighton from Hassocks. He copes admirably with our somewhat fluid travel arrangements to away games and even helped navigate me round Amsterdam.

I think that there have always been people like this across the ages. It was just previously they were labeled 'thick' and encouraged to keep their voices down so other people wouldn't realise.

Now they are encouraged to write, picture and shout their inane drivel all over modern technology whilst the rest of that generation keep their heads down and get on with sensible stuff, dealing with whatever comes up, same as always

 

[Guinness Boy]

I think that there have always been people like this across the ages. It was just previously they were labeled 'thick' and encouraged to keep their voices down so other people wouldn't realise.

Now they are encouraged to write, picture and shout their inane drivel all over modern technology whilst the rest of that generation keep their heads down and get on with sensible stuff, dealing with whatever comes up, same as always

You might be right there.

I should add we’ve met a lot of Gen Z mates at football and all of them are fun, resilient and like a drink or six. I don’t see the stereotype at all.

And then there was train meltdown girl

 

[el punal]

As an aside to the seriousness of Scrabble I took Mrs.Punal and our granddaughter ten pin bowling yesterday. Mrs.P surpassed herself as she managed to knock down the pins - in the next door lane!

 

[el punal]

You might be right there.

I should add we’ve met a lot of Gen Z mates at football and all of them are fun, resilient and like a drink or six. I don’t see the stereotype at all.

And then there was train meltdown girl

I’m intrigued - what happened with train meltdown girl?

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I’m intrigued - what happened with train meltdown girl?

Post 112

 

[el punal]

Post 112

Thanks, missed it first time around.

 

[el punal]

I’ve just seen a Gen Z girl have an absolute meltdown because she got on the wrong train. She got on the train from Hove to Brighton instead of the one to Victoria a couple of minutes later.

She was completely unable to understand that she couldn’t get back to Hove in time for the train she missed, which her friend was on. While the conductor calmly explained there were loads of other trains from Brighton to London she just called her friend, a conversation that solely consisted of her yelling “oh my God” and “what the hell”. It was a literal playing out of @Commander ’s point.

That said, obviously not all Gen Z are the same. Both my kids get themselves everywhere on public transport. The boy managed to get himself to the Amex with his mate despite them getting the wrong train and having to go back to Brighton from Hassocks. He copes admirably with our somewhat fluid travel arrangements to away games and even helped navigate me round Amsterdam.

“I’m like sooo stressed out! It’s like sooo unfair! I’m like sooo outta here!”

 

[Questions]

‘Omg this is so random’