...prepared because Scrabble is making a comeback and is slowly taking over the minds and bodies of many of your friends and neighbours. And you probably don't even know it yet! The game challenging but also fun, however be forewarned that it is 100% totally addictive. It may take over your life! I like to think that Scrabble combines the strategy of chess, the luck of roulette, the bluffing of poker, and requires the vocabulary memorization skills of an idiot savant. For the initiated it is somewhat more than just a game – it's a borderline obsession. Just check out all these sites dedicated to it's existence:

• the Internet Scrabble Club (join, then play online in real time)
• Scrabble in the City (website is defunct, but we still meet Mondays at Kilgour's)
• the A2Z Word Finder (type in your letters and see what you get)
• the Official Worldwide Scrabble Club (corporate site but it might be of interest)
• National Scrabble Association (Nerd Alert! This site lists over 200 clubs in North America that you can join, plus there's a "word of the day" link)

But wait... for your viewing pleasure, here are a few of my favourite Scrabble related moments and some other fun pix besides. And as the hot babes to the right are so aptly illustrating... Scrabble is, indeed, the coolest game in town.

• My highest scoring, 2nd highest scoring, & 3rd highest scoring games
• Playing Scrabble in sunny locales overlooking tropical beaches
• A list of the letters, their values, and their distribution, in Russian Scrabble
• My fastest and my 2nd fastest times for solving the online Jumble piuzzle